There is Nothing to Fix
Some aspects of Buddhism can sound horribly callous and cruel on their face. A strict reading of Buddhism and karma suggests that babies who die of brain cancer brought that karma with them from a previous lifetime. Why that is any more callous and cruel than any other explanation is not at all clear. Robina Courtin says she did not have to learn to be angry. She brought anger with her from a previous lifetime and was angry from as early as she could remember. We know all humans are born with certain propensities, so why karma is at all offensive is not obvious.
Also, to say there is nothing to fix may seem terribly callous, since lots of people suffer horribly on the earth right now. I don’t know that the Buddha said exactly that, but given the suggestion that the non physical components of the Buddha’s being dissipated into space, that he literally became light after his body ceased to function, and that he was awake in the sense that he knew that would happen to him, we can suggest also that his perspective, after he awakened, was universal in a very literal sense. As I like to point out, after he awakened, the Buddha became a teacher, not an activist. Throughout the recorded history of India, its society has included “dalits,” or untouchables, a status that is like a slave, but worse in some ways. Like slaves in the United States, persons acquired the status by birth and had no chance to change it…
