PART VS. WHOLE

Why do senseless things happen?   The spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle replied that such things are like chips of paint from a very large painting.  What may seem senseless, such as, for example, the death of an infant, will not seem senseless when viewed from the standpoint of the larger picture.

But what is this larger picture?  Christians say that it is God's master plan.  It is God's Will when there is tragedy and God's Will when there is triumph.  We can accept our fates more readily this way, even as the first thing out of our mouths when some awful event occurs is, "How could God allow this?!"

When something tragic, or triumphant, happens, Buddhists see it as the "mutual arising of opposites."  It is the nature of existence, what they call Suchness, that where there is good there is also evil, where there is pleasure there is also misery, where there is life there is also death.

They also view events in terms of karma.  Karma is the impersonal law of cause and effect.  If this is, that is.  If a person caused pain to another in his previous life, for instance, he will experience pain from some person in his current life.  If he showed compassion toward another person in his prior life, someone in his current life will show him compassion. 

This is to say, Buddhists do not make God, or a God, responsible for what happens to us, insisting that the individual is responsible for his fate.