Because of causes, effects happen and it is also known as Karma (fate).

To explain how it works in a nut shell; if one has been doing bad deeds/actions throughout one’s life, bad karma will be accumulated and when one dies, one’s fate is more or less pre-destined.

In Burmese traditional belief, the process of reincarnation is waiting for a dying soul unless it has earned enlightenment to escape from the cycle of reincarnation. A creature is believed to be reborn into one of the 31 different tiers of the world: earth bound great apes (human), animals, heavenly angels, hellish demons, etc… Generally speaking, one whose bad Karma outweighs its good Karma will be reborn as a creature in low tiers of the world, while on the other hand who did good things in life may end up in relatively better tiers of the world, as human or heavenly angels.

Likewise, believers of other monotheist religions also believe in heavenly angels keeping track of one’s actions for final Judgment Day.

In the final moments of a creature’s lifetime, before it is dead either by accident or of normal ageing process, Burmese folks traditionally believe that whatever one did in life are expected to come back and haunt the dying man. It is purely one’s conscience (guilt complex) that keeps track of one’s deeds and those actions are replayed like a flash back in the very last seconds of one’s life. The considerate conscience will play a big role, one may feel or experience effects caused by his direct or indirect actions caused to others.

The simplified decision making process of destiny of one’s next reincarnation can be explained like an honours system (one’s merit is partly graded by oneself and own judgment in addition to examinations). In such a system, self judgment and conscience (guilt complex) might play a significant role determining one’s destiny (reincarnation). For example, let’s say a ruling king had ordered to sacrifice some human beings as sacrificial lambs as part of traditional rituals for building big projects, dams or roads. When he dies he might still think that he is a good king who did good and right things throughout his life, and so he may die peacefully without his guilt complex engine working to its full extent. And he may be reborn into decent upper tiers of the world. It may seem unfair, especially for those grieving families of the scarified citizens. But one should not be worried. The king is just using deferred payment scheme discussed earlier. The Karma will make it a fair play eventually, and payback times for those kings are unavoidable. And Hell is usually full of bad kings.

If one were to be able to make a guided tour of Hell like the king Tay Mi Min did in legends, one might see all great kings of all races and nations suffering, screaming. crying and crowding in hell. One should not be surprised to see many Burmese Kings serving their pay back time, serving their hell term, for various sins they committed during their reigns in the past.

Since Burmese folklore believe that imprisonment, abusing and killing poor helpless citizens will not buy the abusing tyrant a mansion or palace in heaven but will just secure a fast track to hell, one could claim that the traditional Burmese belief is fully compatible with modern liberalism. One will have to pay back for one’s bad karma or bad deeds.

I sincerely wish this article will provide readers with some thought provoking.