Quote:
|
Originally Posted by AriesIntrovert
I think this is a noble goal, we should all live as Jesus did, with 100% complete love guiding every action towards every person we interact with for no purpose other than being love is its own reward. However, until we reach enlightenment in our lifetimes this is... a daunting goal if not an impossible one.
I don't know if we have to be selfless in giving in order to reap any rewards later, my logically brain tells me we don't based on the fact that the only true way to really have that occur is to not know about karma and past lives (so you would never think about that there could be a reward for them), but reincarnation is not a new concept, definitely not in some ancient or current cultures...
Then again, could it be the Law of Attraction principles there, that the soul expects a reward and expects it so completely, without any waivering of belief, that it occurs?
There are a lot of possibilities here. I am not sure how it all works, but I do know my own past life story and the hardship and grief I inflicted on others have been inflicted on me and the handouts I gave to others have been given to me... whether that past life knew about reincarnation and planned those occurrences, I don't know, but it wasn't sainthood that caused past life me to give handouts to others that is for sure. ;) ;)
|
AriesIntrovert,
I actually agree with what you say here. See my prior post on "What constitutes good karma" (which I've pasted below). My point, is that it is once you know about karma or believe in it, it becomes impossible to do anything good with 100% expectation of zero reward. even subconsciously, you do something kind but deep down inside you always the inkling of "perhaps that will come back to me in some way in the future..."
If you ask me, I don't even think internal states should matter much when we do good things. I think the necessary test should be whether or not our actions benefit someone else or not. Say if someone gave you $10000. Do you honestly care if he gave u the money b/c he was 100% altruistic or whether he wanted to accrue some good karma for himself? Either way, you get the $10000, are better off for it, and a benefit has accrued to you. Hence, the giver should accrue the positive benefit. I think positive karma should be viewed from the POV of the recipient - if that person got a benefit, then you should too.
If I give a beggar $10 and he can buy a warm sandwich, why should it matter whether I did it out of pure altruism or a bit for my own positive karma? The poor man got a warm meal and that made his day better. So I expect sometime in the future a positive event comes to make my day better. I don't care if that positive event comes from someone else who has more selfish motives for karma, etc.... All I expect is that his actions make my life better in the same way I made the beggar's life better.
If you truly look around you, I think you might find that people's actions in general are more selfish than you thought. Most people talk a nice talk but will push comes to shove they rarely do anything out of their way to benefit someone else.
Otherwise, one could argue the reverse and say if you hurt someone but deep down inside has good intentions - is that good or bad karma? If Hitler kills 6 million Jews but deep down inside all he wants is to protect the German race, does that somehow make Hitler accrue good karma? Never mind the 6 million Jews who lost their lives. I don't think it works like that. I think good or bad karma has to be viewed from the POV of the benefactor or victim, rather than sole intentions of the giver.
My post earlier:
Assuming there is karma/reincarnation, is there really such a thing as "selfless" act of kindness? Look around you. Everyone is going about their busy lives. Does anyone really do anything of meaningful kindness to others, w/o any type of expectation of reward in some way? I don't see many people around me doing good things for others, or going out of their way to do good things for others. In fact, I see people around me trying to screw others over, in career, in workplace, in dating scene, in gossiping, in life in general. Even parents become selfish and forget their children. Most of my friends are friends on the outside but secretly hope for others to be worse off than themselves. I find it rare to find anyone who does anything to truly help others w/o expectation of reward.
Occasionally, there are some few that do some nice things for others, but mostly in expectation of "you scratch my back, I scratch yours". In fact, human beings are not programmed to be selfless - if God wanted us to be kind and selfless, why didn't he just program us this way? This is a bit baffling to me. Even if you give beggar 5 bucks on the street, I bet 99% of people are in some way subconsciously getting some benefit from this, either they feel that they are "bargaining with the universe" for good luck later on themselves. So you're saying these small acts are not really altruistic and don't accrue good karma?
But then, what really is a selfless act? Does a mother caring for her children constitute selfless or selfish? One could argue that even such an act is a selfish, b/c the mother gets pleasure from seeing her children alive, and the mother subconsciously expects her children to take care of her when she gets old and they grow up. Even monks who study Buddhism or meditate all day are NOT accruing any good karma b/c they are doing so with the selfish goal of trying to be liberated from karma cycle after they die. Perhaps that's the most selfish goal of all...
My final point, is that if you look around you, and the world in general, since the advent of humans, in general, there have been far more people who do bad things to others than those who do good things. That is probably even more so today. However, I feel that the number of people who have "good, meaningful" lives is far in excess of the number of people who do good things to others to build good karma. So what explains the fact that in the future, there will probably still be a stable proportion of the population who have "good lives" then? It doesn't make mathematical sense from a karma/reincarnation POV.
So what actually constitutes an act of kindness done w/o expectation, that is necessary to generate good karma?