Do you believe in karma ?

[steve2470]

<in professor's voice>


"If so, provide examples and compare and contrast good vs. bad karma".

:-)

[khashka]

1. Only Instant Karma. n/t

[Skip Intro]

2. Yes, or something like it.

I believe there is one universal truth from which all springs, and I believe that what you get out of something depends to an extreme degree on what you put into that something. You really do reap what you sow.

Karma is another name for that - which we (me, at least) are doomed to inadequately describe.

Whatever happens to the swine currently invading the WH will be sorely deserved, and an amazing thing to watch. Karma is in training for this one, I beleive.

[havocmom]

3. Nah. Creeps and assholes get off too often

and good people get smacked.

[Ladyhawk]

4. Not intellectually. Life is just too unfair for karma to be true.

But the emotional part of me wonders sometimes.

[NewHampshireDem]

5. Of course I believe in Karma...

There is no such thing as good and bad karma--karma is just the law. Actions are good or bad, or more correctly skillful or unskillful. Skillful actions produce desirable results; unskillful actions produce undesirable results. Karma simply is the mechanism through which action becomes result.

Now, anyone who expects that doing good deeds is going to ensure them a winning lottery ticket really has a limited sense of what life is really about. As they say, "If you want to know what God thinks about money, look at who he gives it to." That can apply to many things beyond money.

And, yes, sometimes 'bad' things happen to good people, but the judgement that an event is 'bad' is a result of our limited perception of the event. Remember, Buddha promised an end to suffering, which is in our minds as a result of our attachments, not an end to the things that cause us suffering, which do exist as 'real' phenomena.

If I get that promotion at work, is that 'good karma'? So I end up making more money, but as a result, I spend more time away from my family. I can afford to put more money into my kids' college savings, and every year we go to Disney for two weeks; but my kids don't know me from the mailman, whom they see more often. We have a nice house in a safe neighborhood and we drive a giant SUV, all befitting my status as a manager at the plant; but I constantly worry that if the plant closes, all that goes *poof*.

So, tell me ... is that 'good karma' or 'bad karma'? </rhetorical question>