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Originally Posted by Radical  So you believe that all our misfortunes in this life are caused by wrong doings in past lives?
Even if this were true, which I highly doubt, then the Universe/God/Whatever is an extremely evil and cruel being.
Even if we did have past lives, they weren't us, they were a totally different person who had very different experiences. We have no memories of existence before our birth in this life, and so this life is all that we are. |
Well, it is a complicated topic. So my answers in this forum necessarily have to limit their own scope. Otherwise I shall be typing here all day.
But let me try to address some of your points anyway.
Past lives are closely linked to the concept of karma. Many people however mistakenly believe that karma is ALL about how your past lives affect your present life, and how your present life will affect your future life.
Wrong.
Karma is simply all about how your actions and intentions will attract corresponding consequences into your own life. In other words, you sow what you reap. What comes around goes around. Etc.
Therefore whatever you do today could well attract consequences today. Or tomorrow. Or next week, or next year, or 10 years from now.
For example, if you kick a dog, it may bite you (immediate consequence). Even if it doesn't, somehow a corresponding consequence will happen sometime. Somehow you'll receive some kind of response from the universe for this act of cruelty.
And when you die, there will certainly be things ("good" or "bad" or simply "amoral") you had done earlier in this life for which the consequences haven't manifested yet. So these will carry over into your next life, and you'll face the consequences there.
Karma is actually amoral. It doesn't tell you anything about what's good or bad. It just tells you that the universe will respond perfectly to whatever you think or do.
Now, if you think about this part of what I wrote:
<b>Karma is simply all about how your actions and intentions will attract corresponding consequences into your own life.</b>
... you may begin to see that Steve Pavlina's model of IM is simply an attempt to manipulate karma. For example, in his model, you relax, go deep into your own head, and think a thought "I shall earn $1,000,000 a year", you are trying to attract a specific karmic consequence (for all thoughts, especially those with a strong, clear intention, have karmic consequences).
This kind of manipulation is merely a 21st century twist on something that has been known for a long, long time. For example, Buddhism teaches you to be kind, compassionate, loving, to think virtuous thoughts, be a good person etc. Why? So that you attract the corresponding karmic consequences into your life; and raise your chances of finding happiness and avoiding suffering.
As for this, which you wrote:
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Even if we did have past lives, they weren't us, they were a totally different person who had very different experiences. We have no memories of existence before our birth in this life, and so this life is all that we are.
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... well, yes, you are right in a sense. That memory is deliberately obscured from us for certain reasons. If you are really interested, you can go for past-life regression hypnosis (I have) - but I don't recommend it unless you have a specific issue that you'd like to resolve and you think that it has something to do with a past life.
Reason why I say this is that personally I find that this present life has enough challenges for me.
Who needs to know about past lives, when the present one already is so interesting.
Anyway, about cruelty, bad events that occur through no fault of your own etc -
well, basically there are two responses you could choose.
(1) Repay your karmic debts. That is, suffer. Which is what most people do.
(2) Transmute the suffering. This is a higher path. Basically, you still suffer, but you take the attitude that in this suffering, there is something you can utilise for your dharma (your life purpose - the reason why you were placed where you were, for your present life). For every suffering you go through necessarily contains the seeds for transformation (this is another Buddhist idea which you may or may not agree with).
For example, suppose you are a prisoner-of-war, stuck in a hellhole of a prisoners' camp. The dharma seeds may lie in the fact that you have the opportunity to try to be strong, and to help your weaker fellow prisoners. Or suppose you are handicapped through a car accident. The dharma seeds may lie in the fact that you subsequently become a wheelchair athlete, and inspire other handicapped persons to seek to live with hope and passion. Etc.
Of course, everyone's dharma path is different. You can think of your dharma path as something like what Steve blogged about "Lightworkers" - you gotta do what you're supposed to do.