Americans don't trust anything anymore it seems. At least, _I_ don't trust the majority of the strangers I meet. I've just read too many e-mails offering to pay me a handsome cut of a big pile of cash if I'll just help this poor western African gentlemen get some money out of his country (see 419 scams). Our TV commercials constantly imply that cleaning products will scrub our floors for us, that obesity can be solved with a pill, and that we really need to take some random drug, (just ask your doctor). Not to mention that I've had some bad experiences with contractors, salesmen, etc... The list goes on and on. So my society has trained me to ignore commercials, politely refuse to talk to door-to-door salesmen, and clearly speak the words "add me to your do-not-call list" instead of hello when answering the phone.
Sometimes it seems to me that we live in a world where there the reward for shafting others is far greater than the risk in doing so. Sure, every once in a while we shaft the wrong person and they go postal and start shooting, but the vast majority of cases seem to reward the offender - the crooks seem to get away with it most of the time. Just ask the majority of people who have been burglarized. Or the companies dumping chemicals all over the place. Recently, 419 profitteers started using the free telephone infrastructure for deaf people in there attempts at scamming.
So it seems only natural to develop a sense of hopelessness - one of pure cynicism, wherein the only hope for mankind is for them to nuke the Earth, go back into caves for a hundred or so years, and then start afresh. Perhaps a little extreme, but then, so is the pervasiveness of the problem. The only hope I have left is my faith in cause-and-effect - that in the end, the scales will be balanced.
So I get to trust, just not naively...
But did you ever stop to notice... ...trust is a lost art?
Which was precisely the point of the original message - that it all evens out in the end.
Posted by: Earth Song at May 7, 2004 04:47 AMOnly from a self-cernered perspective. It's not 'my' karma or 'their' karma it is 'our' karma. The latter perspective is what a Buddha's virtue of Parent is.
Posted by: Chikushonin at May 7, 2004 03:21 AMIt reduces to the same logical equivalent.
Posted by: EarthSong at May 7, 2004 02:04 AMDear Earthsong,
Please excuse my bluntness, but you have a common misconception about cause and effect.
You write, “The only hope I have left is my faith in cause-and-effect - that in the end, the scales will be balanced.”
Cause and effect in Buddhism does not mean that in the end, the scales will be balanced. It is not the same as the scientific version of ‘cause and effect’ where for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In Buddhism cause and effect means there is karmic reward for all thoughts, words, and deeds.
In Buddhism there is no such balance in terms of good and evil, as you seem to express hope and faith in. Good and evil are simply distinctions made from a subjective point of view. There is only action and corresponding karmic reward.
For every choice that is lacking in Wisdom, there is karmic reward that is termed ‘evil’ in nature. Lacking Wisdom, we are fettered by the chains of our karma and destined to repeat our actions that are lacking in Wisdom. This is called repeating the cycle of the sufferings of birth and death in the six paths.
Sincerely, Chikushonin 智倶諸人
Daikudoshin, myokaku, myojisokukyo/
Namumyohorengemyojisokukyo 南無妙法蓮華命時儈倶經