[Soypopetype]

This is an article about Aids I found on a Burma news site . My question relates to the excerpt and is - 'What are your views regarding Ma Phyu's belief that her suffering from Aids is atonement for past sins?'

"This disease is atonement for past sins"

http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional...past-sins.html



“Naïve people think we were sex workers because we have this disease. They see us as inferior creatures, which becomes unbearable. We feel uneasy when meeting their wild and prying eyes. Their gestures and body language communicate condemnation and loathing,” she said.

After being diagnosed, Ma Phyu divorced her husband, but has greater hopes for her children.

“My elder daughter is 13 years old and my son is 11. I hope they get … decent jobs working at a hospital or in clerical work in the shade and shelter,” she said. As for herself, she appeared to accept her condition as part of her karmic destiny.

“I consider my life as suffering and [this illness,] … atonement for my past sins and misdeeds,” Ma Phyu said. "
COMMENTS?

[dexterljohnthefinanceguy]

I personally can't buy into this idea although I think it is very prevalent, even outside of religious circle - witness the adage "what goes around comes around".

As for thinking that everyone who has HIV/AIDS is either sexually promiscous or a prostitute, I think the idea is absurd and may reflect a negative view of sexuality in general - a problem that has always haunted Christianity in the guise of "the original sin".

I think, though, that having "a reason" for such misfortune makes it somewhat easier to bear.

[fluoxet]

Superstitions that by nature abandon reason lead to this cruelty


http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur...1t:429,r:0,s:0


"The sleep of reason gives rise to nightmares" Goya


It serves no purpose to the NEFP and is highly cruel

[andrekuper]

If it gives her comfort, that's great, but not only is that no evidence that this phenomenon is actually literally happening, it's so easy for this to become really nasty victim-blaming. After all, if people's own sins caused their suffering, whose job is it to help them? If they deserved help, the theory seems to go, then they would have been virtuous enough to have not gotten sick in the first place.

I seriously dislike this "people get what they deserve, and deserve what they get" sort of metaphysical karma dogma. Totally unsupportable by evidence and culturally toxic on top of it.

[Inonanialry]

Several years ago my wife and I lost our 12 week old son to sudden infant death syndrome or cot death shortly after a "Christian friend" of my mother in law was overheard saying we were being punished by God for having children out of wedlock.
People have the need to blame. Blame either themselves or God.

[Hujkmlopes]

Fletcher, what a great shame that you had to go through this.
i have few 'beliefs' but one is that such "Christians" are evil,please tell your 'friend' this and pass on my address

[worldofwarcraft]

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.

To me this is the opposite of original sin. Regardless of specific details the idea that one suffers according to misdeeds and experiences happiness according to positive deeds seems evident. Maybe reap what you sow, works better, I dunno. Maybe not 100% like expected. But generally people who hurt others are very unhappy and genuinely kind people seem to be happy even in unfortunate situations.

So sorry to hear about your child fletcher. I feel sad for the person who said that as well, I can't imagine such a judgment coming from a happy place.

[Breeriacoirl]

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.

[Vigeommighica]

I have few 'beliefs' but one is that such "Christians" are evil, please tell your 'friend' this and pass on my address

Huh ? What you gonna do, Frank? tell a stranger your opinion about them, or beat them up ?

Please conduct one to one personal conversation with other posters via the personal messaging system in future


Many thanks.

[gogFloark]

So sorry to hear about your child fletcher. I feel sad for the person who said that as well, I can't imagine such a judgment coming from a happy place.

Thank you Koolaid you're so right.

[pennadyFeet]

Several years ago my wife and I lost our 12 week old son

Sorry to hear about your loss, Fletcher.

My only child (a son) died a few hours after birth....dukkha happens !

[Hftqdxpm]

We live in a blame culture, we need to accept that life is what it is.

[NEronchik]

We live in a blame culture, we need to accept that life is what it is.