If you can't remember what you did wrong in your last life time, what would be the point of punishing you for whatever you did now, you dont know what the punishment is for so how can reincarnation make you a better person?
200602
There are four laws of karma:\n1. Karma is fixed.\n2. Karma increases.\n3. Karmic results are only experienced by one who created the cause for that experience.\n4. Karmic seeds do not lose their potency of their own accord.\n\nRegarding #2 - both positive and negative karmic results increase in potency unless they are obstructed. Positive results can be obstructed by anger, and other negative actions. Negative results can be obstructed through the directed positive actions of our Dharma practice, the Four Opponent Powers and so forth.\n\nRegarding #4 - 'of their own accord' means that unless we intervene with directed positive Dharma actions to purify and transform negative actions, those actions will never lose potency. They will perpetually have the power to bring us suffering.\n\nWe carry the karmic seeds of our actions around with us until we transform (purify) them, or until they meet the right causes and conditions to ripen. It is said that most of the karma that we create in this lifetime will ripen in future.\n\nBuddhist do not believe in an eternal soul. It is the mind-stream, not the soul, which goes through rebirth and cycles in existence. The mind-stream is ever-changing though, like the Ganges River.\n\nThe Buddha stated three things which are misunderstandings about karma ---that everything:\n1) Is here due to no reason\n2) Is the creation of a god\n3) Is completely controlled by karma (so it becomes like a fate).\n\nWe can go on and on about how people suffer, whether someone is born without an arm or whether one is persecuted during a war or holocaust. I think the misunderstanding is the person who asked you the question is assuming that karma is a fate system. Karma is not a fate system.\n\nKarma plants a seed, and when certain conditions are around, that karmic seed ripens. Your life is not predetermined.\n\nIf one assumes any of those "three misunderstandings" the question seems right. If everything is here due to no reason, it would be a very sad that someone is born in a very bad condition. If everything is due to a God's creation, it is horrible that God allowed this to take place and allowed such bad conditions to take place. If everything is a fate system, then we are merely robots who have not much control over the outcome of anything.\n\nBut Buddha taught none of these, and karma does not fall into these misunderstandings. The seed for the particular karma was present and was able to ripen under the conditions (such as an unhealthy maternity)... not because it was predetermined!
474539
There are so many things that I've done that I'm regretful of, that I'm embarrassed about, that I'm angry over... but I wouldn't change one of them.\n\nWhat I've done in the past has made me who I am today.  Those stupid things I did were a learning experience.  Those hurtful things I said taught me a few things as well.  Not that I'm proud of doing or saying them, but I know now, that I'm *not* proud of them.  That lets me know that I don't want to do them again in the future.\n\nIt doesn't mean that I won't ever do or say something stupid (like I have in the past) again in my life...  but it does give me some depth into who I am, what I'm comfortable with, and how I feel about various behaviors I exhibit.
511894
have you been to another a place you have never been before but seem familiar and feels that you have been here before?the best explanation is you were there in your past life.Death is only a transition from one form to another,just like discarding a torn shirt and changing a new one,reincarnation is very true and natural,it is the law of nature.\nYour life today is the result of your Attitude and Choice of the Past\nYour life tomorrow is the result of your Attitude and Choice you made Today
32643
Hell is a place in the astral world, where all souls are "living"in agony and some kind of hopeless faith.God is not punishing You, when you are suiciding You, because you have done it. But we are all here have to fullfill our destiny. And our destiny is a part in a giant Masterplan, where we have our role to play.We have to meet people and we have to realise projects. When you commit suicide, you are leaving your place.That means you have stolen experiences of other people who cannot fullfill their destiny because you are not playing your role anymore in the future. That is the sin. You are a thief. You had to be to a special place to a special time to do a special thing in the future, and because you are death now, and nobody can replace You, you have stolen to the other person a very important experience, who cannot be replaced....
530211
Every single person you see who passes you in the street has made mistakes, not one of us are exempt from making mistakes, that is because we are human beings.  We do what we do for various reasons...could be the crowd we hang around with...peer pressure.....it could be because we are hurt and want revenge...it could be for a lot of reasons.  But we all grow up, we all learn about sociably acceptable behaviour and that only comes with experience and time.  If we didnt make mistakes, we would be pretty boring people because it is only when we make mistakes do we trully learn who we are.  What has happened in the past had to happen, simply because it did, you cant go back, you cant change it, but you can certainly change the future.  You can choose not to make those kind of mistakes ever again.  Forgiveness is pretty easy if you have a logical mind.  If you can think that the mistakes you made were because of a particular situation in your life, and you did what you did because that was your frame of mind at the time, then you will be able to forgive yourself.  You are not that person any more....that was the old you.  Sometimes I look back on my past and think to myself...."that wasnt me"...and it wasnt.  I am the me I am now,  the me who made all those mistakes and it is those mistakes that has moulded me into the nice person I am today.\n\nIf you dont learn by your mistakes then you wont grow.  You know they are mistakes, so you have learnt and you will become stronger for it.  You need to put your mistakes where they belong,  they were mistakes of the past, so keep them in the past.  Your future is where the positive stuff lay.  Guilt is such a wasted emotion because the only thing it does is make you feel bad, it doesnt change anything...it cant change what has happened...so think logically about it...you cant change it, so what is the good about beating yourself up over it.  Use the energy you have with guilt and put it to more constructive use.  Move forward, do things that make you feel good about yourself, maybe go and do some voluteer work.  Start thinking good things, start doing good things and you will find out the mistakes of your past gives you the knowledge you have today.  You could use that knowledge for good.  You may be in a position where your mistakes could help some person in the future because you have been there, done that.  Use your mistakes to your advantage....learn from them.  You can do it.  We all make mistakes,  it is something we have all suffered from at some time.  The reason I know you are a decent and wonderful person is because you feel bad about your mistakes....that shows you have a conscience, therefore you cannot be a bad person because bad people dont have a conscience.  Move on...go on to achieve wonderful things and you will have your mistakes to thank for your success.
460258
Don't any of you people have control over your life? A free being determines what comes into and out of ones life. Why should it bother you what people say even if it true or not true. Your worst enemy can be your  best 'guru'. Your 'reaction' is your choice unless you are a robot.
624996
What is reincarnation??\nLife is infinite.\nLife never ends.\nwe're just reborn where ever we want.\nAnd as time is an illusion, it is easy for those who master it to contact anyone at any 'time'. future or past - doesn't matter.
31699
Not all things come back to you.  Life is not a story book were all the villians are punished.  That said, what may happen is that your deed is remembered and another person will suffer for it, because they won't be trusted.\n\nYou wrote "there is no way I can apologize". You can apologize, but what you are afraid of is that there is no guarentee you will be forgiven.  That's a chance you ought to take, not only for your sake, but for the sake of the person you wronged.\n\nThe word "Forgiveness" comes from a Greek word which means "to let go".  To let go...of the past, the anger, and whatever else is involved.  Perhaps,....just perhaps...you will have a chance to experience what forgiveness means on a deeper level. \n\n Take the chance.  Apologize.
224604
They will come back here again until they learned there lesson.\nThere are levels.\nLook you can live in Africa and suffer everyday of hunger,\nyou can be a standard worker who every day have to suffer his job to bring money home for food.\nOr you can be a bill gates type and have every thing you want, but still suffer other things.\nyou also can suffer from bad disease or other ways.\nDepending on how bad you are and what you did in your past life.\nThe lowest level you can come back is as an animal or insect. \n\nIf you're a real good person you will say goodbye to the earth forever and go to Paradise.
253152
True repentence is the act of not repeating the same mistake twice.  If you keep doing it, you're not truley sorry. You're like an alcoholic that keeps promising this is the LAST TIME they'll drink and then they drink again.  I don't buy into the whole theory of Christians that you can repent for something in the last hours of your life (like a murderer in prison) and make it to the same enlightened place after death as those who led their lives well the entire time.  That just sounds like a cop out to me.
210230
We all die. There's no way around it. Its like a story that you want to write and you have how it begins and you know that its going to end in a final way somehow. Now what do you do put into the middle? You know the old saying,'Do the most with what you have available to you.' Life is temporary, everything is temporary. Life is an oppurtunity to improve yourself. If you dont believe in reincarnation or an afterlife, 'an oppurtunity to improve yourself' might not make any difference. We have theories about what state people are in before and after life, but none of these are absolutely proven. We have a better idea about the nature of life, so that can be something to focus on. I have this theory that 'there is no limit to how bad things can get'. This helps me because I know that the negative has unlimited options and I know that I could spend my whole life floating in uncertainty and vagueness, having no focus, should I direct my attentions to negativity.  Positives are more limited and easier to focus on. Thats just my take on it, it may just be mumbo jumbo to you. There is another way. You know that you can find enjoyment and pleasure in life. Seek them, but try not to cause others to suffer as you do so. Life might just be for fun and your body an amusement park. If life has no point, it is still a matter of character to treat others with dignity and grace. The Golden Rule and all that. \nhttp://subgenius.com\nhttp://slackoff.blogspot.com
618431
Yeh its true there will be life after death and that life will be depending on our performance in this life..and also depends upon what our thought during the time of death...So its advisable to think and act only good sothat we can get an excellent life next time..
429351
Exactly. Prison restricts your freedom but body helps the soul to have new experiences that the soul cannot have on its own. It is a useful tool given to a soul so that it can explore life.\nYou are put into a prison but you are not put into a body. You choose to be ina body because you want to experience what you have missed.\nGiving you the freedon is in other people's hands depending on your behavior in the prison, who are there to judge, but the soul passes its own judgement. When we die, we judge for ourselves. We may not realize that we are dead and haunt the place. We may be miserable over something we did or something we could not do and just refuse to pass on and live as ghosts. We may want to repent and choose a more miserable life for ourselves. We may want to see something new that we wanted to so much in the past life but couldn't and plan our own life and lessons we think we will learn while being there. Our soul is the piece of God, pure and just and we are our own authorities. We are not guided by others.\nWe choose to keep on learning until our desire to see more, to experience more, ultimately gets quenched and we go back to join the Whole or get 'Moksha', as you call it.\nYou get a body as a tool it. You use it, misuse it, abuse it is all up to yourself. You are your own authority in this world too. As a soul, you plan some events for yourself with a view to learn something from it and gain Consciousness but in this world, we may refuse to learn the lesson and gain the experiences, we planned for ourselves, and may wish to get liberated again. Then, after death, we may regret our decision and would want to come back again to learn what was left and then we get lazy and leave it unfinished, to regret it later again.\n\nThe only catch is we do not remember about the world beyond Death in this world and only realize what we have done, when we are a Soul. This is the reason that it is said that people who can detach themselves from the body and understand that it's a tool, can retain their Consciousness. We get Enlightened when we retain Consciousness in both the worlds.
173393
From my understanding, it's a state of being that our actions, judgments, and pain we place upon others place us into.  That being said, it's a place of spiritual understanding and atonement, a mental place of searching for understanding and clarity, a soul place of seeking to right what your actions put "wrong" (meaning out of Divine Alignment).  The life-review-process, the process a person enters into upon "death," is the first step in the process of gaining understanding and healing from one's personal hell.
504818
If I had the power to bring someone back to life, then I would use it, regardless of how that person felt about me. Maybe it would change our relationship - perhaps we could be friends after I had brought the person back to life. If not, I'd still have the satisfaction of knowing that I did the right thing, by not putting personal feelings first and just using the gift of life when it was available.
94994
As an adult who had a very tragic childhood, but grew up very stabile, I totally agree with you. You have the power, not as a child, but as an adult, to change your life. If you let your past control your future, then you have lost. You have the power inside to change yourself and your perseption of people. It may take some help from professinals but you have to make the first step.\n\n\nFYI: I had been abused everyway known to man and verybadly and I still am a normal, fully functioning adult.
224682
What matters is what YOU do, not what they do. You cannot get inside someone else's head, and often people who are behaving badly are suffering in some way that we can't see. If you are compassionate, even when it seems unwarranted, you may find that the person in question is so surprised by the kindness that they are decent back, and if they aren't, well YOU have done your best, which is always the right thing to do.