Trauma and Tragedy

Ajahn Brahm explains how best to deal with traumatic or tragic events

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• Brahmavamso
• 2010
• 02
• 12

[champion1098]

So karma has nothing to do with the past life? So it has come from Hinduism not budhism.

[hiKrittiya]

@lamdawave I'm a buddhist from Thailand. What Ajarn Brahm taught is the real core of Buddhism. Buddha teaches us that Karma is a consequence of a cause. Many monks in Thailand taught that bad things happens now because of bad things done in previous life due to some cult of Buddism is influenced from Brahma religious and it's a strategy to teach people not to do more bad karma. But by believing in the blame of the past life, it is not going to solve any problem .

[JrDiNisi]

@lyntonio nothing wrong with that. The Buddha said never to trust or believe his words, or any words, out of respect for him or belief in a system, but only if it fits with your own common sense and if it is useful in your life.

[TheTyaptyap]

@lamdawave what he is trying to say is you yourself have brought about the conditions for suffering because you have been born human. Then we do bad things to others or have bad things happen to us. But because we are ignorant of our essential buddha nature and do these things, then we cannot really feel guilt about it, because we are living in ignorance until we realise our true buddha nature and stop the cycle.

[dr0mni]

@lamdawave

many buddhists also have a distorted understanding of buddha's teachings.

If there is no continuous self-essence, then how can "I" be suffering an effect from "my" past life. The idea that "I" did something bad in a past life contradicts the notion of non-self.

The reality is that when we suffer abuse, it is because another person took an action (karma) to abuse us, thus creating suffering in the world. This is a totally impersonal process.

[Taterhed77]

Acceptance is the answer. As long as these tragaties are rejected by us "How could this happen to me? Why me?" then they will be something seperate from ourselves. There is no opportunity to grow from these painful experiences until we embrace the true nature of suffering and tragedy. None of us are immune, but we can benefit others with our experience and strength.

[miahart143]

Very profound - very difficult to see what is painful for you. The nature of the mind to only filter what is good and filter out the bad.....self-blame can rip the inner soul apart as well as allowing anger to sit in kind, hurts us more than the intended recipient. Thank you for this teaching, this was very needed to be heard.

[buddhikaayu]

this is great... a must watch clip for christians and muslims ..

[cyborg1320]

@lamdawav

Wrong! it's the Jainas (and some Buddhists, for example the Tibetans) who claim that whatever one experiences in the present is DIRECTLY a consequence of previous actions. In Samyutta Nikaya the Buddha declares: "Some experiences...arise here originating from bile, from phlegm...from wind...from an imbalance...by changes in climate...by assualt...

What the Buddha does say is that to the degree that one acts skillfully the consequences will be correspondingly pleasant, and vice versa

[lamdawave]

Ajahn is trying to inject his own opinions into traditional Buddhism.Talk to any Buddhist, he or she will tell you if you suffer a trauma/disaster its because you did something bad in your previous life (i.e. bad karma). Ajahn is saying Buddhism is NOT blaming trauma on ANYTHING. If fact Buddha said one should build good karma in order to escape the cycle of rebirth (to suffer).