Do you believe in Karma?

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I am reluctantly weighing in on this, as a spiritual person and as a Buddhist:
the law of karma is well stated above by EvilKimEvil, and commented well by Sinsboldly. People who do not understand Karma use such descriptions as "whatever you do comes back 3 times as powerful", or "I just helped that person out, so that must mean good karma for me', etc. In this instance of usage of the term, I'm right there with Mw99.

All Karma is amounts to cause and effect. If you throw a pebble in a pond, it creates ripples on the surface. If you watch, though your pebble has only affected a tiny area of the pond in and of itself, the ripples reach the entire pond.

If I am in a message board, and Mw99 strolls in, slaps a fist down on a table (posts something with apparant anger), the immediate result is a sound. Some hear the sound and are in a bad mood, and, interpreting the sound as an expression of anger, are thereby affected for the rest of the day by the ripples of that anger. Perhaps some hear the sound (read the post) and interpret the sound neutrally, and are affected by the same ripples in an altogether different manner. The main thing is: a happened, which caused b to happen, which in turn becomes a cause of its own, causing c. That is a very simplistic description. Nothing is that linear.

What karma is NOT is, as Mw99 says, a feel good fairy tale for vindictive sissies hungry for exultance, and I agree. Except that, when it is described that way, that's exactly what, to that person, it is. Karma was never taught in the manner that most Westerners perceive it, which is the whole feel good fairy tale thing. It was taught as the simple cause and effect thing, so that people would try to aim for beneficial acts (note absence of the word 'good'), and abstain from harmful ones. Beneficial acts, depending on the effect they cause when their ripples reach a certain part of the human pond, may have very harmful consequences. It all depends on so many circumstances no one can possibly begin to anticipate them all.

This is my view, as a Buddhist, and should not be taken as gospel (no pun intended).

Karma also pertains to how your past lives also affect your present one.

Perhaps in your past life you were Adolf Hitler, and now you are re-living a life you had before; except maybe now, you are a larvae of a dung beetle. And now by chance, because it is rarer, you were like Mother Teresa. Like, by some divine right, you are now a chihuahua transported exclusively by Miss Paris Hilton, including hot pink tote bag with speghetti straps, tofu doggy biscuits, and cans of supreme russian cavier with a twist-off lid.

But seriously, this is really how karma works. You mustn't forget the theory of metempsychosis, if you are a buddhist.

Ha Ha Ha, I can't believe I wrote this. I wasn't meaning to be asinine.

Last edited by Averick on 25 Jan 2008, 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'll believe it once Halliburton's cronies known as the White House expose their atrocities and become the lizards they stole from.

Do I believe in Karma?

In a way, you do get back what you give. If you call people nasty names, they wont like you...if you are kind to your neighbours, they will like you. Karma? well, until I have proof, then no.

You have a very simplified western idea of Karma.

Karma means action. Karma implies consequences. Karma is cause and effect.

There are some religious doctrines of Karma that are based on cosmic justice and reincarnation - but this is only one set of ideas about Karma. Those are faith-based, often conflicting with each other. But they are not at the root of the concept of karma.

There are hundreds of specific types of karma described in Indian thought. Some of these (like pancha karma, the five actions) are medical treatments that involve particular karmas/actions (sweating, purging, fasting, etc).




Karma does not mean that the victims of crimes deserve to be victimized because of something they did ten years ago to someone else - nor does it mean that people with birth defects are that way because they liked to step on bugs in a previous life (although some fatalists might believe that).

Everyone gets what they deserve. You get what you give. It's very true. When you have more life experiences that involve people screwing other people, you'll see it. I see it all the time.

As I understand it, this is Satan's world. That's why you see the innocent punished and the guilty rewarded.

Maybe we should all join the Karma Police!!...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ay699qcSb4[/youtube]

In the way that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people? Yes. As a law? No. Frankly, I'm more likely to ponder why good things happen to the worst people ever.

I would say that is a fair statement, although I am not sold on the idea of an actual secular being called satan existing. I'd say "satan" was merely a part of all people and all creatures. It's an inner nature bred into us by our environment over a long period of time. Consciousness is a vessel to rise over this, something unique to humans. However one must strive for consciousness, many in fact most people believe they are conscious but few really are. Mind over nature.