Expert: Judy - 10/13/2009

Question
"Hello, I wonder if you can help, I am very intrested in buddhism but am a bit confused as I have a son with autism, and not sure if the faith means that because he has a disability it is his own fault as he has done something bad in a past life, could you please help explian this and how buddhas feel about disabilities.

Answer
Hi, Robert,

Thank you for the question.  Buddhism is usually described as a religion believing in fate or more specifically karma (cause and consequence), so that’s how it is understood by general public.  However, if the belief were as simple as a formula or could make everyone in the world understand its essence with one or two definitions or even a lot more words, we would have a different world.

First, I would like to clarify a concept perceived by the majority.  We human beings, before reaching enlightenment, perceive good and bad on their superficial level.  We define good health, good looking, wealth, good luck, and etc as GOOD, whereas pain, difficulty, struggle, and etc as BAD.  However, NOTHING in this world can be defined ABSOLUTELY good or bad, for it all depends on circumstances and time, more specifically what, when, who, whom, and how.

People usually assume that a movie star is happy, for he/she has the look, fame, money, and all everybody can dream of.  All these positive things that a movie star possesses may bring him/her something negative that we cannot experience.  The news broke sometime ago about a doctor-to-be who murdered his roommate was shocking.  A great future laying ahead for this man was taken away overnight.  A good title, an excellent student, a great position is what people assume GOOD and positive.  Who knew that he was using the drug that nobody else could access to to murder his roommate.  He was using the goodness of it in a wrong way.

I know that these examples are kind of far-fetched and uncommon, but my point is NOTHING is ABSOLUTE.  An autistic child is ASSUMED someone not in the norm.  Who can promise that most of us are normal?  We just assume that we are normal.  Yes, in analysis, the majority is normal and in good health.  However, an autistic person has a tremendous ability or abilities that we normal people do not.  Our normal abilities in our normal lives may bring us a lot of conflicts; whereas an autistic person may not encounter what we encounter.  Whose life is better?  Can we be sure about it?  If our normal lives are so great, why are we all have headaches, anger, sadness, injustice, and all the emotional and physical ups and downs?  

In Buddhism, life is an on-going learning process, in which none of us can interpret what and who we are now as what and who we will be tomorrow.  The things we see today as good may not be good tomorrow.  One more silly example, some lottery winners end up bankrupt.  Winning a lottery is assumed to be GREAT.  However, what we see is not what it is.  They have the fate to enable them to utilize their money in a better way.  They’ve got the chance....  However, fate itself is not all mighty or the only thing that control a person’s life, but how a person is utilizing the surrounding, environment, whatever available, and whatever the gifts he/she has, and puts his/her heart to whatever he/she wants to achieve CREATES THE LIFE for himself/herself.

In Buddhism, every life is precious, although none of us is perfect.  We all have blind spots, weakness, and negative sides.  that's why we arrive in this world to learn and improve ourselves.  We were very un-Buddha-like to begin with, as we were angry by crying for not getting candies or toys we wanted and we hit other kids back after being hit, and etc... We are here and grow to learn that we can work with what we have, as long as we are sincere about it.  It does not matter what jobs we have, how smart we are, what abilities we have, we all can be Buddhas one day, if we practice mindfulness and soon our Buddha seeds would sprout.  None of us is better or having greater chance than others.  It all is a matter of time, space, will, effort, consciousness, and an open heart.