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The important thing to remember is that karma is your teacher. Whether good or bad karma comes your way, you can learn lessons from it, thereby growing spiritually and metaphysically. According to the Buddhist traditions, once you've learned all the lessons that life has to offer (through as many lifetimes as it takes) you can finally escape the basic conditions of lifesuffering and deathand reach nirvana. |
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But don't hold your breath for accomplishing that in this life. Almost everybody can count on going through (at least!) a few more lives before reaching perfection, enlightenment, and nirvana. |
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Preparing for the Next Life |
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So, you ask, what's the point of trying if the cycle of death and rebirth just keeps coming around? The idea is that with each lifetime you can make a little bit of progress. By facing the issues and challenges of each lifetime, your soul becomes spiritually stronger and wiser. |
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This symbol, known as Yin and Yang, represents
the universal internal and external balance within
each human body and throughout the entire
universe. |
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In fact, certain schools of thought believe that a lifetime filled with great obstacles triggers the learning of greater lessons and thus promotes greater spiritual progress. If you're going through a particularly rough time, you might find some solace from that idea, as well as relief from some of your guilt or self-blame, old or new. For example, stereotypical thinkers may assume that being born into poverty means that you were ''bad" in your past and have to repay debts. But it may mean that the impoverished person is a highly evolved being, who chose to lead a life of poverty in order to learn difficult lessons. |
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