Buddhism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Buddhism - Essay Example Buddha then offered to heal her child only if she is able to bring a mustard seed given by a family who has not experienced death. Kisogatami searched and was able to find families willing to provide her with the mustard seed but to her dismay each one had experienced death at one point. In the end, Kisogatami understood that death comes to all and she finally accepted the fact of her baby’s death (Matthews, p.115). The idea of death in Buddhism, much like in every other religion, is an acceptable and inevitable part of human life. But where death is usually the end of a life’s cycle in others, the concept of rebirth is a reoccurring process until one reaches Nirvana which is essentially â€Å"the state of being free of egocentrism and the suffering that it causes. Positively, it is joy and peace† (ibid). Karmic destiny is understood to be an invisible force to which certain events and something that even moral justice is not included as opined by some since some Buddhists regard this as the causation of suffering brought about not by their doing and beyond any person’s control. Weber (as cited by Keyes and Daniel, p.15) cannot â€Å"be a logical solution to theodicy, since it points to an ultimate force that cannot be comprehended in logical terms.† Cause and effect best describes the notion of karma and how it affects the life of an individual. Fundamentally, man seeks to find an explanation to the suffering which one endures and religion can provide for a comprehensive elucidation to this predicament by offering various and largely acceptable enlightenments. Westerns philosophers are among the supporters of how the notion of karma and rebirth provides for a substantial explication of suffering and the problem evil. Extensively compared to the Christian rationalization of evil, Max Weber and Arthur Henman together with Michael Stoeber points to the apparent logic of this Buddhist doctrines as a more reasonable justification than the notion of purgatory (Kaufman, pp.15-16). Buddhism has greatly advanced its presence worldwide and the logical appreciation of karma brings it forth as a simple yet compelling belief which can be attributed to its acceptability. In the strict erudite of theodicy, the conviction of God as an all-loving and all-knowing Supreme Being gives rise to the basic question of why does evil exist. This main concern of theodicy makes karma an inconsistent answer since as pointed out earlier, karma does not extensively discuss nor expound on the same because man’s suffering is by his own doing base on previous acts or wrongdoings. Nevertheless, Kaufman maintains that a modern understanding of the concept would elucidate on karma and reincarnation as it provides for an easy response to why suffering exists. He then accedes to the five recognizable flaws in consideration of karma. The first is that one does not remember anything in what is supposed to be one’s own past life a nd is thus inimical to justice since he would never know for what he is being punished for. Second is the fact that there must be a correlation to the amount of suffering in consideration of what was previously done and in this case, similar to the previous one, there would be clear difficulty in ascertaining what offense was previously committed. The third is what he refers to as infinite regress which points to questioning the beginning of the process and in this sense it ignores the question by the