I seem to regularly encounter otherwise perfectly rational and intelligent people who believe that the universe repays individuals for their good and bad deeds later down the line.
The idea is as ridiculous to me as horoscopes and I'd like some explanations as to why people believe in karma.
Its basically a way of treating people How you like to be treated . I hand wallets And phones in because I like to think someone would do the same for me .
I seem to regularly encounter otherwise perfectly rational and intelligent people who believe that the universe repays individuals for their good and bad deeds later down the line.
The idea is as ridiculous to me as horoscopes and I'd like some explanations as to why people believe in karma.
I do believe in Karma
Thing about Karma is that us in the west have the wrong definition of karma. We seem to think karma is about outside forces which 'get us back' for whatever we've done, and that it comes back to us some time in the future e.g. if i rob someone's house, and then some months later my car breaks down, i'd associate the car breaking down with what bad action i did some months ago
But Karma as a concept originated from the East i think it was from Buddha's , and the literal definition of Karma is action. For whatever bad action you do, you pay for the consequences, bad actions have natural bad consequences. It basically describes life as this big interplay of actions all of which naturally have consequences.
But it's not a law in the supernatural sense, it's more a law in the psychological sense. So the bad consequences we're talking about aren't coming from outside, they're not external. It's talking about what's going on in your mind. As soon as you take a bad action you already suffer the bad consequences on the inside even if you don't get caught. The inside damage is often more than we think it is e.g. we think it's ok to tell a little white lie etc. The punishment is suffering, the emotional suffering and stress caused by whatever selfish action we took, we'll feel out of integrity with ourselves because it will not align with our values, and this stuff can be suppressed but it seeps out, and it can get you through a chain reaction where one selfish action leads to another, in other areas of life, e.g. in a relationship and then the person's relationships might become worse You might even think bad thoughts, and those themselves can be classed as bad actions e.g. feeling jealous or mad at someone or criticizing others
At the core of it is the concept of the ego, ourselves, whatever action we're taking to protect ourselves, we might criticise others to protect ourselves and then we suffer as a result of this negative behaviour and so karma is created out of thoughts and concepts and not out of physical reality.
"You harm yourself, as dust thrown against the wind comes back to the thrower" - Buddha And it comes back immediately, not some time later and Karma comes from us and not from others, someone else isn't throwing the dust at us in this quote
Its basically a way of treating people How you like to be treated . I hand wallets And phones in because I like to think someone would do the same for me .
This isn't karma, it's Jesus Christ's 'golden rule'.
No, I'm not talking about a colloquial expression. I'm talking about what is in the OP.
My point was that I've met many people (and include myself) who say they believe in karma but when it comes down to it, they only ever bring it up when something bad happens to somebody who has done wrong to them before. So, you will meet many people in life who say they believe in karma and will gladly tell you how the universe repays individuals for their actions, but from my experience it's usually because they simply hope it exists.
Thing about Karma is that us in the west have the wrong definition of karma. We seem to think karma is about outside forces which 'get us back' for whatever we've done, and that it comes back to us some time in the future e.g. if i rob someone's house, and then some months later my car breaks down, i'd associate the car breaking down with what bad action i did some months ago
But Karma as a concept originated from the East i think it was from Buddha's , and the literal definition of Karma is action. For whatever bad action you do, you pay for the consequences, bad actions have natural bad consequences. It basically describes life as this big interplay of actions all of which naturally have consequences.
But it's not a law in the supernatural sense, it's more a law in the psychological sense. So the bad consequences we're talking about aren't coming from outside, they're not external. It's talking about what's going on in your mind. As soon as you take a bad action you already suffer the bad consequences on the inside even if you don't get caught. The inside damage is often more than we think it is e.g. we think it's ok to tell a little white lie etc. The punishment is suffering, the emotional suffering and stress caused by whatever selfish action we took, we'll feel out of integrity with ourselves because it will not align with our values, and this stuff can be suppressed but it seeps out, and it can get you through a chain reaction where one selfish action leads to another, in other areas of life, e.g. in a relationship and then the person's relationships might become worse You might even think bad thoughts, and those themselves can be classed as bad actions e.g. feeling jealous or mad at someone or criticizing others
At the core of it is the concept of the ego, ourselves, whatever action we're taking to protect ourselves, we might criticise others to protect ourselves and then we suffer as a result of this negative behaviour and so karma is created out of thoughts and concepts and not out of physical reality.
"You harm yourself, as dust thrown against the wind comes back to the thrower" - Buddha And it comes back immediately, not some time later and Karma comes from us and not from others, someone else isn't throwing the dust at us in this quote
Good post. I came to post the same thing pretty much.
I "believe in Karma", OP, in that I know that my actions (both positive and negative, past and present) contribute to where I currently find myself.
The biggest mistake with the western interpretation of the term is that people believe that if you do wrong, you absolutely WILL receive this cosmic "payback", which is very different to acknowledging that your current situation is dependent on your past actions. This quote sums it up well:
"If anyone says that a man or woman must reap in this life according to his present deeds, in that case there is no religious life, nor is an opportunity afforded for the entire extinction of sorrow. But if anyone says that what a man or woman reaps in this and future lives accords with his or her deeds present and past, in that case there is a religious life, and anopportunity is afforded for the entire extinction of a sorrow." (Anguttara Nikaya)
I always interpreted 'Treat thy neighbour as thyself' as a commandment to do good for the sake of doing good selflessly than for any selfish motives for one's own wellbeing.
Thing about Karma is that us in the west have the wrong definition of karma. We seem to think karma is about outside forces which 'get us back' for whatever we've done, and that it comes back to us some time in the future e.g. if i rob someone's house, and then some months later my car breaks down, i'd associate the car breaking down with what bad action i did some months ago
But Karma as a concept originated from the East i think it was from Buddha's , and the literal definition of Karma is action. For whatever bad action you do, you pay for the consequences, bad actions have natural bad consequences. It basically describes life as this big interplay of actions all of which naturally have consequences.
But it's not a law in the supernatural sense, it's more a law in the psychological sense. So the bad consequences we're talking about aren't coming from outside, they're not external. It's talking about what's going on in your mind. As soon as you take a bad action you already suffer the bad consequences on the inside even if you don't get caught. The inside damage is often more than we think it is e.g. we think it's ok to tell a little white lie etc. The punishment is suffering, the emotional suffering and stress caused by whatever selfish action we took, we'll feel out of integrity with ourselves because it will not align with our values, and this stuff can be suppressed but it seeps out, and it can get you through a chain reaction where one selfish action leads to another, in other areas of life, e.g. in a relationship and then the person's relationships might become worse You might even think bad thoughts, and those themselves can be classed as bad actions e.g. feeling jealous or mad at someone or criticizing others
At the core of it is the concept of the ego, ourselves, whatever action we're taking to protect ourselves, we might criticise others to protect ourselves and then we suffer as a result of this negative behaviour and so karma is created out of thoughts and concepts and not out of physical reality.
"You harm yourself, as dust thrown against the wind comes back to the thrower" - Buddha And it comes back immediately, not some time later and Karma comes from us and not from others, someone else isn't throwing the dust at us in this quote
I always interpreted 'Treat thy neighbour as thyself' as a commandment to do good for the sake of doing good selflessly than for any selfish motives for one's own wellbeing.
Well, if the idea is that everybody will in turn treat everybody else well, the result/aim would be overall moral righteousness, and an end to suffering.
The buddhist notion can certainly appear to take a more "selfish" approach, but that's only because buddhism is focussed heavily on eliminating ones own suffering in order to achieve global non-suffering. Given the core belief that we are all one and the same, this is actually not a selfish standpoint at all, and the end-result/aim would be much the same. The same as Christiainity and as most other religions too tbh.