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A few weeks ago, I was explaining to my students the difference in the way western and eastern religions see life and death. From a western perspective, it's like a time line: we're born, we live, we die, and then, depending upon our behavior in this life, we are judged by God go to a heaven or a hell. (Judaism is an exception because in Judaism, unlike any other religion I know of, there is almost no focus at all on what happens after death. "I set before thee life and death. Choose life" says God, according to the biblical injunction in Deuteronomy 30.19.) But there's certainly no coming back alive. It's a straight path, a term used in Islam.
In the eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism life and death are cyclical. You're born, you live, you die, you're born again. What life form you're born into and the situations you experience in life are determined simply and only by the actions, good or bad, you did in previous lives. That's what karma is, 'your' actions. There is no judge, no god, no jury that determines your path. It's simply cause and effect.
All of that is theoretically quite fascinating and plausible. But the day after I explained that to my class, 20 little kids and 6 helping adults were slaughtered in their school. And suddenly the theoretical - for either traditions -- paled as answers to this situation.
The western answer, the promise of heaven, evokes for me the response of Dostoevsky's character Ivan Illych who collected stories of abused children and claimed that if that was the cost of entry into heaven, then he respectfully returns the ticket to God. He doesn't want any part of it. Nor do I.
The eastern traditions suggest that 'they (or their parents) must have done something in their previous lives' and this is the result. That, to me, is too harsh. I cannot and will not blame the victim.
And yet, when a Hindu scholar, explained it to me in a larger context, there is perhaps some merit. In answer to my question regarding the Hindu understanding of the death of those 26, he wrote:
"In the larger context, our deeds as a Society or nation on others come back to haunt us, current and future generations. We all as a nation, society, community and individuals are going to remain responsible for the actions on and sufferings of the children and the people in general in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. A peaceful society and even handedness remain the cornerstone of good deed of individuals, community, Society and the nation.
Look at the ending of the leadership of Iraq, Libya, etc that inflicted so much harm to its own people and the way they suffered in their own life time.
Our children and the society in general pay the price of our evolving gun culture and mighty fire power of the so called powerful individuals and Society.
The helpless children and people who lose their life for no fault of their own, are seen to have an incomplete life. However, their souls may become dearer to God and take rebirth or go to heaven for eternal peace of their soul."
And I must admit that I agree with him, particularly looking at the history of violence and gun use in this country. Even most recently the subject of, and audience reaction to, Quentin Tarrentino's movie, Django Unchained reminds me that our societal karma of gun violence comes back to bite us and our children in the bottom. What goes around eventually does come around.
But why those little children? And for that matter, why any of the children, around the world, who daily are slaughtered by gun violence, war, malnourishment, disease, poverty, lack of education? Why aren't we up in arms for those innocents as well?
I don't have answers. My job is to explain the answers given by religions around the world. Answers that attempt to provide meaning and context to our lives. And though the answers may be different in each religion -- and even within each religion -- the questions each tradition grapples with are the same: what happens after death? Why is their suffering? Why me? Why the innocent? Why evil? Where's good?
May 2013 miraculously turn out to be a year of peace and good will to all children.
Interesting. I think the "macro karma" idea of finding the cause for the shooting not in the past misdeeds of the victims themselves but rather the larger community is certainly intriguing, but it begs the question, how do you define the larger community? A city? A nation? A culture? Our species?
ReplyDeleteYou can zoom out as far as you want, and perhaps that distance will seem to lessen the cruelty and insensibility of the tragedy, but I'm uncertain it provides any real comfort or understanding; it simply spreads our discomfort and anger out over a larger canvas.
Thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt post. So many of us are feeling shattered, disillusioned, and unable to make sense of this latest mass tragedy in the long litany of gun-inflicted horrors in America. I do agree that in the larger society, we have committed actions, or inactions, that were paid for by these innocent children.
ReplyDeleteNo matter if one's religious traditions are rooted in the East or the West, it is important to spend our time in this life creating a saner, safer, healthier world, whether we await a future incarnation or whether this is all we get.