they believe that the people who are severly disabled or ill are paying for their sins from a past lifetime. hearing about that seriously angers me to no end. it's sick. what do you people think and how do you feel about it on their belief about reincarnation?

If it helps the western and Eastern views on reincarnation are different but the Western still believes that your previous life decides how you will live your life, but the Spirit chooses the form it wishes to take before conception to learn a specific truth. Which cycle is repeated until the truth is learned.
I personally can't see what is sick about the Buddist point of view, they're sayiong that if you are a bad person in this life in the next one you could come back disabled, once more it is about learning a lesson.
The universe isn't fair, it has no sympathy for weakness so why wouldn't this be true? We do not live in a benevolent universe we live in one that is out to get us in a thousand different ways, and many people seem devoted to making it worse, If it is true I can't see a damn thing anyone can do to change it, if it isn't true why give a damn. And you wont know until you get there so why worry about it?

i view reincarnation as levels of learning how to be an enlightened person, and the lives we're presented with are designed to teach us the lessons we still need to learn...and if we fail to learn them, we're doomed to the endless cycle of death and rebirth...

i don't know what happens if you achieve such an enlightened status...the eastern idealogy of nirvana seems to be a pleasant state?

it supports their belief in karma

That's also the same for Hindus, which Buddhism draws on for its ideas about karma and reincarnation.

Why is it sick? It's simply an explanation for why things are the way they are. It's not necessarily prejudging a person as good or bad, simply that they have a physical manifestation of accumulated karma.

Plus, in Buddhism that's not important. All life is but an illusion. People suffer due to desire, which comes from the constant sense of self.

I'll stop there. I really don't feel like rambling about Buddhism right now...

you should it's an incredible religion and i'd like to know more about it. all i remember besides karma and reincarnation is some random information about buddha's birth (HE WASN'T ACTUALLY FAT GUYS)

He was a travelling beggar, he was probably in better condition than most people. His depicted size was a metaphor for fertility and abundance. It is the same with statues of the Mother goddess and of the love godess, their size is a metaphor for life, being alive and bestowing and spreading it.
You want to know about buddhism go here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

I love fat buddhas, but I think it is only the Chinese laughing monk that is the fat buddha, Thai and Tibetan buddhas tend to have more graceful proportions.

I think it isn't bad to believe in karma thus reincarnation system. But I don't think this should delete all pity or sympathy and compassion for others that are suffering.

Is that...Joey, from that show with the Olsen twins? Freaky.

Anyway, there is a real problem with Buddhism being a religion. It wasn't supposed to be. The Buddha himself was as close to an atheist in that day and age as you could probably find. Praying to the gods would not get you closer to enlightenment, because even though they were gods, they too were stuck in the same cycle of reincarnation. Plus, if you prayed to them, you'd be asking for things which simply reinforced your state of self, thus continuing your suffering.

Quick background of the legend for those who don't know the origins of the Buddha:

Siddartha Gautama was born into the ruling caste in India. As a young man he was your typical spoiled child of high rank. One day while travelling the road from his home to somewhere or another he was exposed to how the other half lived, he witnessed old age, disease, and death, and they bothered him. His father responded by giving him every pleasure he could possibly hope for-- food, music, comforts, women. Yet, with all that he couldn't stop thinking about his own eventual death, and those of others. His current lifestyle was obviously not the way to go.

So Siddartha left his father's palace behind and joined a group of ascetics, monks who practiced self-discipline and self-denial. Long story short, he didn't find what he was seeking with them either, so he departed, and sat down under a tree and meditated. It was there that he found enlightenment. The actual story is a lot more dramatic than this, but I'm summarizing.

Basically, it is the self that leads to suffering, which is the cause of the continual cycle of reincarnation. So Buddhism basically embraces selflessness. Siddartha recognized the following:

1) That everything is impermanent
2) That every action has consequences (hence, karma)
3) Change is possible

The eightfold path of Buddhism is based on these basic facts. The reason that he is called the Buddha (Enlightened One) is because once he achieved this enlightenment, he could have released himself from the world and become one with the cosmos, giving up his self entirely. (No heaven in Buddhism, only nothingness.) Instead, he remained to help others find the path.

Buddhism shouldn't be a religion because you shouldn't be praying to the Buddha and expecting him to answer, as many people do in temples across Asia.

Why not?

The Buddha achieved enlightenment. He's done. He's become one with the cosmos and is beyond caring. Praying to him does nothing but make the person praying feel better, and simply reinforces the illusion that is reality. The thing with Buddhism (which when correctly followed is better considered a philosophy rather than a religion) is that he could only teach the path. It's up to each and every individual to find their own way.

I like the idea. I think that everyone who's spoken have valid points. I believe in this in my own way. My own beliefs include leanings toward Buddhism and Taoism dovetailing with science, so I understand the concept and feel that it makes sense, though perhaps not in the way most people think of reincarnation.

When it comes down to to it, all we've got is based on belief, right? Reincarnation, viewed rather generically, is the vehicle for the route of one's 'soul mission' shall we say. One could be apathetic and say that the idea of living again frees us to be be lazy or cause havoc because we'll get more chances and impermanence, etc. However that is a waste. Make this life count so that next time you are perhaps in a better place with more opportunites. Plus it'll be good to have some enlightened storage to make the ideal of nirvana a little closer at hand

It's hard to swallow that perhaps the disabled etc have got some karmic overdraft but that's due to human sensibility, which ultimately is largely shed in the astral. Although, one could also say that they've just been dealt a bad hand, but that brings us to issues of destiny vs chance, etc. But of course, these people needn't be frowned upon or anything. Just if you oneday end up sick or something you will have to reach a point of acceptance, and finding meaning behind your circumstances is the main way to achieve that.

It's no different than people trying to justify disability through Christian dogma, and coming up with the "You've just been given an extra burden as a test from God," or something similar. I suppose it's easier than trying to accept that you're simply a genetic crapshoot, or that if your mother had taken better care of herself during your pregnancy, you'd be ok, or if only the guy hadn't tried to drink and drive you'd still have working legs, or all the other wonderful realities that result in physical disadvantages.

lol...

Yep, fair enough, it can be compared to any spiritual belief designed to qualm fear, etc etc.
Hey, I was just going with the buddhist sensibility which would provide an explanation similar to that. Reality is an important factor...coloured by personal lenses.

Pick your own explanation. Find some meaning. But acceptance is the ultimate result.