Karma - Merit

[RandomSand]

Recently I've started to feel bad about what I have done to others in the past.

Actually; I'm not confident that I'll ever be able to make-up for it all... no matter how much merit I make.

So in effect I've already judged myself and the verdict is very bad

Please, I ask someone who can relate to this, is there any hope for me ? ..something I can do for myself?

I think I've already already condemned myself to eternal hell-fire and don't know what to do

Please.. if you want to debate if hell or karma exists then open another thread.

Thanks.

Edited September 28, 2013 by RandomSand

[MAJIC]

If you find someone who can give you the answer,to being absolved of all past blame,and what you regret in your dealings with others,then please share with us, no one is blame free in a lifetime,but some would never admit to it,and continue to think themselves perfect!

A wise man judges himself before others!

[StreetCowboy]

It's never too late to repent. Some people believe that making amends helps. It allows you to forgive yourself, balance the books and draw a line under your past history.

SC

[Dancealot]

I see hope in pro-actively helping others and expecting NOTHING in return, RandomSand. This will make you feel better.

[RandomSand]

Thanks for your replies.

[beautifulthailand99]

Good luck - if you're not Hitler then forgive yourself and start a new and better life as you mean to go on. The past is the past let it go.

[fabianfred]

The Buddha taught that heaven and hell and other realms do exist, so as followers of his teachings we should also believe.

Karma is not like money in our bank account, which can either be in the black or the red, but not both together. It is like two seperate accounts, one black and the other red, and they do not cancel each other out. So since Buddhism teaches that the past and future are infinite, we have all been reborn innumerable times in all the various realms, creating karma all the time, and using it up too. So all of us have both good and bad karma in our bank accounts, waiting for their chance to have an effect....karma is cause and effect.

Since no amount of good karma, produced by making merit, will wash away the bad...what can we do?

As Buddha said, like a spoonful of salt in a glass of water makes it undrinkable...but when added to a river is too little to have an effect....we can STOP producing any more bad karma ....by keeping the five precepts....and make lots of merit...good karma...to dilute any bad we have which is waiting in the wings for its chance to come on stage and effect our lives.

Worrying about our past is of no use, it just makes us miserable and lethargic. The past is gone and cannot be undone...the future is uncertain.....be in the moment now.

The greatest amount of merit is made by training and purifying our mind....meditation. At the end of any merit making activity such as giving, chanting, meditation, listening to dhamma, we should dedicate the merits to all beings, especially our enemies (those we have wronged in the past (lives) and who seek revenge)...and that is the ONLY way to remove bad karma....to share merits with the owners of our past acts which caused them suffering, until they decide to forgive us. Only then will that karma be wiped away.

If we not only meditate but practice vipassana, which is the way to Nibbana, we can even escape the cycle of rebirth and so be free of any future results of past karma.

[StreetCowboy]

Fair point - immersing yourself in religious orthodoxy might help

[rockyysdt]

Hi R S.

It's important not to feel bad about yourself, particularly over something which hasn't happened.

Whilst it's said that the fruits of Kharma (Vipaka) can't be stopped, practicing the eightfold path, allows one to cope with these without attachment.

A place you can begin, is by expelling "negative mental attitudes" by immersing yourself in the four immeasurables (Brahmaviharas), the "sublime attitudes".

1. Loving Kindness (Pāli: mettā, Sanskrit: maitrī) towards all: the hope that a person will be well; "the wish that all sentient beings, without any exception, be happy."
2. Compassion (Pāli and Sanskrit: karuṇā): the hope that a person's sufferings will diminish; "the wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering."
3. Empathetic Joy (Pāli and Sanskrit: mudita): joy in the accomplishments of a person—oneself or another; sympathetic joy; "the wholesome attitude of rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings."
4. Equanimity (Pāli: upekkhā, Sanskrit: upekṣā): learning to accept loss and gain, good-repute and ill-repute, praise and censure, sorrow and happiness. It is a clear-minded tranquil state of mind—not being overpowered by delusions, mental dullness or agitation.

You can take these attitudes, individually into your meditation, and/or introduce them into your Mindfulness.

They'll soon push away your negative thoughts.

Should something befall you, you'll be too busy, with your mind filled with the sublime to become too attached.

[transam]

You may say I am daft , oh go on then , but I am a firm believer in ''What goes around, comes around'' in some way or another. And if my life is anything to go by, it's true.

Nobody can make amends to wrong doing if the wrong doing involved people, cos they may never be healed from your actions.

Folk who have been sent to jail, come out and say ''I have paid my debt to society'', to me that is a load of rolox.

Very difficult subject, and I wonder what goes through terrorists heads in later life remembering they shot unarmed women and children really for nothing .

[fabianfred]

We don't have to wait for the next life to experience the results of karma we create in this life.

A drug dealer having a nice life on his ill gotten riches will certainly start to suffer from doubts and worries as he gets older and closer to the inevitable death and reckoning.

I believe most rich people got there by immoral means, and their riches do not guarantee them happiness.

[Theo007]

Nobody is beyond redemption, we only need to have faith in the love and mercy of God.

[fabianfred]

Nobody is beyond redemption, we only need to have faith in the love and mercy of God.

This is the Buddhism forum ...the place for truth... not fairytales. Please do your proselytising elsewhere...

The Hindus believe that they can wash away their sins in the waters of the ganges. The Christians believe that their sins can be forgiven...especially if the priest gives them absolution at deaths door or at the confessional. Do you really think that is fair?

If we cause suffering to other beings in any way, to be able to have that wiped clean is not at all fair on those beings. When we are wronged in life we seek justice and believe it is correct for the perpetrator to be punished, which is why we have laws and the legal system. Just saying sorry does not undo the suffering caused....and is not justice or fair for those wronged. We see it as natural for those wronged to feel aggrieved and seek retribution. If god goes around all that then he is unjust. If Hitler was absolved by a priest on his deathbed, would that be fair.....no, an all too easy escape.

That is why the laws of karma are natural laws which effect ALL beings equally, whatever their beliefs and understanding. That is fair, honest, and not able to be corrupted.

The Chritian churches teach that god or their priests can absolve, because that gives them power over people who are ignorant of the truth.

Edited September 29, 2013 by fabianfred

[camerata]

@RandomSand

You could try some form of atonement. It has worked for me before. Say, for example, you once refused to lend someone money when they needed it. If and when you have the opportunity, be generous when people ask you for money in the future. The closer the atonement is to the type of bad deed done in the past, the more relief you'll feel.

[RandomSand]

...The closer the atonement is to the type of bad deed done in the past, the more relief you'll feel.

Very helpful. Cheers.

[fabianfred]

One difficult thing is when you see these charts they make showing all the 31 different realms....and average lifetimes in each realm...the lowest heaven nearest to the human realm shows the one day and night there is equal to 50 human years...and so on. The problem arises when we look at the hell realms, of which there are many, depending upon the kind of punishment to fit the crime. Here we see extraordinary lengths of time reaching into millions of years and longer.

I then think....does any evil deeds deserve this amount of punishment?

I learned from my teacher LP jaran that karma has interest....it is not simply an eye for an eye. The interest often far outweighs the original. This is because both good and bad deeds spread out, like the ripples on a pond from a thrown pebble, to have far reaching effects.

Suppose I kill somebody, then one can imagine the being which has has its life cut short has a karmic debt with me. But then what about the suffering, mostly mental, of the friends, relatives, maybe wife and children of that person, and how it might cause real hardship to those people if the person was the main breadwinner....and how those kids will suffer later by not having a Father and normal family life...etc... We cannot know how far the effects reach out from our act.

[beautifulthailand99]

You know you're a good person when the user specific google ads are for good things rather than tawdry baubles.....