How would you explain karma?

Gaer

Gaer

"Angel whisperer"
Location
New Mexico U.S.A.
Do you understand karma?
Many people on the Forum have said they don't understand karma.
Not a teacher but i'll try to explain my impression of it.
This is my explanation of it, if it helps.


A person's actions rebound to him from all fields of creation.
if you have done harm to someone, that harm will return to you
from the innumerable strata of all nature and for uncountable
lengths of time. In the same way, if you do good to others,
karma will return to you in the same way.

Being is in the absolute while karma is the instrument by which the
cycle of creation, evolution, and dissolution is going through constantly.
We are subject to this force of karma because we exist in relative existence.
So, Karma keeps us bound in linear time, space and causation.

So, This would come down to discriminating between right and wrong
and sending this into the atmosphere in correct thought, words and action.
Any action performed has a reaction on the person doing the action.
if I say something cruel, it goes to the wall to produce an influence,
and returns to me. then it goes to the house next door and back to me,
then to the mountainside and back to me, to the moon and back to me.
Get where i'm going?
Each vibration takes longer and longer to return so I can feel the repercussions of things
from millions of years ago. An action can go to the cosmos and return in eons of time.
People here expect all this to be done in one lifetime, but you might feel effects from
3000 years ago.


Anyway, That's my simplistic explanation of it and I'd like to know yours!
 

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I believe in many things metaphysical but not in karma. I think evil self serving people can ride roughshod over others and get way with it all the time because they're powerful and protected. There is no karma for them.

Karma is a word that comforts some by pretending there is order or a kind of divine plan in a senseless world.
 
I agree with chic. I've seen too many people get away with evil behavior for too long and terrible things happen to good people. Serial killers have gone uncaught for long lives while their victims died in their teens. We've seen respected priests go to their graves with honors, before it is revealed that they molested hundreds of children. I don't even wish karma on the bad people because chances are some sort of horror in their own childhood or glitch in their brain caused them to be the way they are.

Many people who believe in karma also believe in reincarnation, so they just imagine that the evil people will be punished in the next life. I've seen nothing to make me believe that.

As a Christian, I believe we only have one life.

I believe our time on earth is a period of free will, and as earth is inhabited by humans, we will all probably make mistakes resulting in some bad things. For example, doctors made the mistake of prescribing thalidomide to pregnant women and so babies with terrible birth defects were born. The babies and their parents hadn't done anything to deserve that. Looking at those babies and telling ourselves that they deserved to be that way because of some terrible thing they did in a past life, seems to me to be very unkind and like an excuse not to feel sympathy.

What we can do is pray to God for strength to handle our misfortunes and pray with gratitude for the good fortune we do receive, never thinking we deserve either one.

Then, maybe, we'll all be happy and healthy in some sort of heaven or at least at peace.

JMHO
 
I think thalidomide is a bad example, because there was no ill intent - in fact the opposite was the case. It was meant to ease the horrors of morning sickness. Still, with the best will in the world, babies will be born with life threatening conditions or deformities. While some pray for strength to handle these situations, you might ask whatever god you pray to, why they let these things happen.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I think thalidomide is a bad example, because there was no ill intent - in fact the opposite was the case. It was meant to ease the horrors of morning sickness.
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That's why I thought it was a good example. I was talking about how human's make mistakes. I think a lot of what people look at and say, "bad karma" is just the result of human mistakes. No ill intent or bad karma is needed.
 
As I understand it, the concept of karma is antithetical to the teachings of Christianity. For openers, karma suggests that sooner or later you will be punished for your sins, in this life or another one, and being Christian means that Jesus died to absolve you from your sins.

YMMV
 
HazyDavey said:
When you pass on and go through your life review..
You will see yourself in the eyes of all the people you've interacted with. Whether you were nice, angry, whatever it was. You will feel how they felt at the time of your actions toward them. Karma ..

That's my $00.02 ;)
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Yes, yes, yes! You are so wise! This is absolutely correct!
 
chic said:
I believe in many things metaphysical but not in karma. I think evil self serving people can ride roughshod over others and get way with it all the time because they're powerful and protected. There is no karma for them.

Karma is a word that comforts some by pretending there is order or a kind of divine plan in a senseless world.
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Interesting comment! I only get my interpretation from reading about the extremely ancient Eastern religions ; the Bhagavad Gita.
But this is not to say this philosophy is the truth.
I THINK IT IS,
but am open to other thoughts on this. It is extremely wise and gives deep insight.

Most of the comments here expect immediate, RIGHT NOW, results from actions, when this , if correct, could take thousands of years.
This is not the only lifetime! This world is not the only world.

Well, Anyway, I appreciate your comments.
 
Thanks all, for your comments. We all have such diverse perspectives, and each has value.
HazeyDavy has it correctly with wonderful insight!

Allthings need not be completed in this lifetime. IMO.
But anyway, THANKS!
 
Deep down I think we know when we've behaved like idiots. I don't need misfortune to tell me that. But it is confusing why so many grow so powerful and get away with hurting so many yet never seem to suffer in this lifetime. If they are reincarnated as dung beetles, I'd say there was justice but don't embrace reincarnation either. I've seen ghosts and angels so there must be something else? IDK. :unsure:
 
chic said:
I believe in many things metaphysical but not in karma. I think evil self serving people can ride roughshod over others and get way with it all the time because they're powerful and protected. There is no karma for them.

Karma is a word that comforts some by pretending there is order or a kind of divine plan in a senseless world.
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I agree. Well said. Your comment about some being powerful and protected sure brought some people I've had to deal with to mind.
 
Murrmurr said:
It has been for me. But I don't make the mistake of expecting the "getting" to come in equal measures to the "giving." Focusing on that specific aspect, you're correct, that isn't how real life is.
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Not only do you not always 'get' in equal measures to what you give in this lifetime, you don't necessarily 'get' from the people you've given to--- but sometimes you actually get back 'more' or 'better' than you give.

Why? Because as Gaer pointed out in her OP, the 'return' vibrations may span more than one lifetime. I tend to to think of it more as a balancing. It takes a variety of positive and negative experiences for souls to evolve, grow. It's not just the negative ones that come back to us.

The movie Cloud Atlas does a pretty good job of showing how souls can express themselves differently in different lifetimes.
 

Willie Nelson - Little Old Fashioned Karma Lyrics​


Artist: Willie Nelson

Album: Revolutions of Time... The Journey 1975-1993

Heyo! SONGLYRICS just got interactive. Highlight. Review: RIFF-it.
RIFF-it good.

One of my favourite Willy Nelson songs is about Karma. I enjoy singing it with my guitar. Here it is:


There's just a little old fashioned karma coming down
Just a little old fashioned justice going round
A little bit of sowing and a little bit of reaping
A little bit of laughing and a little bit of weeping
Just a little old fashioned karma coming down

Coming down, coming down
Just a little old fashioned karma coming down
It really ain't hard to understand
If you're gonna dance you gotta pay the band
It's just a little old fashioned karma coming down

There's just a little old fashioned karma coming down
Just a little old fashioned justice going round
A little bit of sowing and a little bit of reaping
A little bit of laughing and a little bit of weeping
Just a little old fashioned karma coming down

Coming down, coming down
Just a little old fashioned karma coming down
It really ain't hard to understand
If you're gonna dance you gotta pay the band
It's just a little old fashioned karma coming down
It's just a little old fashioned karma coming down
 
Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning “action.” Karma has NOTHING to do with “fate.” If you do something negative, it doesn’t mean that something negative has to happen to you to even it out !!!!

In Buddhism, karma is an energy created by wilful action, through thoughts, words and deeds. We are all creating karma ( action and reaction) every minute, and the karma we create affects us every minute. Our conscience - and - our consciousness.

People think of karma as something you did in your last life that seals your fate in this life, but this is NOT Buddhist understanding.

Play the videos I put up and understand what it is. Nothing vibrates over millions of years and returns to you !!! Non sense!! Only those that believe in reincarnation think this way. I do NOT believe in reincarnation. I believe when I leave this earth I continue life in some other way. I don’t know what that way is and neither does anyone else !! I repeat - neither does anyone else!
.
 
In 2013 when watching Cloud Atlas, i thought about how authors and film makers will say 'There are only so many stories', we just each tell them differently. And then came the flood--and i had to pause the video and get it down on paper--could not even take time to boot up computer. This is the result, usually i edit my poems a good bit, but this was one that needed little.


REVIVAL

There are only so many stories,
resonating thru the corridors of time/space.
Plots, characters and themes only slightly rearranged.
Endings and beginnings repeat, sometimes trading places,
just as she, he, you and i trade places.
Sometimes in a decisive moment or the slack tide
we see back, forwards and/or sideways across time/space.
We perceive/remember/foresee other time/space here/nows.

There are only so many stories.
We are repertory company actors:
hero in one, villain in another;
Ingénue, crone…all too soon, and then a child again.
We challenge each other bringing out best and worst performances.
Sometimes we support each other well, often we just steal scenes.
We wound each other and heal each other.
We walk away, or bear witness and comfort.

There are only so many stories.
They echo thru space/time.
There are only so many stories.
We perform them in varying costumes.
Who produces, who directs and who is our audience?
There are only so many stories,
Shadows of reality
that resonate and echo in the soul.

© efbarmore 7/7/13
 

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