Navigating the Chaos - Part 5 - Thoughts on Buddhism

 There is an essence to Buddhism that, at first glance, appears to be extremely soothing. As a philosophy, it puts on a kinder face that, to so many, appears to be more welcoming than the harshness of the Judeo-Christian belief system. One such facet that has engendered one to think of Buddhism in a more enlightened framework was the replacement of the all-powerful judging God viewing each and every one of our actions with the belief in karma that argues that every action has a consequence to it. In reality, both God and the karmic system function to guide our actions toward doing what is the 'good.' 

Bad acts in the Buddhist world invite bad karma, which leads to suffering. In Western theology, these acts are punished by the wrath of God that, too, leads to suffering. So what we have here are alternative explanations for the same outcome. But are they really alternatives, or is the one, karma, perhaps merely a description as to how God meets out justice? My problem with the karma view on its own is that it is too convenient and mechanistic. It provides for the predictability of outcomes that deduces B from A. In short, it is deterministic, like the theological version of classical physics. The complexity of human nature fits neatly into an equation of fortune that 'makes it all too easy.' 

I believe that consequences are murkier on the outcome of action because the ultimate decider of our fate is Ein Sof, and Ein Sof's logic is not so simplistic. We, for example, cannot explain why infants die at such a young age. Ein Sof must clearly know the reason. 

People once believed that the rules of mathematics and classical mechanics could be used to predict the future history of the universe with complete certainty. Quantum Mechanics (uncertainty principle, wave-particle duality, etc.) threw this 'certainty' on its head. Now it appears that the universe is more intricate and unpredictable than we could ever imagine. There is a logic there, but it is hidden behind a complex veil that I am not convinced we will ever breach. The same is true of the exact repercussions of our actions.