By thairsha - 09/02/2012 11:05 - Japan

Today, I was at a Buddhist shrine and wanted to light a candle for my friend who's having a rough time, when I got stung by a bee. I spent the next hour with a swollen shoulder. How does karma work again? FML
I agree, your life sucks 24 375
You deserved it 4 221

Same thing different taste

Top comments

cradle6 13

Something about your actions in previous lives affecting your caste in this life. At least originally.

Comments

Well the bee is dead, your friend is still alive. The bee sacrificed his life telling you to go seeing your friend will help them more than lighting a candle. lighting a candle only makes the person that does it feel better.

picklemonger 13

It's suppose to be a chode, people. You dont have to be a dirty old uncle to get that one.

94, Is that you, Uncle Lloyd?! (My dirty old uncle… haha.)

Actually, according to buddhist beliefs, karma builds up over your life and determines what you'll be reborn as when you reincarnate. Us Western folk simply prefer to get instant results and proceded to attribute that meaning to the word 'karma'. Research: not just for college anymore.

#20 *reborn, not reincarnated. They are actually two different things. But still, just a small error lol.

RebekahBrooke 9

You know 21, I just had to write a four page research paper on Buddhism for my IB History class, and my teacher didn't say anything about my use of reborn and reincarnated as synonyms.

#79. Generally when you're in school they don't go into much detail about Buddhism because it is such a complicated religion. But I've been raised Buddhist my whole life. I've actually been raised by ordained Buddhists, some of whom being monks themselves. But anyway. Reincarnation requires a soul. Buddhists do not believe in a soul (at least not a permanent one) and so reincarnation cannot be used in terms of Buddhism. However rebirth does not require a soul for it to work. That's why there is a difference between the two terms.

helms97 0

I just learned about this in school, karma is indian ( everything you just described is indian ) buddhism is just "living simply and in peace".

catkat1988 17

Well, let me explain how karma does work: The sum of all your good and bad actions determine what you'll be re-born as when you die, as Bhuddists believe we'll continue to be re-born until the point where were reach Nirvana, if we've been exceptional during our live(s). So while lighting a candle for a friend would count as a good deed and result in good karma, it had absolutely nothing to do with a bee sting. It would, however, result in bad karma for the bee, counting towards the bee being re-born as something less worthy when it dies.

That sucks for the bee; not even aware of the rules of the game, or what it supposedly did for that matter.

Buddhism has never been about fairness. The traditional Buddhist hells (Naraka) are far more explicitly horrifying than the vague biblical "fire + wailing".

I wonder if Kurt Cobain reached Nirvana.

Bees die after they sting something. So theoreticly it just made its next live worse and sooner

What if the bee was defending its hive when it stung something, then of course died. Wouldn't it count as good karma?

ninjuh_wingman 29

Maybe its karma for something you did before. Plus the bee died so maybe its the bees karma.

obviousboy 8

Ask wall street. They seem to have it down. :P

It works by allowing people to fob off tough moral dilemmas like the existence of evil in a supposedly just world by letting them assume every uncorrected evil is just getting fixed somewhere out of sight.

"Karma" just seems to be a synonym for "nasty coincidence" to morons these days. The morons are welcome to thumb me down. But secretly you know I'm right.

I hate how people cant tell difference between reality and fiction

Karmas a bitch only if you are; the bee is going to catch hell.

Because Atheists never get stung by bees, right? Amazing logic, bro...

teamjacob21 0

Haha your an atheist because karma may not exist? God may not believe in karma either

bandeek 30

She said shes an atheist, cuz that means she doesnt have to worry about karma and reicarnation and crap. and btw, being atheist means she has no religion, not she just doesnt believe in the christian god. she doesnt believe in any god.

108, for the most part the "gods" worshipped in religions are the same man/woman with a different name.

Buddhism does not revere any gods, AKA an atheistic religion. Not worshipping a deity is not the same as not having a religion.