There are some creeds that claim that good things in our lives are rewards for good deeds done in the past lives, and that bad things in our lives are punishment for bad things done in the past lives.
There is a very easy way to test this claim. It is to look at the levels of wisdom and goodness in both the advantaged and the disadvantaged. If this claim is true, then the advantaged are going to be wiser and better than the disadvantaged.
I have dealt with both the advantaged and the disadvantaged, and I have not found this to be true. In fact, some of the wisest people I’ve known came from horrible backgrounds and experienced horrendous things. From their perspective, the advantaged are spoiled and sheltered and know nothing about life.
The hippies were people, coming from advantage, who decided that advantaged life was fake, cruel and exploitative and that the system was evil. Their most strident enemy was not the system; it was the rednecks. These people saw them as a bunch of spoiled brats espousing a hostile ideology and betraying their country. And these people remained stridently opposed to socialism even when some in the system were warming toward it.
Who were wiser: The hippies or the rednecks? I would say that there was plenty of both wisdom and stupidity among both. The same is the case with places such as India and Russia. There is amazing wisdom in both of these countries; there is also a lot of stupidity. Russians produced the world’s greatest literature and music, but have never been able to figure out politics and economics. Indians have an amazingly wise yogic tradition, but they have the caste system and oppression of women.
Mother Theresa said that America is a country rich materially but poor spiritually. This puts to test the above claim. If people are born in wealth, then the idea that status in this lifetime is a reward for good done in the past lives would mean that they are spiritually advanced. Of course this is not the case. Some people born in wealth are spiritually advanced; some aren’t. The same is the case with people born in poverty.
Ben Franklin came from disadvantage, and he became very wise. So did Thomas Jefferson, who came from advantage. Lenin came from advantage and became a brutal despot. So did Stalin, who came from disadvantage. The worst apple in the bunch – Adolf Hitler – came from middle class and was neither advantaged nor disadvantaged. I see no correlation there between a person’s level of goodness and wisdom and their level of advantage.
In my case, I have had many good things and many bad things in my life. I do not see how I could have deserved both through action taken in past lives. My life has been better than that of most other people, and I stand to win from belief that events in our lives are reward for good things done in previous lifetimes. I do not subscribe to it because I have seen greater wisdom than mine in any number of people coming from disadvantage.
On the other side, are the advantaged spoiled and sheltered and know nothing about life? If that had been the case then there wouldn’t be significant contributions from people who come from advantage, and of course there are. If this were true then nobody coming from advantage could be an adequate leader, and of course there have been many adequate leaders coming from advantage. Some things can be understood with intelligence even if they aren’t based on experience. It is possible for an advantaged person to understand how it is for an unadvantaged person simply by using his brain. And if that’s not enough, then he can do what I have done a number of years ago and experience life as a homeless person. My experience with that was valuable and gave me insight I did not have, as well as compassion for any number of people for whom I had not had compassion previously.
A related issue of course is the issue of karmic lessons. Once again, I do not see why in such a situation reincarnation is necessary. I can understand the experience of the next person without being him. As for the karmic debt, I do not want to inflict the wrongs I’ve done in my life on some innocent child down the road. I would rather do what Alcoholics Anonymous recommends and atone for the wrongs I have done – in this lifetime.
It says in the Bible that different people are chosen for different roles. The role I see for myself is that of providing insight. I think about such things all the time, and I come up with original observations that I have not seen anyone else make.
I have known people more advantaged than me, and I have known people less advantaged than me. Once again, I have not found one to be better or worse than the other. Both the people who want to piss on the disadvantaged and the people who hate the advantaged are wrong. There is the good and the bad in both places. And the correct solution is to see each person for what they are and learn from them what one stands to learn.