Hello LBC!

[UnblessedSoul]

Please help me. I have had recent misfortune...and I wished to be cured, I wish for my body to go the heaves and the lord. I have come to LBC to help rid me of my sin. I was lied to all my life, taught that everyone makes it to heaven. I have been reading your website and I believe you are my last salvation.

[Stella LaForte]

Re: Hello LBC!

That is your perspective, and I respect that. However, the mind is neither physical, nor a by-product of purely physical processes, but a formless continuum that is a separate entity from the body. When the body disintegrates at death, the mind does not cease. Although our superficial conscious mind ceases, it does so by dissolving into a deeper level of consciousness. The continuum of our very subtle mind has no beginning and no end, and it is this mind which, when completely purified, transforms into the omniscient mind of the enlightened.

Every action we perform leaves an imprint, or potential, on our mind, and each karmic potential eventually gives rise to its own effect. Our mind is like a field, and performing actions is like sowing seeds in that field. Positive or virtuous actions sow the seeds of future happiness, and negative or non-virtuous actions sow the seeds of future suffering. This definite relationship between actions and their effects – virtue causing happiness and non-virtue causing suffering – is the law of karma. An understanding of the law of karma is the basis of Buddhist morality.

After we die our consciousness leaves our body and enters the intermediate state. In this subtle dream-like state we experience many different visions that arise from the karmic potentials that were activated at the time of our death. These visions may be pleasant or terrifying depending on the karma that ripens. Once these karmic seeds have fully ripened they impel us to take rebirth without choice.

It is important to understand that as ordinary samsaric beings we do not choose our rebirth but are reborn solely in accordance with our karma. If good karma ripens we are reborn in a fortunate state, either as a human or a god, but if negative karma ripens we are reborn in a lower state, as an animal, a hungry ghost, or a hell being. It is as if we are blown to our future lives by the winds of our karma, sometimes ending up in higher rebirths, sometimes in lower rebirths.

This uninterrupted cycle of death and rebirth without choice is called samsara. Samsara is like a Ferris wheel, sometimes taking us up into the three fortunate realms, sometimes down into the three lower realms. The driving force of the wheel of samsara is our contaminated actions motivated by delusions, and the hub of the wheel is self-grasping ignorance. For as long as we remain on this wheel we shall experience an unceasing cycle of suffering and dissatisfaction, and we shall have no opportunity to experience pure, lasting happiness. By practicing a path to liberation and enlightenment, however, we can destroy self-grasping, thereby liberating ourself from the cycle of uncontrolled rebirth and attaining a state of perfect peace and freedom. We shall then be in a position to help others to do the same.

I wish you the best of fortune on your journey.

[UnblessedSoul]

Re: Hello LBC!

That is your perspective, and I respect that. However, the mind is neither physical, nor a by-product of purely physical processes, but a formless continuum that is a separate entity from the body. When the body disintegrates at death, the mind does not cease. Although our superficial conscious mind ceases, it does so by dissolving into a deeper level of consciousness. The continuum of our very subtle mind has no beginning and no end, and it is this mind which, when completely purified, transforms into the omniscient mind of the enlightened.

Every action we perform leaves an imprint, or potential, on our mind, and each karmic potential eventually gives rise to its own effect. Our mind is like a field, and performing actions is like sowing seeds in that field. Positive or virtuous actions sow the seeds of future happiness, and negative or non-virtuous actions sow the seeds of future suffering. This definite relationship between actions and their effects – virtue causing happiness and non-virtue causing suffering – is the law of karma. An understanding of the law of karma is the basis of Buddhist morality.

After we die our consciousness leaves our body and enters the intermediate state. In this subtle dream-like state we experience many different visions that arise from the karmic potentials that were activated at the time of our death. These visions may be pleasant or terrifying depending on the karma that ripens. Once these karmic seeds have fully ripened they impel us to take rebirth without choice.

It is important to understand that as ordinary samsaric beings we do not choose our rebirth but are reborn solely in accordance with our karma. If good karma ripens we are reborn in a fortunate state, either as a human or a god, but if negative karma ripens we are reborn in a lower state, as an animal, a hungry ghost, or a hell being. It is as if we are blown to our future lives by the winds of our karma, sometimes ending up in higher rebirths, sometimes in lower rebirths.

This uninterrupted cycle of death and rebirth without choice is called samsara. Samsara is like a Ferris wheel, sometimes taking us up into the three fortunate realms, sometimes down into the three lower realms. The driving force of the wheel of samsara is our contaminated actions motivated by delusions, and the hub of the wheel is self-grasping ignorance. For as long as we remain on this wheel we shall experience an unceasing cycle of suffering and dissatisfaction, and we shall have no opportunity to experience pure, lasting happiness. By practicing a path to liberation and enlightenment, however, we can destroy self-grasping, thereby liberating ourself from the cycle of uncontrolled rebirth and attaining a state of perfect peace and freedom. We shall then be in a position to help others to do the same.

I wish you the best of fortune on your journey.

You sound Atheist?

[Stella LaForte]

Re: Hello LBC!

You sound Atheist?

Indeed, indeed. Although I do so wish I had the power of belief so I could join the respectable people gathered here! But until then, I merely offer out the meager, unlogical advice me poor atheistic mind has garnered.

(By the way, I liked your first post here.)

[UnblessedSoul]

Re: Hello LBC!

Indeed, indeed. Although I do so wish I had the power of belief so I could join the respectable people gathered here! But until then, I merely offer out the meager, unlogical advice me poor atheistic mind has garnered.

(By the way, I liked your first post here.)

[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=1](Shh! I made a strict, I will be banned promise.)

Atheist are not welcomed here! This is a true Christian forum, get out with all that nonsense !I am here to be saved by the lord Jesus Christ! I will following the King James Bible word for word and redeem my worthless soul!

[BelieverInGod]

Re: Hello LBC!

You sound Atheist?

She sounds more new age than atheist. Karma requires a "Karma accountant in the sky" someone or something to keep the balance of good and evil.

Of course the fact that some people, no matter how good they are still get the crap end of the stick just means that they were very bad in their previous life.

"Atheists" will believe in anything except the One True God. They're the children of their father.

John 8:44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

[Stella LaForte]

Re: Hello LBC!

She sounds more new age than atheist. Karma requires a "Karma accountant in the sky" someone or something to keep the balance of good and evil.

Of course the fact that some people, no matter how good they are still get the crap end of the stick just means that they were very bad in their previous life.

"Atheists" will believe in anything except the One True God. They're the children of their father.

John 8:44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Atheism is the rejectance of the belief in the existence of deities. The new age beliefs are atheistic in nature as well, but I don't fit under that category. I'm more of a philosophical atheist, if a classification must be given.

By the way, I laughed out loud at your "Karma accountant in the sky"! I do wish people would take the time to analyse other people's perspectives to gain insight.

[BelieverInGod]

Re: Hello LBC!

Atheism is the rejectance of the belief in the existence of deities. The new age beliefs are atheistic in nature as well, but I don't fit under that category. I'm more of a philosophical atheist, if a classification must be given.

By the way, I laughed out loud at your "Karma accountant in the sky"! I do wish people would take the time to analyse other people's perspectives to gain insight.

So you don't know what Karma is, but you believe in it. Typical of unsaved trash, they never understand what they claim to believe.

[Stella LaForte]

Re: Hello LBC!

So you don't know what Karma is, but you believe in it. Typical of unsaved trash, they never understand what they claim to believe.

Oh, I know fully well the meaning of Karma, and I never alluded to not knowing such things - in fact, I laughed at your "Karma accountant in the sky" due to your tragic lack of knowledge on that subject!

For your knowledge, this is basically the law of Karma: for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful - a skillful event is one that is not accompanied by craving, resistance or delusions; an unskillful event is one that is accompanied by any one of those things.

[Bible Student]

Re: Hello LBC!

Atheism is the rejectance of the belief in the existence of deities. The new age beliefs are atheistic in nature as well, but I don't fit under that category. I'm more of a philosophical atheist, if a classification must be given.

By the way, I laughed out loud at your "Karma accountant in the sky"! I do wish people would take the time to analyse other people's perspectives to gain insight.

So you mean you don't know what you are so you have to make up your own category? Do you always go through life day by day confused?

Leviticus 18:23 -- Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

Psalms 41:15 -- My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

Ezra 9:7 -- Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

James 3:16 -- For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

Daniel 9:8 --O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

Jeremiah 3:25 -- We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.

But don't worry, there may be some hope for you yet. Your 1611 King James Bible (had you read it) would have encouraged you with:

Psalms 71:1 -- In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

I Corinthians 14:33 -- For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

Psalms 109:29 -- Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

Jeremiah 20:11 -- But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

[Brother Temperance]

Re: Hello LBC!

That is your perspective, and I respect that. However, the mind is neither physical, nor a by-product of purely physical processes, but a formless continuum that is a separate entity from the body. When the body disintegrates at death, the mind does not cease. Although our superficial conscious mind ceases, it does so by dissolving into a deeper level of consciousness. The continuum of our very subtle mind has no beginning and no end, and it is this mind which, when completely purified, transforms into the omniscient mind of the enlightened.

The "omnisicient mind of the enlightened" may well be the single gayest name for a false god I've ever heard. Just be honest about the fact that you're talking about an imaginary "god" who Satan made you invent.

Every action we perform leaves an imprint, or potential, on our mind, and each karmic potential eventually gives rise to its own effect. Our mind is like a field, and performing actions is like sowing seeds in that field. Positive or virtuous actions sow the seeds of future happiness, and negative or non-virtuous actions sow the seeds of future suffering. This definite relationship between actions and their effects – virtue causing happiness and non-virtue causing suffering – is the law of karma. An understanding of the law of karma is the basis of Buddhist morality.

Right. So, for instance, the Queen, Prince William, George Bush, Rupert Murdoch, Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan must all be very good, moral people, because they have so many good things in their life. And poor people are inherently evil, that's why they're being punished. Gotcha.

After we die our consciousness leaves our body and enters the intermediate state. In this subtle dream-like state we experience many different visions that arise from the karmic potentials that were activated at the time of our death. These visions may be pleasant or terrifying depending on the karma that ripens. Once these karmic seeds have fully ripened they impel us to take rebirth without choice.

It is important to understand that as ordinary samsaric beings we do not choose our rebirth but are reborn solely in accordance with our karma. If good karma ripens we are reborn in a fortunate state, either as a human or a god, but if negative karma ripens we are reborn in a lower state, as an animal, a hungry ghost, or a hell being. It is as if we are blown to our future lives by the winds of our karma, sometimes ending up in higher rebirths, sometimes in lower rebirths.

Right. So, for instance, if a baby is born in an African country without access to clean, safe water, and dies within a few months because of a disease that's easily preventable with modern technology, that's not something we need to get upset about, because they were probably a lousy tipper or something in a past life and so that's why they got such a raw deal this time around. I see.

This uninterrupted cycle of death and rebirth without choice is called samsara. Samsara is like a Ferris wheel, sometimes taking us up into the three fortunate realms, sometimes down into the three lower realms. The driving force of the wheel of samsara is our contaminated actions motivated by delusions, and the hub of the wheel is self-grasping ignorance. For as long as we remain on this wheel we shall experience an unceasing cycle of suffering and dissatisfaction, and we shall have no opportunity to experience pure, lasting happiness. By practicing a path to liberation and enlightenment, however, we can destroy self-grasping

I agree, being against masturbation is an important part of any moral code.

Indeed, indeed. Although I do so wish I had the power of belief so I could join the respectable people gathered here! But until then, I merely offer out the meager, unlogical advice me poor atheistic mind has garnered.

You are not an atheist. Atheists don't believe in that rubbish. You're like the atheist equivalent of an Anglican. If atheists had churches, you would go twice a year, stand at the back and mumble your way through the service, then leave feeling really good about yourself and how logical you are.

Oh, I know fully well the meaning of Karma, and I never alluded to not knowing such things - in fact, I laughed at your "Karma accountant in the sky" due to your tragic lack of knowledge on that subject!

For your knowledge, this is basically the law of Karma: for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful - a skillful event is one that is not accompanied by craving, resistance or delusions; an unskillful event is one that is accompanied by any one of those things.

I'm still having trouble understanding this. Do these events happen across different lifetimes? Who keeps track? Who judges skillfullness or lack of skill? Or maybe I'm getting this wrong, so karma works like this:
Event 1: A hateful Buddhist atheist explains to a guy in a wheelchair that he is only disabled because he did something unskillful in the past.
KARMICALLY CAUSES
Event 2: The disabled guy's brother knees the hateful Buddhist atheist in the crotch and then stamps on their head.
KARMICALLY CAUSES
Event 3: Everyone gathers round and laughs.

Is that how Karma works?

[BelieverInGod]

Re: Hello LBC!

I'm still having trouble understanding this. Do these events happen across different lifetimes? Who keeps track? Who judges skillfullness or lack of skill? Or maybe I'm getting this wrong, so karma works like this:
Event 1: A hateful Buddhist atheist explains to a guy in a wheelchair that he is only disabled because he did something unskillful in the past.
KARMICALLY CAUSES
Event 2: The disabled guy's brother knees the hateful Buddhist atheist in the crotch and then stamps on their head.
KARMICALLY CAUSES
Event 3: Everyone gathers round and laughs.

Is that how Karma works?

Why the Karma Accountant in the sky of course . Where do you think I even came up with such a creature.

Of course I'm trying to figure out what she means by skillful/unskillful, because I don't think she knows what those words mean either. I can give an example of what they mean to sane people

Skillful


Unskillful

[Stella LaForte]

Re: Hello LBC!

Ignore this post, please. It's saying I need one or more characters when I try to quote.

[Bible Student]

Re: Hello LBC!

Ignore this post, please. It's saying I need one or more characters when I try to quote.

The software does that if you don't close the brackets properly. Then your reply gets bundled with the quoted material and you have a total of zero characters.

Or maybe your lord and master, Satan, is playing with your mind.

[Stella LaForte]

Re: Hello LBC!

The "omnisicient mind of the enlightened" may well be the single gayest name for a false god I've ever heard. Just be honest about the fact that you're talking about an imaginary "god" who Satan made you invent.

False gods? I don't recall mentioning any gods.

Right. So, for instance, the Queen, Prince William, George Bush, Rupert Murdoch, Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan must all be very good, moral people, because they have so many good things in their life. And poor people are inherently evil, that's why they're being punished. Gotcha.

By good things I did not mean diamonds and flashy cars. And when did I mention evil? There is no such thing as objective morality, or morality at all, really.

I agree, masturbation is an important part of any moral code.

Oh, look! I can twist quotes to fit the context I want too!

You are not an atheist. Atheists don't believe in that rubbish. You're like the atheist equivalent of an Anglican. If atheists had churches, you would go twice a year, stand at the back and mumble your way through the service, then leave feeling really good about yourself and how logical you are.

Oh, dear. Let's define atheism, shall we? Atheism is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. I reject the belief of the existence of deities. Therefore, I am an atheist. In the same manner, recognised religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Paganism, Taoism, and Confucianism are also atheistic in nature. I have yet to post in any forum other that this one, so there hasn't really been anything scientific to talk about yet. However, my affiliation could quite possibly be made obvious upon my doing so.

I'm still having trouble understanding this. Do these events happen across different lifetimes? Who keeps track? Who judges skillfullness or lack of skill?

Skilllful and unskillful have multiple meanings. The meaning I refer to is using them as terms for judging whether actions have a felicitous or unfelicitious effect, utilitarianistically.

Oh, and just because one does not share their beliefs does not make them insane!

Ah, I see, I merely needed to write outside the quote too.