[Buddha-l] RE: Problems with karma

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Bob wrote,

> I teach karma as an important part of early Buddhism, but I personally 
> do not
> consider it essential to Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist ethics.
> It just seems to be wishful pre-scientific thinking.

Though I agree with you about the pre-scientific roots of karma, I bet 
that you, like Max Weber and me, have to admire its wonderful, 
insulated beauty as an explanatory theory.

"The most complete formal solution of the problem of theodicy is the 
special achievement of the Indian doctrine of karma, the so-called 
belief in the transmigration of souls. The world is viewed as a 
completely connected and self-contained cosmos of ethical 
retribution... Only Buddhism has deduced from the doctrine of the 
transmigration of souls its ultimate consequences." (Max Weber, _The 
Sociology of Religion_, p145-147, Beacon Press, Boston, 1953)

Franz