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Let's talk about karma!
16 years ago
General
When people talk about karma they'll often refer to it as "getting what you deserve". The idea most people have is that through our actions we will receive things that either reward good actions or punish bad actions. If someone does something we see as negative, especially towards us, we seem to hope that they'll receive divine retribution in some form.
This is of course the popular culture notion of what karma is.
The definition according to wikipedia: is the concept of "action" or "deed" in Indian religions understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called saṃsāra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies.
According to Buddhist teachings: the law of karma, says only this: `for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.' A skillful event is one that is not accompanied by craving, resistance or delusions; an unskillful event is one that is accompanied by any one of those things. (Events are not skillful in themselves, but are so called only in virtue of the mental events that occur with them.)
This second interpretation gives us a clearer picture of what karma is and how it relates to our actions. It describes an action not as being good or bad but as skillful or unskillful. You can perform good or things you perceive as good unskillfully if your motivations for doing so are based on craving, resistance or delusions. The response to such an act does not also need to be an external event as we often believe but can just as easily be an internal event. If we unfairly focus our anger on someone we may suffer an external negative or we may suffer an internal one, such as damage to our heart from the stress.
Often karmic reward is seen as something that may eventually happen. However since karma describes a process it in fact begins taking place from the moment of our action. Karmic response is thus immediate and appropriate to how we behave. Though we should not assume that only our outside actions bear karma, so too do our thoughts and feelings.
Karma is perpetual, all pervasive and above all completely fair.
This is of course the popular culture notion of what karma is.
The definition according to wikipedia: is the concept of "action" or "deed" in Indian religions understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called saṃsāra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies.
According to Buddhist teachings: the law of karma, says only this: `for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.' A skillful event is one that is not accompanied by craving, resistance or delusions; an unskillful event is one that is accompanied by any one of those things. (Events are not skillful in themselves, but are so called only in virtue of the mental events that occur with them.)
This second interpretation gives us a clearer picture of what karma is and how it relates to our actions. It describes an action not as being good or bad but as skillful or unskillful. You can perform good or things you perceive as good unskillfully if your motivations for doing so are based on craving, resistance or delusions. The response to such an act does not also need to be an external event as we often believe but can just as easily be an internal event. If we unfairly focus our anger on someone we may suffer an external negative or we may suffer an internal one, such as damage to our heart from the stress.
Often karmic reward is seen as something that may eventually happen. However since karma describes a process it in fact begins taking place from the moment of our action. Karmic response is thus immediate and appropriate to how we behave. Though we should not assume that only our outside actions bear karma, so too do our thoughts and feelings.
Karma is perpetual, all pervasive and above all completely fair.
I still feel guilty from time to time for something I did in 3rd grade. I wasn't punished for it, and my parents never found out, but I still think about it from time to time. I'd consider that guilt to be karma for that action. Even as a result of a negative deed, I think the guilt is a positive thing because it urges me not to make similar mistakes again.
Ruh huh!
Your "karma" will heap upon you what you project outward.
If you are loving and generous, you will recieve love and compassion from everyone around you. So there is no mystical force rewarding you, you are simply reaping the benefits or judgements of your own making.
Or maybe there is a mystical force out there. How else can we explain Giraffes? :)
<shoots self for pun>
OHHHHH SNAP!
;)
Or maybe there is a mystical force out there. How else can we explain Giraffes? :)
I believe giraffes are the animal reign's snappy awnser to trees thinking that growing high will make them avoid their fate of getting all their leaves munched to death.
If you tend to be negetive towards others, not just in action but in disposition, you'll tend not to get possitive effects from others. There is a co-worker I've been with for awhile, and things at work havn't been as splended as they used to be, he's taken a turn for the worse and generally never ceases to slam the company we work for. As a result I just don't care to hang around him anymore as while I have my own disposition while not negetive about work, just becomes sour in general.
So the effect is two-fold in that others are detracted from him, and that in turn while I'm being effected by his person in a negetive manor.
I doubt there really is some cosmic force dictating Karma, but I think the above description does make more sense. Although I am also curious as to how intention can effect the outcome of your actions as well. I think a lot of people can attest that when they've done something in spite that it never comes out the way they intended. Could it be a lack of skill, that good intentions will increase the probably of something turning out as it should? (Or did I misunderstand your intentions entirely?) Anger could be attributed to a lack of focus though, at least in some individuals, and how much emotion effects your actions or your appearance (to others, for lack of better description).
And while I think it's related, I don't beleive in a universal 'Good' and 'Evil'. My similarlly named characters acctually have a different purpose in mind, but I could discuss that another time.
The Universe does not care about us; It is neither malicious nor generous. It simply, IS. - Shujin Tribble, after the death of Fujin Tribble
This is one of my underlying theories as to why Christianity has been so problematic, even in its conception: people are doing good for "God's will" and to make it into heaven, not because they genuinely want to do good. It leads to misinterpretation and corruption.
Innocent intent would be more similar to doing something good because it seems like it's good, because all your life you've been taught it was good without any understanding of the goodness of that act.
A couple friends of mine and I sat down late one night and discussed causality and nattered on till the wee hours of the morning. The universe seeks equilibrium, energy dissipates and has been doing so since the superforce (weak nuclear interactions, strong nuclear interactions, electromagnetism, and gravity), busted apart shortly after the big bang. If you want to reduce reality to an quantifiable equation, we're all in it. This is why I hate it when people say "We're insignificant." Because without you, the equation is broken; everything you do, no matter how "insignificant" is action within the equation that only multiplies against itself, and the actions of others. To use a cliche, Ripples in a virtually frictionless pond. So flap your wings little butterfly, you may not live to witness the tsunamis you create, but they will happen.
Now... to be the devil's advocate here; I could try to expend energy that I deem positive in the equation (I occasionally buy the coffee the person ahead of me in the Tim Horton's drive through, it's cheap, and I assume it makes the person happy). I'm making an assumption that the energy I'm expending will result in a positive result (dude is pleasantly surprised, and has a very slightly better day). If the Grand Unification Theory is mostly correct, my expendature, no matter how small, will create a cascade effect (He tells his friends that some guy bought his coffee for him as a kind gesture - his friends perhaps do the same at some point, perhaps it comes back to me one day and my coffee is paid for by a kind stranger). However... In the coffee example, I'm assuming that what I deem a good gesture is what the person I'm buying coffee for also deems a good gesture. For all I know, this guy has a complex about paying for his own stuff - maybe he's upset, has a slightly worse day and on the drive to work, drives a slightly more aggressively, and accidentally runs a family of three in a minivan off the highway? Of course I'm summing things up on a short-term scale here as an example.
So, we have choice, and we don't. Doing nothing is doing something. We are creatures bound by destiny, and masters of our own fate, and all we can do about it is do. </opinion> :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_.....ication_theory
Con artists are an example of people that do their best to isolate themselves from the actions to prevent being treated like they deserve.
karma is very debatable in the sense of how far do you take the teaching and thus different views can ensue just like religion
very interesting though, i never actually decided to look at what karma actually meant! and now i know.... "waits for the weird rainbow shooting star*
Either Karma pure and simple doesn't work or I have some MASSIVE savings for the hereafter.
And since this whole karma thing doesn't much seem to like me, I guess I should probably try sticking with something practical in terms of philosophy... something reliable and trustworthy, like the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition:
Rule #285 - No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
The again, I'm not much the greedy sort either. Grawrf! >x.x<
Y'know, winning is a lot easier when you know what the rules of the game are... that way you know where to try and get away with stuff! ^-^
...and what sucks the MOST is that it's true!
BTW: Sorry I've been so quiet the past two years. I've got THAT MUCH catching up to do on friends' and admired artists' art. Hopefully I'll be getting that taken care of soon. Hopefully.