Culture
My name is Aliya. How are you? I have always wondered why people belong to different cultures and why all people cannot be one culture. My question is, does karma determine what culture you should be? For example, why is one person Italian and not Spanish? Do you have to learn some lessons for being that particular culture? Or are certain cultures higher than others and your soul has to achieve them? Thank you, I greatly appreciate it.
Nagapriya responds:
Well Aliya, I don’t know about you but I would find the world a very dull place if everyone did belong to the same culture. Indeed, the monoculture that seems to be increasingly prevalent in the world is distinctly unappetizing in my view. People are deeply habitual, which means they tend to follow the patterns of behavior and experience they have always done. If people are reborn, then it would make sense that they would be reborn in the same culture, speaking the same language, possibly even in the same village and family, as they were before. However, we must beware of thinking of some unchanging personality that is re-embodied life after life; this would contradict the basic Buddhist position of anatman (no fixed soul).
I won’t comment on whether or not some cultures are ‘higher’ than others; however, many Buddhist traditions believe that specific times and cultures are more auspicious for practicing the path towards awakening. For instance, to be born at a time where the Dharma (Buddha’s teaching) is available, and where it is possible to practice it, is seen as a supremely precious opportunity not to be wasted.
