I don't understand....

Originally posted by Aynat
I don't understand why I get to sit in my nice little apartment with my wonderful dog waiting for a pizza to come out of the oven in front of my dated little old laptop and enjoy the company of people on-line as I play. I don't understand why I have a car and a job and extra clothing, a box of beads and lots of books........

Why did I get this life of pr ...[text shortened]... nd, why do some who have so much think they have so little? I am not just talking money here....

John the Baptist, of all people, answered this question!

In John chapter one verse 16, J the B said "From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another"!

And this from a guy who only had locusts on his pizza!

Only by grace...

Originally posted by Aynat
I don't understand why I get to sit in my nice little apartment with my wonderful dog waiting for a pizza to come out of the oven in front of my dated little old laptop and enjoy the company of people on-line as I play. I don't understand why I have a car and a job and extra clothing, a box of beads and lots of books........

Why did I get this life of pr ...[text shortened]... nd, why do some who have so much think they have so little? I am not just talking money here....

You could look at this the other way around: how could you, by which I mean the person who wrote this post, have come into being under different circumstances? It doesn't really make sense to ponder 'why am I me', because if you bundle together all your genetic inheritance and all that has happened to you in your life, that's what you're asking. In other circumstances, you would not ask the same question, in the sense that it wouldn't carry quite the same meaning, even if the words were the same. If you had been born male, for example, might you not have a rather different attitude to what it means to be male or female?

As for inequality, why should there be some force which ensures everyone a fair deal? Indeed, there seems to be ample evidence that such a force does not exist, at least for any straightforward sense of 'fair'. What do people deserve, anyway? We can say 'A has a right to this' or 'B has a duty to do that', but then we're the ones imposing conditions, and they're meaningless unless we make them happen.

Originally posted by Acolyte
.......text shortened..... What do people deserve, anyway? We can say 'A has a right to this' or 'B has a duty to do that', but then we're the ones imposing conditions, and they're meaningless unless we make them happen.[/b]

This is the crunch for me....why do people collectively allow this inequity? Why don't we make it happen?

A general response to lots of the posts: The karma thing doesn't work for me, I can't handle the payback for a previous life. What did you have to do to deserve being raised in a violent abusive household? How can rape be deserved? I am okay with a limited what you dish out you get to eat karma because I have observed that people tend to get back what they have sent forth.

I understand that what life you get is luck of the draw. I understand that other people may look at my life and not be impressed at all with my circumstances. I get that my attitude which tends to be one of bemused amazed gratitude that I have the life I have is a big part of my happiness on a day to day basis. Making more good than bad choices helps. But, I still wonder and I also wonder why with such abundance in the world we are unable or unwilling to share. I wonder what is to be done about "man's inhumanity to man".

Thank you all for helping me to think about this......

Originally posted by Aynat
A general response to lots of the posts: The karma thing doesn't work for me, I can't handle the payback for a previous life. What did you have to do to deserve being raised in a violent abusive household? How can rape be deserved? I am okay with a limited what you dish out you get to eat karma because I have observed that people tend to get back what they have sent forth.

Aynat, it's not as if we deserve or do not deserve what we get and that there is an entity meting out punishment or pleasure. A person's mind is imprinted continually with the actions that they themselves choose to indulge in. No action can exist in a vacuum. There are consequences for everything we think, say, do. Is it really that hard to imagine that if a person led a life filled with strong, disturbing emotions that the impressions reinforced from cultivating such a mindset might put one in a position that saw them eventually (possibly in other lifetimes) suffer directly because of it?

Rape is not deserved. Abuse is not deserved. Horrible crimes should not be endured by anyone. But as long as ignorance, greed, hatred exist in the minds of humans the consequences will be felt by all of us. Karma is impersonal and does not punish or reward as those are value judgements held by humans. What if a rape victim (please don't think this sits well with me, either, because it doesn't) had been a rapist themselves in a previous existence? Maybe the intense disturbing emotions of that person might put them in very similar situations once experienced? Your view and mine is that trouble of that degree should not befall people. That is both good and correct. What we are ignorant of is that our current state of affairs is the direct result of previous actions on our part, and that our future hinges on the seeds we plant in our minds now.

I do think karma is valid because it's easy to see its minor workings, as you have. We can't possibly hope to reconcile the horrors suffered by victims with karmic cause and consequence in our present state of mind. Why? We too are afflicted by so many disturbing emotions that we do not know the nature of our minds' workings.

My own very sketchy understanding is unsatisfactory to me. But it makes no sense whatsoever that a) we are simply at the mercy of forces which we try to appease through a multitude of methods, or b) that it's just dumb luck.

If I plant an acorn and cultivate it with the proper conditions of soil, adequate water and sunlight, I will grow an oak tree. I will never get a raspberry bush. If I cultivate hatred, I can expect suffering. If I cultivate compassion and kindness, I may still suffer, at least in the short term. My eventual reward (if it can be called as much) will be greatly lessened disturbing emotions and better conditions in my life now and in the future.

Karma can never be fully understood by the mere intellect. It takes prajna, the wisdom of insight into the nature of mental and physical phenomena to see its impersonal workings.