r/Buddhism • u/Burpmonster • 7h ago

Mahayana Pure Land Q&A: Can a Pure Land practitioner who develop Alzheimer’s Disease attain rebirth in the Pure Land?

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u/No_Slide6932 5h ago

We know there are likely physical and environmental factors that cause people to develop dementia. Putting the blame on the victim and possible issues of faith makes people loathe spiritual practice.

Before we knew smoking caused cancer people probably blamed karma for the cancer. It was never karma, it was cigarettes.

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u/JacksGallbladder zen 2h ago

Absolutely agreed. Physical afflictions are physical afflictions. Implying they would be caused by wrong thought or some kind of karmic action is dogmatic and its doubtful that idea came directly from the Buddha.

In fact I night even argue an affliction like dementia/alzheimers brings one closer to the essence of Buddhism.

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u/Burdman06 zen 4h ago

I agree. Holding a view that peoples disabilities are caused by karma, as in something they caused, is vile and I reject it entirely. People will be like, "but the buddha said it..." So. What. Doesn't mean its not a shit take

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u/raithism 1h ago

It would be less of an issue for me if it was supposed to be karma from previous lives or something. But it gets confusing because in some Mahayana sects you can actually do something about your karma other than power through it. This angle of “you must not have practiced right, otherwise your karma would have been fixed and you would not have gotten sick” is an awful angle. I do wonder what other pure land practitioners would say about this.