"What goes around comes around" or "as you sow, so shall you reap" is the basic understanding of how karma, the law of cause and effect, works. The word karma literally means "activity." Karma can be divided up into a few simple categories -- good, bad, individual and collective. Depending on one's actions, one will reap the fruits of those actions. The fruits may be sweet or sour, depending on the nature of the actions performed. Fruits can also be reaped in a collective manner if a group of people together perform a certain activity or activities.
Everything we say and do determines what's going to happen to us in the future. Whether we act honestly, dishonestly, help or hurt others, it all gets recorded and manifests as a karmic reaction either in this life or a future life. All karmic records are carried with the soul into the next life and body.
There is no exact formula that is provided for how and when karmic reactions will appear in our lives, but one can be sure they will appear in some form or other. One may be able to get away with a crime they committed, or avoid paying taxes, but according to karma, no one gets away with anything for long.
Often, when something goes wrong in our lives, and it just doesn't seem to make sense as to why it happened, it can be very bewildering. We can just be left standing there without any answers. I remember a very difficult time in my life when my family lost our entire fortune, which threw my life into a spin. I asked myself why this was happening, and I came up with three possible answers:
1. God is cruel for letting things happen the way they are.
2. Things are happening completely by random chance and that there is no rhyme or reason behind them.
3. Perhaps in some inconceivable way, I had a hand in my own suffering, even if I wasn't able to recall what I had done.
I didn't like option two because I just couldn't accept that things were moving about randomly. I always felt there had to be some kind of order to the universe. Since I grew up believing in God, I was ready to wholeheartedly accept option one because this option allowed me to point a finger and express my anger and frustration at someone who I had worshiped all my life.
In search for an answer, I started reading the Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu texts which hinted at option three. This was even more difficult than the first option because now I couldn't really point a finger at anyone other than myself. The Gita broadened my horizons about life and encouraged me to take responsibility for my own actions and not to place blame. It explained that each of my previous lives has impacted my subsequent lives and is probably affecting my current life.
A karmic reaction, good or bad, may or may not become manifest in the same life. It may manifest in a future life. It's also possible to get hit with a few reactions -- positive or negative -- at the same time. The simplest analogy I can think of for how karma works is that of a credit card purchase. You make the purchase now, but don't get hit with the bill for 30 days. If you made several purchases during one billing cycle, then you'll get hit with one big bill.
The natural question that arises is: "Why am I getting punished for something from a previous live if I can't even remember it?" Of course, we don't ask ourselves why good things happen to us. We simply accept the good thinking we deserve it or that we've earned it. We forget a lot of things we've done in the past, so what to speak of things done in a previous life. The most important lesson to learn is that we can become more mindful of our present actions to prepare our families and ourselves for a more prosperous future, both materially and spiritually.
An important question we should ask is: "Do we really want to remember our past lives?" The pain of dealing with the hardships of this one life is difficult enough. We can only imagine how long we would actually survive if the weight of our previous lives' pain and suffering were compounded onto our psyche. For the most part, it's probably a good thing that most people don't remember what happened in previous lives, so that we can start to move forward in our present life.
Karma doesn't translate into indifference towards the suffering of others. The mood should never be "too bad, it's their karma." The predominating principle should always be that of sympathy and compassion.
This can seem like such a vicious cycle of action and reaction. It's practically impossible to live in this world without doing some wrong, whether out of anger, revenge, or just inattention. The teachings of the Gita and Hinduism are all about breaking this cycle of karma and transcending the material world and regaining entrance into the spiritual world. The path of Bhakti Yoga, which includes mantra meditation, conscious cooking and eating, and devotional service help break the cycle of karma by gradually removing the karmic reactions we have accumulated and thus liberating us from the repetition of birth and death.
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Karma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basic Buddhism: The Theory of Karma
Another cop out is "A karmic reaction, good or bad, may or may not become manifest in the same life." This is the worst metaphysical mumbo jumbo that was ever conceived.
With these two caveats one can say anything and call it philosophy.
it takes much discernment to observe most karma. some karma like cain's is there for all the world to see.
as long as you see the metaphysical as mumbo jumbo you mind will be blinded by your beliefs.
believe nothing do your own reseach as your response reveals your cherished beliefs and your hidden paradigm you are not even aware of.
I know he will pay for it in his next life.
the evidence is available to show that indeed a soul exists after this physical life is over.
but because buddha did not teach it or his followers did not accept it or teach it, buddhists wont go any farther than what they have been taught.
this makes buddhism a religion but an interesting one concerning their teachings on ignorance and suffering. but they have failed to go beyond the origin of suffering. if buddha did not teach it they dont go beyond even tho he told them to be open to new discoveries. they listened not.
the buddhists are as stuck in their no soul as much as the christians are stuck in their need for a sacrifice to appease an angry god.
it is interesting to me that once a person accepts certain religious beliefs it is almost impossible for them to see anything outside those beliefs. the paradigm effect is that powerful.
Perhaps we need to inquire about what is permanent and impermanent in our nature and our connection to the all (be it universal awareness, nous, animus mundi, dharmakaya, purusha, paratma or God)?
What then is the soul's nature? Upon examining it, do we find layers of personalities (comprised so-to-speak of circulating energy for want of a better term)? Or, do we find it to be a permanent bedrock foundation to individual being (skt. jiva)? Or is the soul a fluid continuum flowing from universal awareness into an individualized vantage point and vice versa (i.e.,the actual flow of awareness from the infinite to the finite individual and back)?.
And, where does one commence his or her research? Do we utilize our own individual lives as laboratories personalizing the search into the question of who am I? And through this examination using both the intellect and heart (emotional center) peer within through thought and intuition into ourselves?
Also should this be one's starting point in getting to the root of dukkha (suffering, pain, and sadness)?
I am asking this not to critique your reply but in the spirit of transforming avidya (my ignorance for I know very little about such matters) into vidya (wisdom).
Thank you,
Namaste
Agreed there is an inner imperative that one might perchance obey and that is to move beyond the origin of suffering.
But is the inquiry into who I am and the root of my sensations, feelings, perceptions and thoughts the starting point?.
You don't need to believe in anything, not in Krishna and not in any other deity. Classical Hinduism has Gods, but Hindu philosophy does not require them. Deities are only aids in bhakti yoga, the path of devotion. In the end -the absolute- there is no Krishna.
It is perfectly sufficient if you believe in your own existence, which is easy, because you can not possibly deny your own existence. In order to deny it you must exist. The Vedas knew that 2.000 years before Descartes.
This is similar to hypnosis, but the regressed person just relaxes and isnever called upon to act anything out.
It is an excellent way to dig out the origin of fears, habits, anxities which hold us back int his life. I had regression therapy and discovered why, although I enjoy riding as a passenger in a car, I have a deathly fear of driving.
Our fears, habits, anxieties, joys, pleasures, knowledge, ignorance -- all aspects of human consciousness as played out in the flesh is these records. They are not lifeless inventory of formerly lived experience but the circulation of consciousness (including that of which we are unaware) in the form of memory, emotions, and the imagination and our wishes,fantasies, dreams, desires and drives. It is the woof and warp of the alaya vijnana (repository or storehouse consciousness).
Akasha (skt. space -- considered the basis for existence)
a cemetery. No cemetery has to run out of burial space if they are willing to bury over the older remains that have sunk below. Same with incarnation of souls: each lifetime is filled with souls of people that have lived before. The body & lifetime is brand new but not the souls.
I sincerely hoped this has helped give guidance.
Look into your own life and speak from that point of view. Cease being directed by external authority such as scripture or the teachings of gurus. You yourself hold this torch.
I feel the same way about people who post anti science/evolution/ pro extreme Christianity on
SCIENCE articles. And I both beleive in evolution/science . am Wiccian.
Why indeed! There is no Karma. Open your eyes and look around.
My observations about Karma do not take "Past Lives" into consideration. I see good people get the shaft, and bad people get rewards.
PS. I got mine?
It would be useful if you actually read and understood an article and its subject matter before commenting on it.
But hey, if it keeps some people from being jerks, have fun with it. At least at the heart of it lies a mentality that forbids them from using it their philosophy to harm others.
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You're erroneously attributing the Christian notion of salvation to other systems. It's probably the paradigm into which you were born.
There's a difference. Karma is activity. We are actively creating our own futures--there is activity that has a way of making us happy long term, and there's activity that will make our lives more difficult in the long term. This is how I see karma.
Just like Freud's Id, Ego and Superego. They do not actually exist, they are just terms to describe patterns of activity that we see in the mind and in nature.
But the idea that there WILL be hardship in response to being "bad" or vice versa--while a nice concept--seems wishful and farfetched and I see no reason to think things actually work that way. I do appreciate the sentiments behind it though and I've yet to meet a Buddhist that is as big of a jerk as many others who hold to many other spiritual-type beliefs so at the very least it seems to make many folks better and happier people and that's always good.
Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989)