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The Dangers of Reincarnation?

fiziwig

moderator emeritus
It occurs to me that in some cases a belief in reincarnation might not be a good thing. Belief, it seems, could be used to justify all sorts of bad choices.

For example, a person might encounter another person in trouble and instead of acting with compassion to help that person might just claim that the other's troubles are due to "bad karma" and that he "derserves" his misfortune. Another misuse might be for a severly depressed person to take his own life in the belief that he will have a better life next time.

I've seen people turn a blind eye toward others in trouble and use "karma" as an excuse for indifference. Have any of you seen other examples of belief in reincarnation being misused in other ways?
 
Hi Fiziwig

Unfortunately, whatever the belief, there will always be the few that misuse it – it has been seen throughout time and history.

As another example though, I have known and seen people caught up MORE in their past live self/s than concentrating on who they are NOW – instead of using the information, knowledge and such to better themselves, learn certain lessons, or to accelerate their present growth and integrate the knowledge within, they prefer to dwell on what they once were, finding their present self not as “interesting”.
 
Unfortunately you take just about any belief and use it to justify actions just as the church killing everyone who disagreed with them in the name of love which is really hypocritical.A main belief of christianity is do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.Of course if you justify a war and still believe that you must want others to kill you as well.Punishment obviously isn't always a deterent.People who believe in hell still kill.A man who went to India to ask people about rerincarnation found that even with a belief in punishment in the next life they are just as inclined to kill as anyone else.

Once the founder of a religion is dead the religion might as well die with them.The person who creates it knew the principles perfectly but once their dead the followers usually don't see it the same way the creator did.I think the reason Buddhism hasn't had any holy wars(to my knowledge) is because their leader is always there.The dali llama reincarnates to lead again but in christianity popes were mainly just elected and not found.The pope is not jesus and didn't create christianity only leads it.Since most people are ignorant as to what their religion actually teaches they just trust what the priests say as they don't want to think for themselves.No belief is without loopholes as far as I have seen.


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"Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected the expected?"
 
There is nothing in life(at least from my experiences) that are all positive or all negative, therefore, no matter what you believe in, there will be an upside and a downside to it. Nothing, not even beliefs, are perfect.
 
The words of T. S. Eliot come to mind: “We had the experience but missed the meaning.”
 
I think it´s extremly important in any discussion around a subject, especially one that you have an "emotional investment" in (like many of us who feel we´ve lived before have in reincarnation) to bring out all the possible "ifs" and "buts", doubts and mistakes .

Once you hold an opinion or belief about anything your bound to have doubts about it, secret or openly. This is necessary for the thinking to keep moving deeper, the understanding to become greater. As you confront your own questions and work them through you come to understand more. Wheather your opinions are kept or altered. This is part of the ever on-going inner dialog with your own self, I guess.

If this inner movement is halted, for fear that you might lose a mental comfort blanket, there´s a real danger that you´re awareness will lose it´s acuteness and turn shallow.

There´s a prevalent cliche´in movies that dumb people believe in reincarnation.
Now that´s really dumb. Still you can certainly use such a belief ( like most believes) in a dumb way. Anyone who uses one dearly held belief in a theory, to explain every little thing in the world, I think probably does this theory a disservice. Every big life-explaining, theory has, at one time or another, been used like this, by people that seek simple solutions to hold on to in a very complex universe. I´m anxious for my own sake not to be one in that row ( that´s why I´m going on here...trying to make this clear to myself ).

There are so many very real circumstances that all point to reincarnation being a hard fact, as sientific as a smack on the head, that it deserves the help of good devil´s advocates in heightening the understanding about it.

Having a belief or strong opinion, even one based on real experience, isn´t a cosy little pet thing for cuddleing. You´ve got to work on it, I guess (like most of the people writing on this Forum seem to).

Thankyou, fiziwig, for bringing these things up in my mind!
 
Well a prime example are the mass cult suicides by The Branch Davidians, Heavens Gate and Jonestown. In these cases, the charismatic leaders used certain aspects of reincarnation/karma to for their own twisted purposes. But I don't think that was the ultimate goal though. I think these guys realized that in the end, they *dug* themselves into a major hole and the only way out of that mess and still having dignity/respect (in the eyes of all the followers that they 'dragged' along with them) was to commit suicide. And placing their own spin/interpretation on one of the oldest religious concepts justified killing themselves.
 
I know from personal experience that I've gone through stages in my life where I tell myself I'm giving up because things aren't going the way I want them to. And I've even justified my ambivalence by telling myself that it doesn't matter anyway, since I'm here for eternity.

I've had this dialog with myself where I think, "Heck, I'll reincarnate anyway, so who cares if this or that doesn't work out. I'll always get a second chance, so if I give up now and waste a life. So be it".

Usually, I think this way when I'm frustrated.
 
Red Cardinal,

Bear in mind that from everything I've read you pick up in your next life just about where you left off in this one. At least as far as things to be learned.

If that's the case then anyone who tries to duck out on a problem is most likely going to find themselves facing the same kind of problem next time around.

The only way to permanently get rid of a problem is to face it and solve it and learn from it. Then next time around you won't have to go through that same lesson again.
 
Fizwig,

I agree with you completely and understand that the lessons aren't going to go away until we learn/solve them.

However, it is much akin to swimming from one end of the lake to the other. You know you have to get to your destination, however, along the way you grow tired, and take a time out, maybe by clinging to a dingy or something. All I meant was that there have been times in my life when I'm so tired of the struggle, that I just quit trying for awhile, reasoning to myself that I have an eternity to get to the other side of the lake (and that I don't have to do it all in one lifetime if I choose).

Usually, with a little rest, I begin swimming again.
 
Zetascair you are exactly right about Buddhism. The reason why is because their lamas are all saints. They all truly undertand things and are not chosen by men such as bishops or popes. They are people with great spiritual achievement. If Jesus was around he would agree with Buddhists on many things more than the catholic church I believe. Such as the kingdom of God being a nondual state, which is an enlightened state.
 
Dangers of Reincarnation

There are dangers in believing anything, I suppose. Monocarnationism can lead to suicide if people think they have failed their one and only chance of success in life, or even in an exam. Dangers of reincarnation include complacency and lack of motivation; "I'll put it off till a future life".
Probably more dangerous is superficial understanding of karma. If I touch red-hot iron, the karmic result will follow in a millisecond. If in 1934 I took more interest in the cricket score than whether Hitler was a threat, it might be ten years. Or several lifetimes. It's OK to believe in karma, but its workings are so complicated and inscrutable that any deductions based on such belief are invalid.
 
alumnus said:
Probably more dangerous is superficial understanding of karma. If I touch red-hot iron, the karmic result will follow in a millisecond. If in 1934 I took more interest in the cricket score than whether Hitler was a threat, it might be ten years. Or several lifetimes. It's OK to believe in karma, but its workings are so complicated and inscrutable that any deductions based on such belief are invalid.
I personally think karma can be understood. But I agree with you that most don't. This forum convinced me of that. By the way, if you touch a red-hot iron, karmic result will follow in an instant. Just take my word for it. Please don't try to prove me wrong! :D You can read more about karma here.
 
I agree there are dangers in some people's interpretation of karma, mostly a tendency to blame the victim. If someone is the victim of a terrible crime, should we say, "Well, he must have had it coming," or should we take steps to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else?

Blaming the victim can give us a false sense of security. We can come to believe that since we are "good" people, nothing bad will happen to us. A person with this false belief would be utterly shocked and unprepared if something bad did happen.

Another problem can be a tendency to blame ourselves for anything that goes wrong. For some people, this is easier than living with the belief that some events are simply unpredictable and no one is entirely safe. It also provides an excuse for not taking the responsibility of making changes in our lives that will keep us from falling easy prey to abuse.
 
The problems of believing in reincarnation are no worse than the problems of believing in any other idea. Believing in God raises the question of why, for example, a good God would have allowed the Holocaust. Atheism can lead to the idea that nothing matters, including morality, as well as the idea that death is a good thing because it means an end to suffering. Heck, just believing in an afterlife can lead to the idea that it's all right to kill people on the grounds that they are just going to the afterlife a few years early. Believing in a religion can lead to religious intolerance.

The fact is, no one has ever killed anyone over ideas about reincarnation, not even in countries where it is a common belief. By contrast, millions of people have died because of ideas about God. Anyone who believes in an all-powerful god must ask him/herself why this god would allow all this. Saying, "It's God's will" is just as bad as saying, "It's because of karma."

Does this mean that believing in a god is inherently evil? Of course not. That makes as much sense as the idea that believing in evolution is bad because it discourages people from helping one another (thus "God's will" gets replaced by "natural selection").

Beliefs are not the problem, not even if you're into devil worship. The problem is what you use those beliefs to justify. No matter what you believe, you can find a way to justify any idea.
 
An interesting thread...do any new members have something to add to the discussion?
 
Someone once turned to me, when I was kind of coasting, being very passive and kind of letting my life get away from me, and said "I know you believe in reincarnation, but this is the only time you'll be tpicco."


He certainly had a point.
 
I've feel that I've been shown that love and compassion are higher laws than Karma. To do good to a person suffering the ill effects of bad Karma helps them with that Karma and helps oneself in the process. "God" want's us to help...
 
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