Misfortune = Punishment for Past Lives' Sins?

[Anonymous]

Pay for what you did in the last one...

I was out with a colleague a while back ( just after the big Turkish earthquake last year ) and we were putting the world to rights over a few drinks, as you do. Anyway, me 'an this guy got on pretty well for the three years we worked together until this night. In one sentence ( and the subsequent discussion after ) he managed to destroy our friendship. He turned around and told me that every one of the people who had died in the earthquake must have sinned in a past life. He was a hindu and as such he truly believed that all those people had died as a punishment. He fell out with me, and I fell out with him, and that was it really. Just goes to show that you don't really know the person you spend so much time with, especially when it comes to religion and personal beliefs.

Moggadon

 

[FelixAntonius]

Like Moggadon, I worked with someone who belived in reincarnation as punisment &/or reward for previous lives, but in her case, she used it to explain her own misfortunes, husband killed, son badly injured in a motorbike crash etc.

In her case however she was a realy nice & likable person, as much as I disagreed with her acceptance of her misfortunes.

 

[TheOriginalCujo]

I saw a Hindu woman on TV talking about how many people missunderstood the whole thing about being 'punished' for what you'd done in a previous life. She said that our misfortunes aren't punishement but are to teach us things that we haven't learned yet. For example if you are born pysically disabled it may be that inyour previous life you were too physical and now you need to develop your mind/spirit.

Well I thought it was interesting.

Cujo

 

[Pete Younger]

But how can you learn from something you dont remember?

 

[TheOriginalCujo]

But how can you learn from something you dont remember?

How the hell would I know?

I would guess that there is some sort of supersoul which remembers everything that's happened to you accross all your lives and that your consiousness as it exsits now is just a small part of that soul.

But what do I know?

Cujo

 

[rynner2]

I would guess that there is some sort of supersoul which remembers everything that's happened to you accross all your lives and that your consiousness as it exsits now is just a small part of that soul.

But what do I know?Cujo

Quite a bit, I think - you've summed up what many people understand about reincarnation.

I heard an interesting analogy, which likens the supersoul to a hand of which only the fingertips (representing different incarnations) dip down into the the murky physical world, gaining different experiences in various times and places.

 

[Anonymous]

I seem to remember some famous football coach a while ago, who got critizied for saying that handicapped people were sinners in a previous life and only got what they deserved. If you believe in reincarnation, it makes sense. But he had to withdraw the statement.

 

[Mike_Pratt33]

I seem to remember some famous football coach a while ago, who got critizied for saying that handicapped people were sinners in a previous life and only got what they deserved. If you believe in reincarnation, it makes sense. But he had to withdraw the statement.

That was because the tabloid papers can't accept a celebrity having any life or belief outside of their public life.