Buddha controversy

Will there ever be justice?

In some very direct words of the Buddha:

"I have killed all of you before.
I was chopped up by all of you in previous lives.
We have all killed each other as enemies.
So why should we be attached to each other?"

I have to admit learning that the founder of Buddhism, Siddartha himself, said this, was a bit surprising for me to discover.

I must say I disagree.

If I am to agree with past/future lives, and being reborn/born again, or reincarnation, I would have to couch the whole deal within the context of a single lifetime. In other words, people experience conversions and epiphanies and satori and whatnot, or undergo a ritual, or have a life-altering experience, and start anew/fresh. Psychology is weird. People can join a cult, and wear new clothes, and change their hair...Some people can even forget their pasts. So this is how I interpret "previous lives." You can be a Christian who is "born again", or you can be reborn with every new day, for example. Anyway, the Buddha sounds like a dick. Attachments may sometimes cause suffering, but that doesn't mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater. I believe in the possibility of finding soul mates (even if I don't believe in souls). I also believe in the value of attachments to family, friends, even country, race, or humanity as a whole, if not all of nature. Yes, we will all die. But I feel I would be less than human if I did not feel some kinship, and clinging to our precious life, and thus mourn loss. I understand, though, if you're enlightened and hard, or whatever, though, accepting all (with a smile, of course).

No, we have not all killed each other before. That's just plain obvious to me. The population keeps increasing, for one. The total of all the people ever killed...I don't think that equals the current human population. Maybe I'm wrong. Who cares. Buddha was nuts.

Maybe, in the interests of justice, Buddhists believe we should lock everyone up? Or, even worse, consider it proper karma for all of humanity to die (capital punishment)?

Read my next post, for the answer (above).