Thought for the Day

I am mostly a Buddhist but I say mostly because I still have problems accepting it fully.

About "fairness", I wonder whether this is something intrinsic in us, sort of biologically, as there is no real reason why a physical Universe of which we are part of, should have any moral (Good vs Bad) Laws operating within it apart from the evolutionary perspective of survival, and survival of a species certainly depends on "moral" behaviours such as cooperation, sharing and caring for each other. These operate on a more macroscopic level but when it comes to explaining individual misfortunes, I struggle to see the connection, unless you either believe in a Supreme Force (very manipulative if there is one!) or in Karma. I can see the law of Karma or cause and effect, operating in the Universe, but not necessarily in a "moral" way. For example, a man who fiddles his Tax return or grows assets in off-shore investments, breaking the Law, could get rich and then reap the "effects" of his "actions" by having a nice house, holidays, ability to donate large sums of money to Charities, educate his children, support his less well-off relatives and so on. Morally what he did was wrong as accepted by Society as he could have been jailed and punished for it, and provided this did not happen till he died, he only had gains rather than losses. Buddhists may say that he will reap the consequences in his next birth, but he may say "who cares, it is not "me" as far as I am concerned". That actions have reactions is thus quite acceptable to me but how it operates morally in a physical Universe is beyond me. Having said that, just because it is beyond me, it does not mean it is not there! Which brings me to this fascinating concept of fairness. Fairness means different things to different people. The  thief might say that "it is not fair that I was caught because of all the precautions I took and it was quite by chance, nobody could have guessed, that the power would cut off at a critical moment", "it just ain't fair!",he says.

Take the case of the son of a very distinguished colleague of mine (A Professor and Knighted). The whole family had gathered in the Prof's House the day before the wedding and in the evening, his son went out for a walk with his fiancee. They passed a wooded area and suddenly, a man leapt at them and stabbed the son to death and ran away. He was caught, He was a Mentally unsound person on "community care" under supervision in a hostel. As a result, the whole family was turned upside down, You can imagine the grief and despair they must have felt. Being good Christians,  they went to church and thanked God as He must have had a good reason for allowing this to happen and the son must be happy up there in the arms of the everloving One. This experience will only strengthen them and help make them better persons, so they believe. If they were Buddhists, they would probably console themselves saying it is not only his Karma but that of all of us for this to happen. So what really happened? Was it just chance? He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was it retribution? The bare fact is that he is dead, he is no more, he is an ex-son (as John Cleese would have said!). How to come to terms with it? Both the Christian approach and the Buddhist approach would undoubtedly help the victims, whether it is true or not. It does not matter whether or not there is a Helicopter hovering above you ready to descend and help you if you need as you trek the Sahara (Samsara), what matters, in the end, is your belief that it is there which will calm you down and give you confidence.

Fairness is I think intrinsic. We believe that there is or there should be some kind of justice in this World. Even an Atheist will say that good people deserve to lead a good life. An Atheist would not go beyond saying that chance can operate in this World, leading to all sorts of disasters ("I happened to be in that plane that crashed" Period. It was not God's will or Karma). Or, take another instance, I helped that man in every possible way when he needed me and it just isn't fair that he cheated me after all that I did to him.

Returning to whether it is "fair" or reasonable for the current "me" to suffer the consequences of a previous "me" (rebirth), the problem arises because we cannot see a continuum of previous "me" to current "me". If I see the continuum, I can see how it happens and it has happened, fair or not! The example I often quote is the child who through carelessness, lost most of his hand in an unfortunate factory accident. This child is now an adult - without one hand. Is it fair that what he did as an innocent, and may be an ignorant child, should "punish" him now? Fair or not, it was action leading to consequence.