We are born free!

[ANNEE]

Reincarnation makes little sense to me.

Punishment for something you cannot remember doing is a pointless exercise.

And believing something you did in a previous life is responsible for what happens to you in this one is simply counterproductive to existance.  

If you can't remember or retain personality from a previous existence.

It's apt to be rather unclear what you are being rewarded or punished for in this one. 

Reincarnation pretty much rationalises suffering rather than addressing the causes and inequalities in this life...

It explains suffering as the result of past actions, which, if you ask me, slides into victim-blaming pretty easily or with little fuss.

Hmmmm -- I've always felt positive about re-incarnation.

I guess it just depends on perspective.

[Astyanax]

What sort of deity gets off on fidget spinners?

There is no deity, and no-one is being punished. Gautama Buddha explicitly enjoined his followers not to put their faith in the gods, whose actions are whimsical and unreliable and who in any case are subject to karma themselves.

Prayer-wheels in Tibet and Nepal are set up in public places outdoors, as well as in the courtyards of Buddhist shrines. You’ll always find a row of them, for example, at the head of a mountain pass or along a dangerous trail. The ‘prayers’ they contain are actually verses from the sutras. Repeating the sutras is considered an intrinsically meritorious act, one that produces good karma; spinning a prayer-wheel is the equivalent of repeating the verse inscribed within it many times over (though still not as meritorious as chanting the verse out loud).

On my one and only assignment in the Himalayas, I took care always to spin the prayer wheels I passed; it seemed churlish to do otherwise, and an invitation to bad luck besides.

A rather silly custom, no doubt, but no more so than telling the Rosary. 
 

Andy: Punishment for something you cannot remember doing is a pointless exercise.

Perhaps it would be, if it were punishment, or if the purpose of punishment was reform. And – more fundamentally than this – if ‘you’ were actually ‘you’.

But none of the above is true according to Buddhism. Karma is not a system of rewards and punishments but a law of actions and consequences that operates automatically without human, divine or diabolical sanction. A law of nature, as real and inexorable as the law of gravity. Good actions beget good results, evil ones bring evil results. These results then become in turn the causes of further results, and so on ad infinitum. Eventually, these consequences must, in the nature of things, affect the beings we have become after rebirth; not exclusively, but along with everyone and everything else’s karma, too. 

In Hinduism, the reborn ‘you’ really is you in some sense; the atman or self is a unique, intangible and indefinable essence that remains the same from incarnation to incarnation, so the same self suffers the consequences of its deeds (and others’ deeds too, of course) in subsequent lives. But Gautama Buddha taught that there is no self, no ultimate essence that can be called ‘you’; a living being is just the momentary manifestation of a process that never begins and never ends. What passes from birth to birth is nothing but a heap of unresolved illusions. A hallucination.

[ReturnofBroccoli]

There is no deity, and no-one is being punished. Gautama Buddha explicitly enjoined his followers not to put their faith in the gods, whose actions are whimsical and unreliable and who in any case are subject to karma themselves.

Prayer-wheels in Tibet and Nepal are set up in public places outdoors, as well as in the courtyards of Buddhist shrines. You’ll always find a row of them, for example, at the head of a mountain pass or along a dangerous trail. The ‘prayers’ they contain are actually verses from the sutras. Repeating the sutras is considered an intrinsically meritorious act, one that produces good karma; spinning a prayer-wheel is the equivalent of repeating the verse inscribed within it many times over (though still not as meritorious as chanting the verse out loud).

On my one and only assignment in the Himalayas, I took care always to spin the prayer wheels I passed; it seemed churlish to do otherwise, and an invitation to bad luck besides.

A rather silly custom, no doubt, but no more so than telling the Rosary. 
 

Perhaps it would be, if it were punishment, or if the purpose of punishment was reform. And – more fundamentally than this – if ‘you’ were actually ‘you’.

But none of the above is true according to Buddhism. Karma is not a system of rewards and punishments but a law of actions and consequences that operates automatically without human, divine or diabolical sanction. A law of nature, as real and inexorable as the law of gravity. Good actions beget good results, evil ones bring evil results. These results then become in turn the cause of further results, and so on ad infinitum. Eventually, these consequences must, in the nature of things, affect the beings we have become after rebirth; not exclusively, but along with everyone and everything else’s karma, too. 

In Hinduism, the reborn ‘you’ really is you in some sense; the atman or self is a unique, intangible and indefinable essence that remains the same from incarnation to incarnation, so the same self suffers the consequences of its deeds (and others’ deeds too, of course) in subsequent lives. But Gautama Buddha taught that there is no self, no ultimate essence that can be called ‘you’; a living being is just the momentary manifestation of a process that never begins and never ends. What passes from birth to birth is nothing but a heap of unresolved illusions. A hallucination.

Are you a Sadhu?

[Astyanax]

Are you a Sadhu?

Heh. No, of course not, just another wanderer in the vale of samsara. I am familiar with Buddhist doctrine, though mostly the Theravada tradition. 

The lady in my avatar is a yogini and an adept of the Hindu equivalent of Vajrayana. 

[MONAD Ops]

As CREATOR Creations or beings manifested into the Abyss of Creation from a higher intelligence like The MONAD,  perhaps our primordial energies were freed, once released to expand.

It has to be acknowledged however that outside the more said to be perfect regions like The HEAVENS and or PLEROMA many of us are captured and installed within realities not fully understood or controlled by ourselves.  Im wondering if some Aliens are installed as well.  Asking themselves the same question- What is the meaning of this all?

Those who are Demiurge designed Hylics Souls-Spirits manifested in human or NHI forms however may feel at home...

[ReturnofBroccoli]

Heh. No, of course not, just another wanderer in the vale of samsara. I am familiar with Buddhist doctrine, though mostly the Theravada tradition. 

The lady in my avatar is a yogini and an adept of the Hindu equivalent of Vajrayana. 

If Samsara is driven by karma what is the nature of perfect karma at rebirth? What can be achieved?

If every intentional action of body, speech, or mind creates a consequence that determines the nature of one’s future rebirth, what manifests with the pure? Or am I asking the ultimate question?

Is Moshka the same as Nirvana? When reaching for Nirvana, how do you hold onto permanent peace? Do you believe it possible or is acceptance of its impossibility the end?

Guide us wanderer!

[Astyanax]

If Samsara is driven by karma what is the nature of perfect karma at rebirth? What can be achieved?

If every intentional action of body, speech, or mind creates a consequence that determines the nature of one’s future rebirth, what manifests with the pure? Or am I asking the ultimate question?

Is Moshka the same as Nirvana? When reaching for Nirvana, how do you hold onto permanent peace? Do you believe it possible or is acceptance of its impossibility the end?

You should ask these questions of a Buddhist, or perhaps a Hindu. I will answer them as I think a Theravada Buddhist would answer, but please don’t take my word for it.

• ‘Perfect karma’ is the absence of karma. When you reach that point, you cease to exist.
  
• Samsara is wandering. Wandering is not driven by anything except circumstances. Even then, I should say ‘led’ or ‘drawn’, not ‘driven’.
  
• The question of free will does not arise in Buddhism. What is this entity that wills?
  
• Actions have consequences whether they are intentional or not. When lightning strikes or a village is engulfed by a flood, there is no intention behind these events, yet they produce karmic consequences among all beings which experience them directly or indirectly.
  
• Moksha and nirvana are different. Moksha is enlightenment, the state that Gautama attained under the bo tree. Nirvana is the cessation of being.
  
• To reach for Nirvana is to attempt suicide. What does that tell you about the state of mind in which one ‘reaches’ for Nirvana?
  
• What I believe or don’t believe has no significance. To repeat myself, I am not a Buddhist.
  

[andy06shake]

Hmmmm -- I've always felt positive about re-incarnation.

I guess it just depends on perspective.

It's a notion I entertained in my early 20s, Annee.

But as I got older, well, there are just so many inconsistencies and problems associated with reincarnation that don't make much sense.
 
Each to their own, all the same...

[ReturnofBroccoli]

You should ask these questions of a Buddhist, or perhaps a Hindu. I will answer them as I think a Theravada Buddhist would answer, but please don’t take my word for it.

• ‘Perfect karma’ is the absence of karma. When you reach that point, you cease to exist.
  
• Samsara is wandering. Wandering is not driven by anything except circumstances. Even then, I should say ‘led’ or ‘drawn’, not ‘driven’.
  
• The question of free will does not arise in Buddhism. What is this entity that wills?
  
• Actions have consequences whether they are intentional or not. When lightning strikes or a village is engulfed by a flood, there is no intention behind these events, yet they produce karmic consequences among all beings which experience them directly or indirectly.
  
• Moksha and nirvana are different. Moksha is enlightenment, the state that Gautama attained under the bo tree. Nirvana is the cessation of being.
  
• To reach for Nirvana is to attempt suicide. What does that tell you about the state of mind in which one ‘reaches’ for Nirvana?
  
• What I believe or don’t believe has no significance. To repeat myself, I am not a Buddhist.
  

Your first answer blew my mind

I wanted you to consider some things though. For instance, true, Samsara is wandering but is our journey not birth-death-rebirth my friend and is that rebirth not driven by karma and in knowing this does that not drive you?

As for Nirvana I would say something like it depends on the self that is dying is it physical or simply the death of the ego in a psychological sense to attain it.

One can die in a dream and is that not what life is?

I know you are not a Buddhist or a Sadhu and I should focus on my own Samsara and not yours but I wanted to peak at yours

[quintessentone]

So, who are you really?

After 70 years of being all things to all family/friends/acquaintances/employers/coworkers/smiling randomly at a stranger on the street, etc., I am the sum of all that and all along the way I had the freedom to choose to say 'yes' or 'no'. I am quintessentially what my decisions have made me, whether right or wrong - it's all in the acceptance of oneself in the end and not dwelling on regrets.