By Paul Ratner — 2020
Eastern traditions have complex views on how karma affects your life.
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Karma and rebirth are often treated as Buddhism’s cultural baggage: a set of Indian beliefs that—either because the Buddha wasn’t thinking carefully, or because his early followers didn’t stay true to his teachings—got mixed up with the dharma even though they don’t fit in with the rest of...
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Would you be surprised to learn that reincarnation is not a Buddhist teaching? "Reincarnation" normally is understood to be the transmigration of a soul to another body after death. There is no such teaching in Buddhism--a fact that surprises many people, even some Buddhists
In a now famous conversation between Carl Sagan and the Dalai Lama, Sagan, a scientist and renowned skeptic, asks, “Your Holiness, what if we were to prove, scientifically, that there is no such thing as reincarnation?” To Sagan’s great astonishment, the Dalai Lama replied without hesitation...
One morning last fall, while sipping my chai, I tapped the TOI app on my iPad, and the Times of India appeared. The top story was startling.
In my years of Buddhist training before becoming a Buddhist teacher, none of my teachers have ever asked me to believe in rebirth. In fact, none of my Zen and Theravada teachers in America or Asia gave any prominence to the idea – if they mentioned it at all. - Gil Fronsdal
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Karma, meaning action, is a term in yogic spirituality for explaining the soul's evolution from life to life. Karma is generally portrayed as the effect of our individual actions, extending from past lives to present and future lives.
Karma is a word everyone knows, yet few in the West understand what it means. Westerners too often think it means "fate" or is some kind of cosmic justice system. This is not a Buddhist understanding of karma, however.