Maia, I think similarly that the idea of a hellish realm inti which karmic laws can deliver the unrepentant is a viscous scheme to frighten people , at the same time hellish situations do create intolerable experiences here on earth.
Can not this view fortify the sense of urgency that the great prophets were concerned, the ones who realized that unless sentient beings change their sheepish following of any treaded way, indifference may find them guilty as co-conspirators, in abandoning the heaven which we have abandoned very shortly after realizing the difference between heaven and hell?
The majority who have no interest currently, will be the very ones to try to come to terms with it, but too late, much to late; to make a difference.
The idea of reincarnation has been parts of many cultures and not always at all combined with that version of Karma or any version. Here’s a sample: The Hopi, The Lakota, Christian groups like the Cathars, certain gnostic Christians, Siberian shamanism, the Bon religion, Mongolian shamanism, Australian aboriginal shamanism, Amazonian shamanism, West African Vodun religion, Celts, Druids, Norse, Pythagoreanism, some Greco-Roman traditions and individuals (like Plato) has reincarnation ideas, Slavic paganism…probably others.
There’s no need to take the Hindu version as THE version. And religious, mystical, spiritual ideas get co-opted by the powers that be for their own ends.
No. There’s also such a thing as “deep sleep”, which is dreamless. Minds can indeed “be turned off, then on again later.” In fact, this happens during every deep sleep (which occurs every time you sleep long enough). In death, the mind is simply turned off permanently.
Of course, most people don’t want to believe that. But is it really permadeath they fear?..
Yes, I fully agree. If reincarnation exists, then there is no reason at all to connect it with karma. It might be totally random, or there might be some other reason for it.
Can I have some concrete examples? Are you talking about false prophets? Are you talking about ignored prophets? Can you define better, and can you define worse? Better than what? Worse than what?
Yes, it might be ontological, the way things are, without a moral aspect. Like gravity leads to apples falling from trees, but not because they are bad.
Interesting examples… You said, “I think the history of prophets is a pretty dismal one” (emphasis added). So I take it you also mean most if not all of the Jewish(-Christian) prophets?..
Prophets tend to be products of, or sometimes even creators of, monotheistic, one-true-way religions. And where there’s a one-true-way, there are always loads of people who disagree, and need to be converted or eliminated.
That includes most of them maybe with the exception of the orientals: 3 kings, and the Arabic seers, - philosophers and Zarathustra, of course Averroes)(misplelled will edit)
