DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - "This disease is atonement for past sins"

**Breeriacoirl** · 12-05-2010, 12:27 PM

It seems like a very healthy response to me. Regardless of the objective existence of karma in this form, she is taking responsibility for her situation. That is something I greatly respect, it is so easy to blame or become dejected in such a situation, if she is genuine it takes real strength. Taking ownership gives her something to work with as well.

This "taking ownership" is actually having a mistaken belief in superstitious punishment system karma taken to its worst extreme, nor do we know the woman's true feelings behind the official press statement. On the one hand she says she would have taken precautions if she'd known about them, on the other she says its atonement for her sins.

As you are a Mahayana practitioner, KoolAid, you might be interested in reading "Karma doesn't explain anything" by Ken Mcleod who's a Mahayana teacher in the USA.

http://www.unfetteredmind.com/articles/explain.php

I have flu and bronchitis at the moment - imagining that its punishment for something that I may have done in another lifetime is certainly not going to lessen my discomfort or help me take "responsibility"... in fact it would be very likely that it would make me feel a whole lot worse, because my mind would be spinning around a lot of speculative twaddle, instead of relaxing and accepting sickness as the way it is temporarily at this point in time.

The reason I got it in the first place is because I live in a densely populated city where bugs spread around very quickly ... not because of doing something bad as a different person (or animal) in a past life that I don't even remember.

That particular mindset allows for belief, for example, that innocent small children who've been raped and mutilated, somehow deserved it, and for considering disabled people to be inferior because of a supposed past evil. I'm not exaggerating either, I've experienced that attitude in the past with people offline.

12-05-2010, 12:27 PM	#8
Breeriacoirl Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 377 Senior Member	It seems like a very healthy response to me. Regardless of the objective existence of karma in this form, she is taking responsibility for her situation. That is something I greatly respect, it is so easy to blame or become dejected in such a situation, if she is genuine it takes real strength. Taking ownership gives her something to work with as well. This "taking ownership" is actually having a mistaken belief in superstitious punishment system karma taken to its worst extreme, nor do we know the woman's true feelings behind the official press statement. On the one hand she says she would have taken precautions if she'd known about them, on the other she says its atonement for her sins. As you are a Mahayana practitioner, KoolAid, you might be interested in reading "Karma doesn't explain anything" by Ken Mcleod who's a Mahayana teacher in the USA. http://www.unfetteredmind.com/articles/explain.php I have flu and bronchitis at the moment - imagining that its punishment for something that I may have done in another lifetime is certainly not going to lessen my discomfort or help me take "responsibility"... in fact it would be very likely that it would make me feel a whole lot worse, because my mind would be spinning around a lot of speculative twaddle, instead of relaxing and accepting sickness as the way it is temporarily at this point in time. The reason I got it in the first place is because I live in a densely populated city where bugs spread around very quickly ... not because of doing something bad as a different person (or animal) in a past life that I don't even remember. That particular mindset allows for belief, for example, that innocent small children who've been raped and mutilated, somehow deserved it, and for considering disabled people to be inferior because of a supposed past evil. I'm not exaggerating either, I've experienced that attitude in the past with people offline.
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