Why are Buddhist countries so ill-fated with tsunami?

[RedLantern]

Why are Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka,Thailand and Tibet so ill-fated with tsunami,and "backward" from the viewpoint of the world.I presume,with Buddhist cultivation,we should have more good karma created, and hopefully better well being for all.

[eyesoftara]

I don't Tibet had any Tsunami. LOL. But for Thailand, Sri Lanka and even Japan to have Tsunami from a worldly point of view, for me, it is just a coincident. Other non Buddhist countries like Indonesia and countries in the East Africa also suffered from Tsunami.

From a Dharmic point of view, even Buddhist suffers from bad karma as the majority of practitioners are unattained and had countless past lives when countless negative karma were created. Karma is subtle and is not so simplistic that all Buddhist have good karma this life. Certainly, I think if one do not practice, the karma would probably be worse.

[Q]

The collective karma of a country, I suppose causes calamity. The fact that Buddhist countries get hit by Tsunami is just a mere 'coincidence' as their geological location for these countries (eg Thailand, Japan, Sri Lanka etc) are surrounded by the sea.

Non Buddhist countries also suffer from collective karma, but due to their geological location, they may have it differently... perhaps an earthquake, or tornado.

Regardless of what type of natural disasters that happens to a country... the suffering and damage to the country or particular location is truly devastating... the suffering is the same, just the conditions and method of which the people obtained these sufferings is different.

[Big Uncle]

People often consider prosperity and advance technology to be the results of merits of Dharma practice. Actually, if viewed from the standpoint of karma and the Dharma, wealth, technology and modern conveniences are actually a great hindrance to spiritual practice. This may seem to be shocking to many and some may rebut what I just said by stating that a wealthy person may be able to donate to the dharma and charities.

That is true too but a vast majority of people would not as they are too engrossed with their pleasures and those that do, would just stop at donating and doing little else to further their spiritual practice. It is usually when one has encountered suffering that one would turn to the Dharma. Hence, I would say that Buddhist countries with their problems and all are actually the place of merit and the conditions there encourages its citizens to dwell deeper and to look for solace in spirituality and in cultivating spiritual merits.

[Positive Change]

We cannot base our perceptions on modernism as a benchmark to being "not backward". I believe, in countries that have strong Buddhist foundations, the "need" for materialism is not a priority, which in the eyes of the world may seem as "backward".

The fact that these natural calamities happen in said Buddhist countries could be the fruition of good karma, in the sense some negative karma is exhausted in this lifetime. Is it not better to eliminate these negative karma than to carry it forward into your next life/lives especially when we they have the understanding of Dharma?

This is my view anyway and it is open to debate...

[Matibhadra]

Why are Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka,Thailand and Tibet so ill-fated with tsunami,

While of course tsunami is not the case in Tibet, one should no discount the US program called HAARP, intended at using human-provoked, pseudo-natural catastrophes, as mass destruction weapons.

Let's not forget that the only case in human history where nuclear weapons of mass destruction were used, killing immediately about half million innocent civilians, was against a predominantly Buddhist country, Japan, and by Jewish-controlled US.

Also, US with their carpet bombings and chemical weapons razed predominantly Buddhist countries, such as Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodja, killing millions of Buddhist people in what was arguably the biggest genocide against Buddhists in history.

Again, US is hell bent on invading another Buddhist country, Myanmar (which they call by the colonial name of ”Burma”), and a few years ago tried to use a supposedly natural catastrophe to force the country to accept their military ”help”, a de facto occupation of the country.

It is well know that US tried to occupy Tibet by violence in the 60's, making use of their brutal puppet, the evil dalai, an intent which was frustrated by the Chinese.

Henry Kissinger, a synagogue-going Jew, and the supreme mentor of US world-domination policies, asserted very clearly that the ultimate end is the mass extinction, with the use of unheard of weapons and technologies, of the oriental races, which are predominantly Buddhist.

Therefore, it is not unlikely that man-made explosions caused supposedly natural disasters such as the tsunami which directly hit Buddhist Thailand together with other countries.

and "backward" from the viewpoint of the world.

”Backward” is just a propaganda code for ”non US-complying”. Thus North Korea, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Belarus, Iran, Syria etc. will always be referred by Western war-mongering media as ”backwards”, while brutal tyrannies supporting terrorism worlwide such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar or Israel will be described in friendly ways, and even as ”democracies”.

Even the old Tibet's brutal theocracy is never described by Western propaganda as ”backwards”, but rather as a wonderful ”Shangri-la”, where people lived happily despite being sucked to death by greedy feudal lords. No wonder, since the evil 13th dalai offered as a gift to his Western masters, the British colonizers, a huge chunk of Tibet, known by Tibetans as South Tibet, and nowadays by Indians as ”Arunachal Pradesh”.

I presume,with Buddhist cultivation,we should have more good karma created, and hopefully better well being for all.

As Buddhist, we have the incredibly good karma of being able to receive Buddha's teachings, and thus to attain better rebirths in samsara, and ultimately liberation and enlightenment. We have the wonderful karma of not being possessed by the Abrahamic (Jewish-Christian-Muslim) obsession with world domination. We have the opportunity to understand the hollowness and harmfulness of worldly concerns such as power, money, fame and comfort. Therefore, despite all the Abrahamic defamation, bombs, and even tsunamis, Eastern Buddhists are still much better off than such Western barbaric people.

[Matibhadra]

Why are Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka,Thailand and Tibet so ill-fated with tsunami, and "backward" from the viewpoint of the world.

As a further note, may I remember that, according to Buddhist tradition, the so-called ”Northern Continent” is highly developed as far as material development is concerned, but people living there are materialistic and have little to no interest, and even less opportunities, to practice Dharma -- whereas in the so-called ”Southern Continent”, Jambudvipa, life is more unstable and there is less material development, but it is thre where the Dharma flourishes, and where one enjoys the most favorable conditions to attain better rebirths in samsara, liberation, and full enightenment.

Jews and Christians, specially those of the Pentecostal sects, are fully concerned with achieving pleasure and success merely for themselves and for this life. They reject karma and rebirth, and at best believe in a ”ressurrection” in this same body by the ”end of the days”, if they are subservient enough to their jealous, greedy and violent ”god”. Therefore, it is natural that they are infatuated and obsessed with the minuscule and deceptive power, sucess, and bodily comforts provided by materialistic Western science. Their material success is even seen as a sign of having been ”chosen” by their nepotistic ”god”.

Buddhists, on the other hand, realize that their own happiness is fully dependent on the happiness of others, and thus are mainly interested in the achievement of better rebirths, liberation, and enlightenment for oneself and all the others without an exception. Therefore, while not rejecting, rather meaningfully using, the benefits brought by the outer sciences, Buddhists are not foolishly enthralled by them, and prioritize what really matters, which is the practice of love and compassion for all sentient beings, plus the other steps of the path, up to the union of no-more-learning, or buddhahhod.

Bottom line, instead of feeling disappointed that Buddhist countries may be in a state of material disadvantage -- mainly because of the millenium old and ongoing barbaric, destructive incursions of Jews, Christians and Muslims in such countries, decimating their population and their culture with every kind of weapons, from nuclear bombs to conventional carpet bombings, to chemical weapons, to opium, to forced conversions, to hate propaganda -- one should rather feel thankful and encouraged that the Dharma of the Buddha still remains alive and vibrant in such countries, where excellent Buddha lineages still flourish for the benefit of the whole humankind.

[cookie]

Tsunamis and other natural disasters are commonly called "ACTS of GODS" . Its more accurate to say they are "acts of Gods in retaliation to the acts of humans". Over the centuries and decades mankind has willingly done all they can to reap the Earth of its natural conditions just for selfish short term benefits! These benefits are termed as "progress". With the mind delusion that such "progress" is essential and important, we have in many ways destroyed the Earth's resources and environment and created many negative impacts on the Earth. One of which is clearly all the erratic weather and climatic conditions that we are experiencing now!

Such climatic conditions have happened in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist countries. An example of the occurence of the Tsunami in Japan 3 yrs ago causing the leakage of contaminated radioactive waters into the oceans is an extremely sad phenomena to this day. The disastrous results have certainly not ended yet because there  will be more severe repercussions to come. But the world should note that due to the cultural and strong religious faith in Japan, the people of Japan has shown us immense patience, calm,unity,love and compassion. When one learns the Buddha's teachings and apply them in life especially during challenging times, we can oversome them easier with a calmer mind. Such virtues and mindset developed can be of great example to the whole world !

[kris]

People often consider prosperity and advance technology to be the results of merits of Dharma practice. Actually, if viewed from the standpoint of karma and the Dharma, wealth, technology and modern conveniences are actually a great hindrance to spiritual practice. This may seem to be shocking to many and some may rebut what I just said by stating that a wealthy person may be able to donate to the dharma and charities.

That is true too but a vast majority of people would not as they are too engrossed with their pleasures and those that do, would just stop at donating and doing little else to further their spiritual practice. It is usually when one has encountered suffering that one would turn to the Dharma. Hence, I would say that Buddhist countries with their problems and all are actually the place of merit and the conditions there encourages its citizens to dwell deeper and to look for solace in spirituality and in cultivating spiritual merits.

bravo! I totally agree with Big Uncle that we think the air-conditioning, the TV, the internet is a sign of prosperity, but in contrary, it is very distracting for practicing Dharma. I have been to quite a few so called the "backward" countries, but in general, the people there have more smiles on their face compared to big cities. I can say that they are more happy.

Regarding the tsunami hitting the Buddhist country, the mentioned countries are just coincidence.. one of the badly hit countries is Indonesia, and we all know Indonesia's major religion is not Buddhism.

[lotus1]

I agreed with Q that different countries experience their collective karma in different way. Some are hit by Tsunami, some are hit by earthquake or tornado, some countries has war, while US experience the 911 incident.  Therefore we cannot conclude that the Buddhist countries are so ill-fated with tsunami. No one can escape from KARMA.

I agreed with Big Uncle and Positive Change that we cannot base our perceptions on modernism as “lucky” and “not backward” and have “good karma”. In fact, a lot of people in the modern countries are having a lot of stress, depressions and terminal illnesses such as cancers. Most is having a lot of problem and not happy. In fact, the people in the Buddhist countries have more smiles on their face. The conditions that they have also lead them to practice more on Buddhism to find the ultimate happiness. Isn’t that good karma? 

[Matibhadra]

Regarding the tsunami hitting the Buddhist country, the mentioned countries are just coincidence..

From a Buddhist viewpoint, there is no such thing as ”just coincidence”. The infallibility of cause and effect was stressed by both the Buddha and by Je Tsongkhapa. It also contradicts reason to assert an effect, such as collectively experiencing a tsunami, while denying a corresponding cause.

Of course, this does not mean that Buddhist countries were hit because a majority of people there practice Buddhism, since an unpleasant result cannot be the outcome of a skillful cause. Besides, it is not clear that those people suffering the effect, tsunami, were Buddhist practitioners at the time of the cause, one or several lifetimes before.

Now, a tsunami is known as ”a series of large waves generated by an abrupt movement on the ocean floor that can result from an earthquake, an underwater landslide, a volcanic eruption or - very rarely - a large meteorite strike.”

But, since earthquakes and underwater landslides can definitely be provoked by human action, either intentionally or unintentionally, it follows that the ensuing tsunami may as much be the result of human action, such as an underwater nuclear experiment, aimed or not at provoking the earthquake, or the underwater landslide, and the ensuing tsunami.

Therefore, just to outrightly reject that the specific tsunamis experienced in Buddhist countries may be the result of human action, and that such human action may be intentional, and intentionally aimed at provoking such tsunamis, is just an unwarranted assumption, an unrealistic, dogmatic denial, contradictory with both reason and direct experience.

Besides, considering the history of Jewish-Christian use of weapons of mass destruction, all-razing carpet bombings, drugs such as opium and heroine, systematic defamation by the media, forced religious conversions, military invasion, economic colonization and enslavement, corruption, and so forth, all aimed at terrorizing and decimating Asian, predominantly Buddhist, populations and cultures, it would be just naive and unrealistic to assume that catastrophes, such as tsunamis, could not also be intentionally provoked, and used as weapons against such countries.

Let's not forget that just a few years ago the floods in Buddhist Myanmar (disrespectfully called ”Burma” in colonialist language) were used by US as a pretext for an attempted military invasion of the country, under the cover of a forced ”humanitarian help”.

Also, right now the Philippines are undergoing massive and permanent US military occupation, started under the pretext of ”humanitarian help” after a destructive typhoon and the ensuing floods. While the Philippines are a predominantly Christian country, and already mainly subservient to US interests, the typhoon and the floods came in handy as a pretext for an unheard of, large-scale occupation of the country, specially convenient in the context of the current US ”pivot to Asia”, aimed mainly at militarily encircling and isolating China, the ultimate obstacle to Jewish-Christian apocalyptic world-domination paranoid schizophrenia.

Thus, in relation to the possibility of intentional, human-made catastrophes, as the Italians in their wisdom would say, si non è vero, è bene trovato...

one of the badly hit countries is Indonesia, and we all know Indonesia's major religion is not Buddhism.

Which proves nothing.

[RedLantern]

We need to differentiate between karma and the natural happenings in the world.Less than 10% of the total dead were Buddhist if you take the last tsunami as an example.Less than 15% of the dead were Buddhist
Hurricane Katrina also wreck havoc in a very poor section of America and Pakistan was hit by a horrible earthquake that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
The Buddhists went out to help all,irrespective of race and religion.We cannot equate disasters with religion.Disasters occur impartially,naturally.What is important is how we respond to them,instead of destroying nature further.And how we react to help those affected by disasters effectively and efficiently.

[dondrup]

The people in these regions have collectively created the karma in the past to experience tsunami or other calamities.  They have done something negative in this life which had triggered the negative karma to ripen and hence the tsunami or other calamities.  Whatever good karma or merits that they have created in this life will only ripen later or in the future lives. Every karmic action produces a definite result. Hence the effect of tsunami must be experienced by them unless they had previously purified these negative karma.

[brian]

Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia did not had any Tsunami rite? haha by the way, There are other equivalent disasters happened/happening all through in the rest of the world. So i guess it is not so imbalanced. Just maybe the time is not up yet. 

From a Dharmic point of view, even Buddhist suffers from bad karma as the majority of practitioners are unattained and had countless past lives when countless negative karma were created. Karma is subtle and is not so simplistic that all Buddhist have good karma this life. Certainly, I think if one do not practice, the karma would probably be worse.

[Manjushri]

I suppose the countries that are hit by Tsunamis don't get hailstorms or Typhoons or Hurricanes or Tornados or Earthquakes like some other countries do so there's no difference in karmic consequences when it comes to where these disasters hit. Natural Disasters, are due to geographical placements of the continent/country as well as global warming I feel. Places like New York and Japan are currently being hit by severe snow storms whilst Indonesia is experiencing a volcanic eruption. So how do you compare the karma of these countries? I don't think that because the place has more Buddhist hence creating more good karma will make a difference, because karma doesn't spare anyone regardless of religion. It's all-bearing.

How karma would play a role is your individual karma to be born in that condition/country/situation, where you will be constantly affected by the disaster. Why of all planets and countries, did you take birth in that situation? To me, that would be a bigger factor as opposed to the karma of the country.