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Originally Posted by ratbastid
I'm motivated by things like how it feels for me NOW to make a difference in the world.
I think back to my grandfather's funeral, which absolutely PACKED the Episcopal Cathedral in our city. I want to have a standing-room-only funeral, I want to be somebody who had that kind of impact in people's lives. I'm clear I won't be around to see that, but I want it anyway.
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Precisely. It is the here and now that concerns me; I only have an unknown number of years/decades before my single opportunity to DO something in this world is taken away, either suddenly or by a debilitating/long-term illness. I, too, want to move and shake the world, though I don't know if that means a ton of people will attend my funeral. Maybe just a small handful will, but I know that it will be because I changed their lives. Huge funeral or not, at least I want to make that impact... and it has nothing to do with the afterlife.
Why else are we here? To be born, live, suffer, and die? That is the core of Theravada Buddhist teaching, but I don't know how much I jive with it. I am not alive in order to die (and go to heaven, or the next reincarnation, etc). I am alive in order to BE alive, and to DO something with this life.
My opinion comes from a long, long time of believing in (and being scared/motivated by) heaven and hell... and the last 5 years of gradually examining, then surrendering that idea.
I think this is where we can make arguments for the difference between morals and ethics... Halx did a good job on this, in some thread I have forgotten the name of now. Morals tend to come from religion/tradition, usually with some kind of punishment (real or not) if they are not followed. Ethics are rules for treating other people, regardless of religion/belief etc. They are our own inner judge of proper human interaction, simply based on the present life and the repercussions while we are all still very much alive.
People talk about sin and the afterlife. I see no need for that connection. If I had to use the word "sin," I would say that it is valid only if it is "that which hurts other people or yourself, unintentionally or otherwise." I do believe in sin, but not as a form of sending one to hell in the afterlife. I think sin creates its own form of hell in the present life, one you see playing out in the immediate sense or long term. If you hurt someone, you create a tiny little hell for them, and you offend your own humanity as well. That is why forgiveness and grace are essential to human relations, in the secular sense.