I didn’t say “purely”. Please don’t misread what people write and then put words into their mouth.rozoksmaslom wrote: ↑Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:26 pmconnection between what?PadmaVonSamba wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 3:50 pm It’s only freaky if you think there is a connection between the two.
Are you saying that suffering is purely conincidental?
But suffering certainly can be. Why not?
Everything had a cause. Nobody is disputing that. But my point is that you may simply be connecting two things which have no cause-effect relationship whatsoever. Hence, the example:
It’s like thinking that because I had eggs for breakfast, that’s why somebody drove into my car in the afternoon.
You didn’t get that, huh?
This is extremely common when people do something they feel guilty about, and then something negative happens to them. Of course, it should be obvious why that is. When we feel very bad about something, it becomes central focus of our attention, and then everything else that occurs simply revolves around that. And the more badly we feel about something, the more we think we are being punished. But it’s all an ego trip. It’s just more self-grasping. But karma isn’t some cosmic system of punishments and rewards.
Of course, there are many examples of valid karmic causes and resulting effects. I’m not saying that isn’t true. But even the Buddha pointed out that there are many things which occur outside of karma, unfortunate events that can happen to a person but which have nothing to do with that person’s karma.