Karma?

[JKParticipant]

Karma is one of those things I would like to believe in, but I really don´t think I do. After working with some of the people I worked with and seeing the crap that happened to people that did nothing to deserve it (esp. kids and babies) and knowing the amount of assholes around that get to live to a ripe old age in decent health I just can´t say convincingly that I believe in karma.

[NadineParticipant]

Karma is just another pattern that we pattern-obsessed humans have thought up. It doesnt exist outside of ourselves, unless, like Rainbow mentions, we act ‘badly’ and that behaviour brings ‘bad’ consequences.
If someone treats me badly, I just have to hold my chin up and know that I hold myself to higher standards than they do. I can only control myself.

[Addie PrayParticipant]

is this really a discussion? i mean, people believe this crap? shitty things happen to everyone. for example, i can no longer park my car in the parking garage because the dumb idiot woman who works there forbid it. what the *hell* am i supposed to do with my car?! yet, i’m such a good person it hurts. see?

[katieParticipant]

so here is an interesting thought about a “punishment” we think of- death.

what if death is the ultimate reward? what if those wonderful people who all of us know who have died- car accidents, cancer, as children, ect… what if that IS a reward in itself? what if the real punishment is having to live as a human?

ohhh deep thoughts. deep deep thoughts.

[Addie PrayParticipant]

no because i know assholes who have died.

[LauraParticipant]

Ok so, really I’m just posting because I want to be post #10,000. Hopefully, that will give me good karma or something

[MackenzieLeeParticipant]

I strongly disagree with the idea that karma and death are at all connected. I believe that are two completely different entities. However, I do believe that there is karma. I think it works in small ways.

I also think any connection between money and karma is ridiculous. More money is not at all connected with more happiness. I have to find the exact study, but there was one a few years ago that found past the amount of money needed to live a life of non-poverty extra money was in no way associated with more happiness (it might have even been negatively associated). Bringing consumerism into this spiritual notion is another overextension.

[FabelleParticipant]

I’m a cynical person so I want to say that I don’t believe in karma…but my actions would suggest that I do? I’ve done some shitty stuff, & part of me always believes that negative energy will come back to me. Like, to use a minor issue as an example, I always feel bad calling out of work–when I’m not sick– because I feel as if I’ll ACTUALLY get sick. (Is that karma, or “tempting fate”? There’s kind of an overlap)

I also agree with @ColorsOfTheWind that money isn’t a good indicator for this kind of thing– like, “Oh, that guy has commit horrible crimes, yet he’s still making millions of dollars per year as CEO.” You can ask where JUSTICE is without dismissing the notion of karma. Maybe he’s suffering in his mind, or in some other intangible way.

I like what @Nadine said, as well– that karma is “another pattern that we pattern-obsessed humans have thought up.” That could very well be true, & probably is. The fact that we’re all discussing this, despite having various levels of belief, is evidence.

[dandywarholParticipant]

Yeah I agree with most of you guys. All very good points
I just don’t understand why people will say “Oh, karma will get him/her/whoever hurt you!” Because wouldn’t saying that give you bad karma anyway? Ahhhh so many thoughts haha. I think you have the right idea, Nadine. A thought process so we can understand life better. Hmmm.

[BradParticipant]

dadny, I don’t think karma works on a transaction type basis. Meaning that if you say push someone on the ground your karmaic punishment is a bird shitting on your windshield 2 days latter. I don’t think that’s how it works. I think the principle is more about things being set in motion. Nadine hit on it earlier. It’s more of a thing that consistently doing bad things is going to eventually catch up to you. Think about a serial killer. Most of them are good enough at it that if they had stopped after the first few kills they probably would have gotten away with it, but they kept killing and eventually left enough clues to get themselves caught. I think this principle applies to life overall. Your chances of negative things happening to you increases the more you do bad things/set bad things in motion. You can easily have good things happen along the way (or bad things happening to a good person in the reverse case) but I think the scale will be balanced in the end.

[CatsMeowParticipant]

I don’t believe in karma, or anything, really.

However, my abusive ex broke his neck and now he’s paralyzed. He can’t really hurt anyone now, at least not as easily as he could before. Some people tell me that’s karma. I really don’t think he “deserved” that as punishment or anything, though. I just think it’s something that happened because he was stupid (he got drunk and dove into the shallow end of a pool).

[dandywarholParticipant]

I like that take, Brad. I feel like people believe in karma to feel better about the crappy sitautions they deal with.
This is why I love these kind of discussions, I get to hear lots of interesting viewpoints

[rainbowParticipant]

I agree with ColorsOfTheWind about death and money being unconnected to karma, and about money being a pretty shallow way of measuring a good karmic ride. Also living a long life and not having any illnesses is overrated too, I think. I don’t believe it makes such a huge difference in how much happiness you feel.

I also think we have to separate random tragedy from consequences. Random tragedies occur to everybody, they’re part of being human, they’re even a way of keeping our numbers under control. I don’t believe those have anything to do with being good or bad, they just happen.

But 90% of what makes people’s lives worse is not a huge tragedy that happened just because, is the little things, consequences connected. And I do believe those who are kind to people have much less of the last group. And when I say kind, I mean also to yourself, since you’re people too. You can’t expect to hate, distrust or dislike yourself and get good things in return, no matter how many orphans you feed to fill the void.

Ok, now that I think about it maybe I don’t believe in Karma, but in logic and great design.

[rainbowParticipant]

@CatsMeow: I was about to say “Really? How cool is that?!” but then I thought it might be a bit much, let’s go with “that’s… interesting”.

[rainbowParticipant]

*you don’t use “occur” in that way, right? As a synonym for “happen”. We do. Just make the substitution it in your minds when you read my post.

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