Against Karma: Suffering and Justice

Last month I posted an essay from Jayarava's Raves "Against Karma"

https://www.buddhismwithoutboundarie...-Against-Karma

He's now posted two more essays to follow on from that, with the titles:

"Against Karma: Suffering and Justice"

http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2019/01...d-justice.html

and " Against Karma: Modern Buddhism"

http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2019/01...-buddhism.html


Comments welcome if you've read one or both of them. :hands:


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I try to keep up to date with all Jayarava's postings. I think he's good at delving into key translations and analysing not only what their meaning may be but how these meanings may have changed through mistranslations and misunderstandings over time. I like his arguments here against the idea that suffering is earned or deserved, and that somehow we live in a just world and karma is how this is brought about. His idea that karma is central to most religions in the form of there being justice in the afterlife is interesting too. Is it a tool of control in Buddhism, as it is in other religions? You may not agree with his posts, but they do raise important issues to mull over from time to time.

I very quickly had a quick browse and found it difficult to discern whether Jayarava was referring to the doctrine found in the Pali suttas or, alternately, to what the common Buddhist in the street believes.

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Originally Posted by Element

I very quickly had a quick browse and found it difficult to discern whether Jayarava was referring to the doctrine found in the Pali suttas or, alternately, to what the common Buddhist in the street believes.

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Hi Element. You really have to track back a long way through his blogs to find out where he is coming from. He is a scholar of Pali who tries to relate his own and other translations to present day Buddhism. If are interested in how he translates Pali then this blog is an interesting example http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2018/07...tter-hope.html