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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Community-Based Research

2018

Rebirth

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Getting Sick Where Karma Is Gravity: Disease In The Tibetan Perspective, Moreau Hadley Apr 2018

Getting Sick Where Karma Is Gravity: Disease In The Tibetan Perspective, Moreau Hadley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Karma is the Buddhist idea that our actions from current and previous lives affect our fortune in this life. In particular, if we suffer in the current life, it is due to negative action in the past. Likewise, if we prosper, it is due to past positive acts, such as compassion. The idea of karma extends to illness; in simplification, sickness is attributed to negative past action.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the belief of karmic disease in the Tibetan Buddhist community of Shangri-La. Although disease is often used as an example of karmic suffering, and there …