The Metta Sutta of Buddhism

[lpetrich]

In doing my research on Unitarian Universalist belief and practice, I came across the  Metta Sutta (or Sutra).

19 Metta Sutta Translations - side by side on one page.

Nearly all of it is about being loving and kind, but the end of it says that if one is virtuous enough, one will avoid getting reincarnated.

This is what’s done by one skilled in what’s good,
Who reaches toward that most peaceful state:
One would be capable, and straight—quite straight;
Well-spoken, gentle, without too much pride.

...
Let no one work to undo another.
Let no one think badly of anyone.
Either with anger or with violent thoughts,
One would not wish suffering on others,

...
Without falling into mistaken views,
Endowed with insight and integrity,
Guiding away greed for sensual things,
One would not be born again in a womb.

-- Andy Olendzki's translation

 

[steve_bank]

What I read was he goal of the yogic practices was to be aware during death and a transition attaining a transcendence from karma, a ceaseless chain of causality. If your karma is not good enough you loose it and get reincarnated.

Reincarnated sometimes better or sometimes worse depending o your karma.

I have always thought it was metaphorical. I look at bad karma like getting sober from alcohol or kicking a drug habit. You might get free for a moment but fall back into bad habits, karmic mental causalities.

It all kmakes sense to me as a psychology. I you were an uneducated superstitious peasant then it is a fear based morality. Just lie Christianity.

You can read the Tibetan Book Of The Dead I linked. It is a guide to the death experience, and reincarnation if you fall back.

 

[steve_bank]

Also I believe reincarnation was used to justify the cast system in India. At the bottom were the Untouchables. If you were born into the bottom it was because of a previous life.

 

[lpetrich]

Also I believe reincarnation was used to justify the cast system in India. At the bottom were the Untouchables. If you were born into the bottom it was because of a previous life.

That's the doctrine of karma. What you do in this life determines how you will be reincarnated in your upcoming lives. So if you are reincarnated in a low social status, it is a punishment for sins committed in previous lives.

 

[Politesse]

Also I believe reincarnation was used to justify the cast system in India. At the bottom were the Untouchables. If you were born into the bottom it was because of a previous life.

That's the doctrine of karma. What you do in this life determines how you will be reincarnated in your upcoming lives. So if you are reincarnated in a low social status, it is a punishment for sins committed in previous lives.

Not a punishment, a consequence. An inexorable law. God punishes, karma observes. You are painting your next life as you think, for your thoughts will become desires, which become actions, and all actions have results, in this life or the next.