Jeremiah X
New Member
I believe that karma is a fictional excuse people use to justify in there own mind the laws of this earth. I don't believe in it and have several examples to support my belief.
What is karma?
What is karma?
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Is karma real?
- Thread starter Jeremiah X
- Start date
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
It depends. Are you asking of the simplified "what comes around goes around" Western approach to Karma, or the more complex Buddhist system of Karma?
Jeremiah X
New Member
Never heard the buddist one. Whats that about ?
Don't forget the Hindu system, the Jain System and the Sikh System.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Buddhism
Karma (Sanskrit, also karman, Pāli: kamma, Tib. las[1]) is a Sanskrit term that literally means "action" or "doing". The word karma derives from the verbal root kṛ, which means "do, make, perform, accomplish."[2]
Karmaphala (Tib. rgyu 'bras[3][1][note 1]) is the "fruit",[4][5][6] "effect"[7] or "result"[8] of karma. A similar term is karmavipaka, the "maturation"[9] or "cooking"[10] of karma:
Karma and karmaphala are fundamental concepts in Buddhism.[12][13] The concepts of karma and karmaphala explain how our intentional actions keep us tied to rebirth in samsara, whereas the Buddhist path, as exemplified in the Noble Eightfold Path, shows us the way out of samsara.[14]
psychoslice
Veteran Member
As the blazing fire reduces wood to ashes, similarly, the fire of Self-knowledge reduces all Karma to ashes.
~ Bhagavad Gita
~ Bhagavad Gita
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Karma not karma is the laws of cause and affect. You hit someone else. That result (I will say instead of karma) of that action affects other people.It is like water and you touch it it ripples to other parts of the river and ocean. It is saying take responsibility for your actions, make good causes, and it will bring well meaning results. It's a fancy word for consequences (good or bad) from your actions can hit you in the back side or benefit you depending on the action you take and why.
Nothing more than that, really.
Here we go:
"Buddhism, it should be noted, took ove from earlier Indian thought the belief in Karma. According to this belief, all a person's moral actions, whether good or bad, produce definite effects in the person's life, though such effects may take some time before manifesting themselves. According to the Indian view, living beings pass through a endless cycle of death and rebirth, and the ill effects of an evil actions in one life may njot become evident until some future existence; but, tat they will appear eventually is inescapable. Hence only by striving to do good in one's present existence can one hope to escape the greater suffering in a future life." Lotus Sutra Commentary
That's what the Lotus is, it produces seeds and blossoms at the same time. It's the same with the Law. That Law, in Indian thought, is karma. It isn't BS, it is just a part of life.
"Karma literally means action, but technically it refers to volitional action. As the Buddha says, "It is volition that I call karma for having willed, one acts by body, speech,a nd mind" There are also four types of Karma. I have it in my book of Buddha's discources from the Pali Canon. It's extensive. But it just means actions. Without karma, then there is no reaction to a cause.
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Karma is the law of cause and effect at a spiritual level. The energy you put out loving/hateful reverberates back on you. I think it is real.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Action. Its result is 'karma-phala' (fruit of action). Don't you think that if you murder someone, the law agencies may catch you and the courts may punish you? The murder is 'karma' and arrest and punishment is 'karma-phala'.
The notion of karma you're probably playing with is a caricature. Nonetheless it's not hard to see how the idea of karma can result in the social fatalism used to justify the Hindu caste system.
Be a good little untouchable and your next incarnation will be far more auspicious.
Sees
Dragonslayer
Do you think it's much different from "you reap what you sow"?
Karma is pretty foundational to many traditions with varying names and specifics attached.
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I think the beginning of the Dhammapada shares the idea of karma pretty well on a basic level but beyond "push this and it moves" -
"What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with an impure thought,
suffering follows one,
like the wheel of the cart follows the foot of the ox.
What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows one,
like a shadow that never leaves."
A lot of misery is a self-created and self-fed.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
If you are born in a poor uneducated family anywhere in the world, you have to be satisfied with what you have. Now, either one can fret about it or continue with life in a healthy manner, keeping away from evil and engaging in good deeds, whether one will get a better rebirth or not, no one knows about it (I do not even believe in a birth). Of course, a few will escape their situation, may be able to study and/or get rich, but most will not. In that case, what helps them is 'santosha' (contentedness), being happy with what one has. That is what Hinduism taught to all, the rich and poor. One who is rich today can become a pauper anytime. So, do not be proud of what you have and do not fret if you don't have much. The life is still there, do the best you can.We say 'Sabse bada dhana, santosha dhana' (the greatest wealth is being happy with what one has). If one is not that then even the richest person will be unhappy.
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I don't believe there's such a thing as utter social equality, there will always be some level of social hierarchy and I don't fault Hindu society for that. But the perpetuation of an immutable, heredity social caste system is unjustifiable in the twenty-first century for any society that has pretensions to being modern. The notion of karma and rebirth serves to perpetuate the system pretty obviously, because your social position is an immutable aspect of your birth dictated by your karma, and the only legitimate way to see any mobility on your part is to play your predetermined social role and hope for a better birth in the next life. I'm not saying every Hindu thinks like this, but enough of them to perpetuate this system do. (Especially if you happen to be at the upper end of the pyramid).
As I remember it, the word translates to action, and more or less refers to cause-and-effect as applied philosophically.
Karma is related to India's Caste system in the same way that the theory of natural selection is related to the West's Social Darwinism.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Ha ha ha ha ha........
Go for the complex Buddhist one. It's pure unadulterated rocket science.
There's a pechent to explore northern and southern karma as well. But being in northeast..well...
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
The karma of karma.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
On one hand, karma certainly exist in that our actions have impacts on the world, there is cause and effect. When I leave a spill for someone else to clean up, and then I set my laptop in it two hours later, that is "karma". Of course if someone else cleaned it up we wouldn't even be discussing it, so that's a shaky definition.
I agree that any other form of karma seems to be fiction. I know amazing people suffering in pain and loneliness, while some of the worst people I've known are rich and happy.
Satyamavejayanti
Well-Known Member
Simple questions,
What is Karma? to a Hindu, breathing is Karma, eating is Karma, having sex is Karma, going to the loo is Karma........... so living because you breath is Karma Phala, Having a full belly after a meal is Karma Phala, satisfaction after sex is Karma Phala, that light feeling after going to the loo is Karma Phala.
Simple answer
Dhanyavad