I see it everyday working at the hospital! No matter how many times you think you can get away with something in your life eventually it will come back on you, sometimes with a tragic end. I have very little pity for most of my patients. "Those that live by the sword, die by the same", either it be by drugs, alcohol or simply very bad judgment & life choices.

Well I would say that your lack of pity will perhaps bring about it's own karmic outcomes in your life. The buddha teaches that the compassionate person works for the liberation from suffering for ALL living things. Perhaps you could think of it as an opportunity to reflect on how you would want to be treated if you were to find yourself suffering as a result of the karma that you have created. Just a thought. Have a nice day.

my understanding of it is,

what ever you create you must experience the effects

although this wording can mean several things, it is the wording i like best,
it implies a complete fairness to everything that has and will happen to us, as well as everyone else. and gives us responsibility for our life, and future lives if you believe in reincarnation

any thoughts? insights? agree? disagree?


i posted this in general religion too, but i figure i would get more responses here.

Compassion and pity are two distinctly different things.

"I'm not exactly a Buddhist either, but the message in Buddhism is put more starkly - the end of desire is the end of suffering. That includes, for me, the desire to do the right thing."


Nope that ain't it at all. In fact there are clearly defined "right" or correct actions that must forever be adhered to.

Hi enderra. Yes, I'm familiar with the Precepts and what they entail. I view them in much the same way as I view The Ten Commandments, and do my best to follow them.

However, when one chooses to live by either or both, they are choosing to live within an imposed or external framework. My general point was that both Traditions promise that it is possible to eventually break out of this framework and into a place where The Precepts or The Commandments are kept without thought or effort.

I've found in my life that if i'm not careful (or mindful), my desire to adhere to rules as a means to an end can carry me away, and I wind up bogged down in process.

I hope this is a little clearer. At times, using words to discuss these things is like trying to peel a carrot with a hatchet, I find.

Hey Joad,
Interesting way of looking at it. I am going to take a few pokes at it, not to say you are wrong but to widen both of our views I hope.

Let's just start by agreeing that we are human and we live with other humans on this planet.

There are some things humans have in common despite their cultural, religious or racial backgrounds. An example is that us humans have a concept of mine and yours.

If I take what is yours without asking or without offering what is mine in return, trouble seems to follow.

My question to you is, would that scenario exist with or without Jesus or Buddha?

Thanks Enderra. I learn more from discussions than debates, no doubt the knuckle headed anti-authoritarian in me. Besides, seems like the truth in this stuff is seldom all one thing or the other. I'll poke too.

Based on the mine/yours premise, I'd say yes, that scenario would be present regardless, unless all humans became either truly delivered or enlightened or whatever you want to call it.

Seems I remember reading that in some cultures though, whether any still exist or not, there is no concept of mine/yours when it comes to material things. Hard to imagine. I guess they would still differentiate between, say, my thoughts/your thoughts, though.

Anyhow, I think one of the ideas in Buddhism is that, without desire for and attachment to material things, no one can really take anything from you. You don't "have" anything.

These are ideals, I know. How do you see it?

Well, unless you are a monk, you have some sort of possessions, that said. do you attach to them? So in a sense you do "have" but if it is lost or stolen, you release it.

However the point I was trying to make is that through observing human nature and the consequences of certain actions, philosophical or religious tenets as you call them may have been developed. But these cause and effects existed outside of these structures. So, then are they "RULES" or merely the nature of the beast, in this case human.

I don't consider them rules. I think the notion of rules comes in when you have a divine presence that says if you do these thing you will get in trouble, I won't love you, you are bad bad bad etc...

I left the christian church because of this. I believe that I am responsible for my own actions and if I do things that I feel are outside of my intuitive or viseral sense of what is good/right/fair/just/cool however you choose to name it, I will suffer.

That said, we know there are people that have no morality, or rather don't adhere to our same sense of right and wrong, or at least they appear not to on the surface. I have a feeling that, that is a mask for them, that on an unconscious level they still are holding themselves responsible, they may punish themselves by continuing to be involved in behavior that causes them physical, emotional and spiritual harm. Addiction, low self-esteem, legal problems, cronic pain etc...

As far as my studies have lead me there is no end to this, in fact as soon as you say to yourself I have mastered this or that attachment or desire, it will appear in some other way or worst yet a new version of something you already feel you dealt with before.

I also think that one can become as you said attached to the idea of getting it all at once. These are the people that have the hollier than thou attitude. They try to shelter themselves from anyone that doesn't adhere to their tenets, they think that they can protect themselves and or not be a part of all the evil around them. They are dealing with heavy fear karma, they actually don't trust themselves. In fact they attach to some false moral rightousness. Denying oneself a desire is not the same as facing it and actively being conscious of what it will cost.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. Buddha

I applied this to teachers and politicians. Now I have been applying it to my dates, man does it ever thin the herd. LMAO

Ha! Pity you no longer care for the Church. You could just get it over with and move into a nunnery!

In caring for them i am showing "compassion" for their pain & suffering.