Today I continue off yesterday's notes on In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, which I take to be representative of Theravada Buddhism. ¹

Karma and Suffering

It seems in Buddhism, suffering in the world is not totally chaotic or random. This can be interpreted in a very "anti-social justice" sense in that when we see bad things happen to people, there is an underlying belief that their karma made them deserve this.

Now, the Buddhist will want to escape suffering (and probably help others do the same, cultivating loving-kindness). But viewing suffering in the world is also seeing the results of suffering perpetuating behaviors.

The typical Christian world-view on these things is much different. Similarly, Christians don't believe in repeating cycles of death and rebirth. ²