by AlmostAtheist 37 Replies latest jw friends
I believe it... i surely do... i treat people as well as i can and they tend to trreat me well... its as simple to explain as this,.... since im nice to ppl, they will be great to me as well right... its just that practical... good things realy do happen to good people...
the infamosu one
I'm an absolute believer in karma.
Many religions promise their adherents that somehow, if they follow specific rituals, or act in certain ways, they will escape the effects of their deeds. Some religions claim that they have found a way of beating karma - that inescapable law of cause and effect, which operates not only on a physical level, as all scientists agree, but also on a spiritual level, as most religions believe.
In many Buddhist schools, certain virtuous acts are designed to create "merit", which is a way of "working off" the effects of karma. In Buddhism, there really is no shortcut. You do not have a Christ who died for you to relieve you of the effects of your sins. In Mahayana Buddhism, the ideal of Bodhisattvahood has vague similarities with Christianity. Bodhisattvas, who have reached perfection and need not return to life, will nevertheless return to create merit for everyone else. In a way, they are working off the karmic effects for everyone else.
Many followers of Zen find the idea of performing good deeds to acquire merit repugnant. They argue that performing good deeds for selfish reasons is in itself bad. You quite simply perform good deeds because they are good. In Buddhism you alone remain responsible for your own deeds, and will have to face the consequences of your deeds. Only when you serve without caring about merit or your own karma, will you be truly free. Only then will the "shadow" of karma not fall over you.
You cannot escape karma, no matter how much you are in harmony with the Tao. Of course, living in harmony with the Tao will reduce your chances of creating even more negative karma against you.
Karma is not some object, something outside you. You are your own karma. Its "shadow" cannot fall over you. Realizing this is true liberation, for you know that you alone are responsible for your own well-being.
That karma does not touch your true self is of course true for everyone, no matter whether they are enlightened or not. The difference is that the unenlightened and ignorant do not know this, and they therefore live in fear of karma. They also create more karma for themselves through their ignorance.
I too believe in a type of philosophy of Karma, but likewise not in terms of direct causality or cosmic payback. If you live in tune with your own philosophies on life, you will receive greater mental peace, and attract your idea of good things, people and circumstances. If you live your life in denial, cause harm to others, you'll live in a state of cognitive dissonance and mental unrest, the whole while averting truley good prospects for yourself. Pehaps the idea of Karma does not have to be directly causal, with every action causing like effects. For even if it is only we ourselves that know when we commit what we believe to be good or evil acts, living with those consequences can be rewarding or punishing. Perhaps it is just our rigid idea of exactly what justice is in this world that effects how we conceptualise the absence of Karma...or perhaps I'm just speaking out of my froggy bottom:)) x
For the ones who believe in karma, what if I said something like this to somebody?
pity party.....pity party.....pity party.
Take responsibilities for your life and quit feeling sorry for yourself. We all have problems. We all get down. But day after day, week after week, and month after month of listening to you piss and moan is BORING
What would the response of karma be, do you think? HL
HL....perhaps you should read Cygnus' old posts to find out WHY a lot of these things happened. Then perhaps you might be able to make an enlightened decision.
With Respect,
Brian
I've been here since June. You since August. I have a hard enough time keeping up with my research on JW beliefs, reading COC, and now Bryans book, and just talking and venting on JWD. Along with work, being a wife and mother. So how do you know so much of this posters past? Did you have another name before this? I just noticed that you don't have very many posts.
I was just shocked that someone could talk this way to another human being. I thought it was pretty strong for a person who believes in karma, as strongly as you seem to. HL
Hey Dave,
When I was first out of the organization, I went to a presentation on Buddhism - incidentally, it took place across the street from the Kingdom Hall on a meeting night - and the lecturer spent a good deal of time talking about Karma. I wrote up some notes about it when I got home that evening, in my personal journal. Obviously, I'm no expert, but this is what I got out of the presentation:
Buddhism says that there are seven streams of pain in the world:
1. Birth
2. Aging
3. Sickness
4. Death
5. The fact that we have to confront situations we would rather not.
6. The fact that situations we enjoy end.
7. The fact that it is impossible to fully satiate our desires.Karma says that every action or thought we have sows a seed – either a positive seed or a negative one. The seeds will eventually find expression when the external conditions are ripe. For example, having angry feelings sows seeds of anger, even if they are not expressed at the moment. When external conditions appear that are conducive to expressing the anger, it will be expressed.
Bad karma has four negative consequences:
1. Maturation result (negative karma going forward)
2. The result corresponding to the initial act (hitting someone produces the likelihood of receiving similar treatment yourself).
3. The result corresponding to the initial experience (hitting someone makes it more likely that you will hit someone again).
4. Environmental results (hitting someone means you must now live in a world where people hit each other).Of these, the worst is considered the third, because it means that doing something bad makes it more likely that you will do something bad again, creating a cycle of bad karma.
Like many of the others on this thread, I find the concept of Karma to be appealing in some ways, but in my mind, the problem with the definition that goes beyond normal cause-and-effect is that it requires some kind of universal score-keeper, which I don't think exists. Also, the idea that everyone really gets their just desserts in the next life sounds a whole lot like a cop-out invented to handle the reality that people don't always get their just desserts in this life. In other words, creative license to make the philosophy work.
I believe in a brand of Karma that is strictly down-to-earth. People who are open and honest are likely to see and take advantage of opportunities to improve themselves, be good neighbors and citizens, find satisfying work, and so on. People who are dishonest and unsavory will tend to push others away, limiting their enjoyment of human relationships and life. But this kind of cause-and-effect is so straightforrward that it hardly bears having a special name. It would be easier to just call it "the way things are."
Just some ramblings.
SNG
Yeah, HL. You missed all the fun. Makes you vulnerable when you don't have enough information, doesn't it. Check my "start" date.
HL...nope I've lurked here at JWD for a couple of years before I started posting. I enjoy reading other's posts more than my own. I'm quite shy but will speak up when I think it matters.
You are entitled to your opinion, as am I. I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm not going to drink the kool-aid and say "it's yummy". No thank you to the "fake concern" most JW's pretend to have.
However, I do not want to hijack this thread since it's about karma. Sorry, just my 2 cents.
My Karma ran over my dogma
