Why do bad things happen to good people?

[waite]

It's been asked on another thread why one might try to manifest something and believe the positive results will come while another may pray for the life of a child and even with the purest heart trying to manifest life, a life is lost.

On a personal level, some things defy logic. A soul level, is a completely different perspective. It has been suggested in spiritual circles that prior to birth we argee with other souls the role we will play in each others lives. On a personal level the death of a loved one, especially a child brings great grief and we ask why. It makes no sense.

Beyond the personal, it could be the soul path of that child was to come here and teach another to love or to grieve. The purpose has been achieved.
Perhaps a new soul incarnates in the body of a child, and they have chosen to just touch the human experience briefly.

Some souls choose to come to earth on vacation and have an easy life, others choose to work through karma. What we attract varies. It depends on what we decided we wanted to experience and work through in this life before we incarnated.

However, this is not a view point that everyone agrees with. Consider, as you ponder this concept, what belief system are you viewing the concept from, and what vantage point do you take. Does how you see things change when you look from your personal self versus if you imagine being detached from your human experience and try to see through the eyes of your soul?

[valerie]

"Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"
quoting Blake's Companion poems,particularly,"The Tyger"
Beowulf,ballads, tales,novels songs, movies...bad & good ado not discrimminate.
We are all victims and initiators
                Being an agnostic,all that you said above,Waite, is too stuctured for me.
I have fluctuated from positive to negative and discovered that positive has yielded me better results. It is as simple as that.
                    Life is a mystery and the human composition of this planet ranges from___ to___. ?

[Panthera2]

Because a good person does not equate a positive person a lot of the time.

Also, to pray, want, wish don't really mean anything. To believe, to see and to live it is the key. To quote Arnold S - 'You have to make a goal and then go after it, and if you do not SEE it and you do not BELEIVE it...who else will?'

This may be a bodybuilding quote, but it goes for general life too. You cannot create what you cannot see, you must be able to percieve it first, to believe it can be done.

[Panthera2]

I'm posting from phone so have to break it up into sections...

Anyway, so I wouldn't go up to an architect and say 'build me a house' if I can't provide the blueprint or plans for it etc. You must be able to see it first in order to create it. Wanting, wishing is not enough and never has been. You must live it, see it in your mind, feel it etc. Just my thought on it.

I know good people who are negative, they worry a lot, they fear a lot. Bad can happen to positive people but the response changes.   

[JuicyCrone]

I think it's because we have to have dark to balance the light; we have to have bad to balance the good; in our lifetime(s) we need to experience everything - all the emotions, all the feelings physical and mental, to make us whole/rounded human beings/souls.

In some ways I look on bad stuff as a challenge/a test (not necessarily a test of faith, but a test of me as a person).  When bad things happen to me I accept that they do, and that I can deal with them, and that it is just the other side of the coin.

Today I heard that my friend's mother-in-law died this morning - she had cancer, but was expected to have much longer to live - she was what I would describe as a lovely, beautiful human being - why did she have to die - why did she have to suffer so much pain - why are her family and friends now suffering the pain of losing her - they are all good people.  All I can come up with is "just because" - sometimes it just is what it is - random and chance.  Sometimes there is no reason - unless you accept that all is part of some cosmic plan, of course - in which case we are not meant to know the reason.

I don't know what to believe other than, as I said, shit happens to good people and sometimes bad people get roses - it's just Life.

[Evan]

I'm not sure I believe in the law of attraction and manifestation as it only sometimes works. Sometimes things happen because that is what was meant to happen because it was a way to learn and grow and mature and move onto the next life. We live forever we just get another chance at life so it is ongoing on the spiritual path to die and be reborn.

[Fabulous FireHorse]

shit happens

True! 

[valerie]

JC  says it all for me  sun/moon, opposites exist good/evil,hot /cold and as humans it is our job to reconcile those opposites

[Biz]

Because a good person does not equate a positive person a lot of the time.

And if it didn't, it wouldn't ensure only pleasant experiences one's entire life. I reckon even a lot of advocates of positive thinking and law of attraction are fully aware that even being 100% positive 100% of the time won't bring only good to you ever. And if they don't I think they're in denial about some huge parts of life. And actually that's the particular place where I'm very anti some new age schools of thought which focus on only good, only peace. Those ideas are very, very dualistic, and I think they're unhealthy. They're also a very good way to accidentally convince people that if bad comes to them, that it's their fault. (i.e. a not uncommon thing in new age seems to be people ending up believing if they become ill it's their fault. Notions of blame are never helpful.)

All things have a shadow side. You acknowledge the good, the bad, the darkness and the light, and you're living in balance and seeing life as it is. Most spiritual systems that I resonate with eventually come down to the idea that all things are connected, i.e non-dualistic. I'm not keen on unnecessary pessimism, but I find denial equally unhelpful. Also, though I've used the terms myself I think terms like 'good' and 'bad' are essentially flawed. Most of us are relative mixtures of all sorts of different attributes, which tend to manifest in relation to our life experiences. Plus 'good' and 'bad' characteristics are hugely determined by a particular society, era, culture and as such are incredibly subjective.

Plus, grim as it may be, we have to experience death, which is probably most of our biggest fear within our own shadows. It's as much a part of our life cycles as life itself. One of the ways we cause even more huge amounts of pain and confusion in our modern Western world is by refusing to fully acknowledge death.

[JuicyCrone]

^agree with this.  Particularly with what you say about blame, and the striving for 100% positivity. Where is the balance in that?  No-one is to blame for the current cr@p that I am having to deal with - it is just something that is happening - and it will be resolved, and maybe there will be different cr@p or maybe there will be something joyful.  But I am just accepting that this is how it is, and doing what I  can to meet the challenges.  Yes I could try and be all happy clappy and positive-thinky about it, but to me that is so very tiring to maintain, and frankly I find people who do that very exhausting to be around and very annoying and judgemental.

I also agree with you about the denial and negativity around death.  Death comes to us all, and I think it is sad that in general it is thought of as a "bad" thing, something to be avoided, never talked about except in whispers, feared and to put off for as long as possible.  For some people death is actually a very positive thing - an end to suffering for some.

In past times the body of the dead person would be on view for family/friends etc to come and pay respects - small children were encouraged to see the body and say their goodbyes, children attended funerals and were part of the rite of passage that death is.  Nowadays I think that fewer people have actually every seen a dead body, and certainly I don't think it is encouraged; it is rare certainly in my family for children to attend funerals - they are shielded from death.  The first family funeral I attended was my Dad's - I was 44; I wasn't allowed to attend any of my grandparents' funerals - the last one being when I was 15 - we were protected from that.  Consequently until I actually saw someone die, and saw that it was gentle and peaceful (although I know that is not always the case), for me it was a terrifying unknown.

I do think we should acknowledge all aspects of life and death as part of the same cycle, and I hope that when my time comes I will be ready and will look on it as just another experience in the general scheme of things.

[Evan]

Panthera2 you deleted again? why???

[Evan]

I also agree with you about the denial and negativity around death. 

I can't wait to get into the afterlife, in fact I am trying to this w/e while still alive. 

[valerie]

another angle...sometimes bad things lead to better things.  One door closes and that may seem painful, but another one opens making unexpected improvements

[JuicyCrone]

^yes, this.  Something ends, inevitably something else begins, and takes its place; sometimes it's something better, sometimes not, but it will be different.

[valerie]

you can also say,"why do good things happen to bad people?"  The Bush famil gets wealthier by the minute. If you see a company that produces ed. material that says Pearson> the Bush family. They re-invented education so they could produce software. I saw Pearson boxes filled with ed. material in London on Neal Street somewhere. They steal elections & create scenarios that enable them to overtake & get wealthy.
                  Jeb Bush has orchestrated a marital move for himself so his son can run for President  & win because many people support their own kind.  We will have a 60%  Spanish population,minimum, by the time his son is eligible for President. In Bush's  young adult time, it was extremely incommon for a man to marry outside his ethic group,especially for affluent W.A.S.P. s.  Try being English,Irish, French and getting into this country to live...very hard. Have a Hispanic background & it is much easier

    The Bush family has orchestrated their megalomania for years. Someday search dor Barbara Bush's famous quote after Hurricane Wilma. This is one truly evil family