Karma/past life for present loving birth? (happy/tranquil life)

[Castro]

Hi all,
.

These two people have had a very happy life. I'm sure there are many like them, but these two individual are educated, intelligent, BIG family (house parties, go on holidays etc) and have good cousins and have careers. THEY HAVE EXPEREINCED ALL, they are not famous, but live almost perfect happy lives.

What do you think is their karma?

However, I know people like my uncle, cousins and freinds who have had a great birth:

My uncle:

Jan 12, 1964, Birmingham, England (sorry, don't have the time, but must have a good 4th house due to big family and family from partners side).

He was born with 3 brothers and 1 sister. He went into university and graduated at 23. He then got a job straightaway as a civil engineer. At 28, he married a good, graceful, appealing women (obvious due to good career) his wife has 4 sisters and 1 brother thus making his family bigger. He brought a house and from after 29, my uncle had a very great social life. He would hold parties and dinner parties every Saturday and even on fridays. He has 3 good children and has a huge family. He travels a lot too.

This lady I know:

Born in 85. She was born into a good family and is a straight A student. At 20, she got accepted into a top law school and graduated with good honours at 24. She became a solicitor at 25 and like the man above, has many aunties and cousins. She is good looking, well educated, well accomplished, she also has a good heart too.

So what do you think made these two people have favourable, almost loving births?, its difficult, but these two individual have had great lives.

All I know is:

1) You build upon reincarnations-thus if an individual was an amatuer actor, who respected his health and money, he would be born as a prominent actor who looks handsome and earns a lot of money.
2) You conciousness determines your next birth, if you was generous, confident and loving regarding circumstances in last reincarnation, you come back with favourable planetery circumstances and confident in this reincarnation.
3) God gives you a choice, regardless of karma (have been told this)
4) Karmic rewards-if an individual went though suffering in last reincarnation, god gives that individual a karmic reward of a loving family in next reincarntion
5) Cultivated good character-thus if a women was a caring nurse in last reincarnation, she may come back in present reincarnation born into a loving family and intelligent enough to be well educated.

I've also head that people are TESTED from time to time to see where there hearts lie-for example, an individual may be a millionaire sportsmen who wins the world cup who has a loving wife.

[eye_of_tiger]

Castro,

I see this posting as a statement or declaration of your personal beliefs about reincarnation and karma (you cannot have the latter without accepting the existence of the former), and I respect your right to do so and to think this way. But since you have posted it to a discussion forum, I equally have the right to my own opinion and to be able to freely express it, as long as I do not force my beliefs on anyone.

My response to this must be that I only wish the laws of karma worked as simply as you have suggested that they do.

If karma was merely a system of punishments and rewards, much of what you have said would make a lot more sense to me. But it just is not like that. Karma is not and was never intended merely to reward good people and punish bad ones (good and bad being only subjective labels).

This is the same belief system which was used to validate the persecution of male homosexuals at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. It is because according to this theory that their perverted sexual activities (primarily anal sex) are an abomination to God that they are now being punished in this lifetime with this horrible and often fatal disease. Indeed it is why according to the same idea they are once more homosexuals in this lifetime.

It puts them right in God's firing line?

I want to make it perfectly clear at this point, that I find the above system of beliefs about homosexuals totally against any concept I would have of a loving and just God. I find them offensive and an insult to my intelligence to the extreme.

But that is the downside of believing in a Cosmic system of rewards and punishments. People like your uncle who who has a near to perfect life (your judgement and certainly not mine) must have automatically lived a good and honest and healthy past life or lives, but anyone who is sick, poor, down on their luck, homeless or single must really have been terrible and bad and criminals in their past lives, and now have no right to expect any better out of this life because they got what they deserved and we therefore should leave them to their misery and not do anything to help them, as to do so would be interfering with God's or the Universe's master plan which was designed only to make their lives a living hell.

Now you may with good reason feel that any attempt by you or anyone else to suggest that karma operates in the highly simplistic "carrot or a stick" manner which you are supporting here by asking us this question really irritates and horrifies me with its do good grumpy old man picture of God or alternately the keepers of the Akashic Records sitting up there on a cloud keeping a book score of black marks to use against us in a future life for something which we cannot even remember doing in a previous one (which seems grossly unfair - surely the punishment should follow ASAP after the reason for the punishment in the same life, in order to have the maximum corrective action in stopping you from doing it again).

Contrary to your beliefs, I believe that Karma is a Universal law of balancing cause with the corresponding effects, but that any idea that it works in the black and white, two dimensional, highly simplified and punishing manner which this theory supports graphically demonstrates to me that the human species and mind still has a long way to go and a lot more to learn, before we will even begin to be qualified to understand as to why these things could be happening.

And while we continue to hold on to these distorted, extremely narrow ideas of what is the whole truth, there will always be people and organisations who will spread them with the malicious and manipulative intention to create fear and intolerance towards anyone who is seen by them as being different and therefore badly out of favour with God, when compared to us.

You are not one of these people who use Karma as a weapon to spread hatred and intolerance everywhere you are able, but I am sad to have to say it but I feel that there will never be a shortage of people who do use Karma purely for their own selfish purposes to make "different people" wish they were never born (again).

In my world and from my research and life experiences this theory about Karma and how it works exclusively to reward the "good" amongst us and punish the "bad", wicked or "different", simply does not add up or hold water.

Sorry!

EoT  :smt017

[spiritalk]

Well stated EOT.

[eye_of_tiger]

Well stated EOT.

Thanks.

Although I do feel that Castro's intention to want to ask these questions was a good one, as by doing so it opens these things up for general discussion in an atmosphere of mutual respect for other people's beliefs and opinions which may be different from our own.

I just hope that the strength of my opinions is not the reason why I have been the only person to respond to this posting so far other than your good self, and that I have not unintentionally put Castro off the whole idea of ever posting any questions again in case of feeling as though he or she is being personally attacked (never my intention).

Only time will tell if I have any valid reason to be concerned about this?

EoT  :smt039

[spiritalk]

Dialogue sites are not for the feint at heart.  If we expose our beliefs, we will find that they are not readily acceptable to all people.  It is the nature of life and living.  Perhaps when we are pressed to post a dialogue it is to open ourselves.  And that can be a hard lesson sometimes.