Kissinger was a brilliant and very successful statesman who received many awards for his service. By not judging him ill I bring good karma and avoid bad karma. What is one person’s war crime is another person’s heroic act of patriotism. There is no one standard.

In the Hindu and Buddhist traditions our sense of self as separate bodily entities is illusory. It follows that whatever “self” arises through transmigration is also illusory and that karma is a part of that illusory process. In their traditions the illusion is eventually overcome—it has to be overcome—there is no other option.That is totally different than the Christian concept of heaven and hell.

I do not ascribe all the misery of humanity to those in power. IMO we cause our own unhappiness by cultivating untrue thoughts. We are not victims.

I love how Bhuddism always gets brought into religious discussions...

As Napolean said: we need religion in order to keep the poor from killing the rich.

That's a little too simplistic of a definition in my opinion. In my study of buddhism I interpret karma to mean cause and effect, nothing more or less. There may be some sects of buddhism who believe it literally to be a supernatural ethic that makes things "right" but I think this is a misunderstanding of trying to view an eastern philosophy through the color of western cosmology.

What I take from it is that every action has a reaction. Its a newtonian law in advice form. You go around acting in anger and you will invite mishaps and other angry people looking to escalate with you. You get impatient while trying to do something that takes skill and you get clumsy and fuck it up worse. You drive like a jackass and people start brake checking and boxing you in. You leave 3 car lengths of space ahead of you and encourage merging and you have the power to diffuse traffic jams that would have occured before they ever do. All these are examples of karma to me. I don't believe in a metaphysical law of attraction but a very firm chain of cause and effect. People tend to get hoist by their own petard when they put out momentum with negative motives and steamroll themselves, it's no coincidence. Almost a law of nature but it might be self inflicted, who knows? Sociopaths might escape karma but anyone with a conscience doesnt.

Not to say people don't get away with shit sometimes and that they're absolved til later, but in general as a personal policy we should all behave as if karma is true. It just feels good to live that way. Like all psychological or religious theory on how to manage the mind or ethos, it works significantly better if you apply the theory inwardly instead of worrying about calling out anyone else's misdeeds.

I absolutely agree with your theory on how this plays out when it comes to christianity but I don't think buddhism has been a main tool of control for governments. Theyve been shunned by governments, isnt that why the dalai lama was in exile? Historically you had to work really hard to get a guru or a temple to take you in. They werent lookin for converts to control, everyone's free to fuck off n not listen to a word if ya like as far as buddhists are concerned lol.