Norden wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 5:34 am
PadmaVonSamba wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 5:05 am
Norden wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 1:22 am
Can you elaborate that?
What’s to elaborate?
It’s like asking what karma
makes a person left handed
rather than the opposite, right handed.
Every being trapped in samsara
is driven by the same passions.
The only difference is in the body part.
Why does one person like to read
and another person likes to hear music?
Eyes, ears, penises, vaginas
Desire doesn’t really care which door you use.
People who are not heterosexual generally experience more discrimination and other unwanted treatment related to their sexuality compare to heterosexual people. Therefore, it causes much more suffering compare to left handed people, for example. Since the consequences cause relatively different degree of suffering, it can be said they are not "only body part".
The word “sinister” literally means left-handed. At one time, left handed people were regarded as evil and dishonest.
You are describing a condition of society.
One might as well argue that people are born with dark skin, or female, because of some negative action in a past life. There are people who actually believe this.
This is an example of a common misunderstanding about karma. In effect, it makes karma dependent on the existence of white, straight, male patriarchy, for without that, being a gay, female person of color wouldn’t exist as conditions.
On the other hand, one of the conditions of ‘previous human birth’ is to be born at a time and place where one has access to the Dharma, not in a land of ‘barbarians’, in good health, not living in danger, and so on. Yet these too are environmental circumstances. So how is that not also making karma dependent on external conditions? After all, what about interdependent arising? Doesn’t the Dharma teach everything connected to everything else?
Yes, it is, which is precisely why you can’t isolate any one thing, any one condition, such as being gay or whatever, and say “ah! That’s the result of such and such karma”.
It isn’t the
condition of the person which is karmic result, but rather, how the mind of the person
experiences those conditions, because suffering or not suffering are not experienced anywhere outside of the mind of the one having the experience.
Thus, a person born into incredible wealth may never feel satisfied, may constantly strive for more wealth and power, never joyful, with nothing in life ever good enough, in effect living as a hungry ghost in this very lifetime, whereas a person born into relatively low income may still have a mind which is content, even joyous, regardless of what circumstances may come and go.
Of course, it is taught that a life of difficulties and a life of hardships are the result of karma. This is true in a general sense, in an interconnected sense. But you can’t say that any specific thing, being gay or straight for example, itself, is the result of positive or negative actions. One might be born gay, and might also be born in a land where gay people are discriminated against. Being born gay isn’t the result of negative karma. But being born in a land where one will be discriminated against (for whatever reason) is.
It’s very fine distinction, easy to miss.
。。。
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook develops outward insight.