The Reverend Bob
Fart Machine and Beastmaster
And why should I be concerned with it?
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What is Karma?
- Thread starter The Reverend Bob
- Start date
The law of cause and effect.
Our actions have an effect. Also our thoughts have an effect on us thereby affecting our actions. We should be mindful of both.
The Reverend Bob
Fart Machine and Beastmaster
Is that all? So I got eat all the cow I want
sealchan
Well-Known Member
Karma is our personal, psychological and social trajectory through the vast state space of the Universe as a diverse array of physical and psychological systems and their causal histories.
It is a word to use to describe the unknowable fate we have in store based on our inner awareness and our outer circumstances given a healthy respect for cause and effect, choice and outcome.
dybmh
דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
This is my understanding of the concept: I have no idea if any of this is true or real, but I do think that the information is accurate. ( meaning: I have no idea of any if this actually exists... )
My understanding is that karma and du are spiritual substances. Karma is spiritually heavy and acts as an anchor preventing attainment of enlightenment. Karma carries over from one lifetime to the next via reincarnation. Du is collected by doing virtuous deeds, but does not carry over from one lifetime to another via reincarnation.
I think, and maybe someone else will correct me, that in the current mortal lifetime, karma and du, in a manner of speaking, cancel each other out. Du replaces karma. But because Du does not carry over, and Karma does, it is virtually impossible for a person to completely repay the karmic debts simply by performing virtuous deeds.
Repaying this karmic debt that accumulates from lifetime to lifetime, from my understanding, can happen in multiple ways: doing virtuous deeds ( collecting du ); cultivating unconditional love; or through personal suffering. there may be other ways, I am not sure.
If a person overwhelms their karmic debts, I am not sure what happens in this theoretical situation. I think it depends on whether or not the individual has any other anchors ( attachments ) to this material existence.
Lacking any attachments, and without any karmic debt, in theory, i think, a person attains nirvana and ends their cycle of birth, suffering, death, rebirth.
This is my immature understanding of the concepts. Whether or not it is accurate or true, I honestly don't know.
Whether or not a person cares specifically about karma depends on their goals. I think most people want to avoid doing harm. Is the concept of karma needed for this? I don't think so.
However if a person wants to end their own cycle of suffering, an understanding of karma is useful. But again only if it's true and reincarnation is real.
As long as there is a notion of doership, fruits of doership must be partaken. Karma is baggage that mind carries across many lifetimes and the only way to get free of karma is to know that one is not the doer.
Karma explains birth under diverse conditions for us. Working of karma, which is insentient, is offered as a proof of a natural intelligence that dispenses the results, appropriately.
Else, for your proud act of killing God, I may be jailed.
Karma isn't anything, any more than gravity is. It's a process, and the accumulates actions of an individual are sometimes referred to as karma. But really it's just a law of the way things work in terms of balancing out actions.
Think of the golden rule ... "Do unto others what you wish would be done to you." (I probably misquoted that ... it's been awhile) and put into a practical sense. "The impact of what you do to others will be done to you." Note that it's not the exact same action, like an eye for an eye, but rather the same in value, or impact.
Generally karma goes hand in hand with reincarnation. So not only are you receiving past actions, but you're also creating future actions.
Others will give you different takes.
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Does eating cows have effects? Is it kind? Is it moral?
I'm not following your line of reasoning.
wandering peacefully
Which way to the woods?
It's basically a more philosophical way to express the golden rule. If you are an a-hole, you'll keep getting thrown back into a physical life over and over again until you smarten up and become wise.
You really don't need to worry about it unless you are an a-hole. That is the idea I think.
My thought on Karma is it just do it right the first time.
whirlingmerc
Well-Known Member
Karma is general the earning of what you get
In an eastern sense it is expressed in reincarnation. I don't agree with that since I don't think any number of lives produce the righteousness of God
There is another sense of sowing and reaping in the New Testament where one also gets what one reaps. God may change a person by grace and produce fruit in their life by grace. Faith is the root. Works are the fruit.
The Reverend Bob
Fart Machine and Beastmaster
I don't believe in reincarnation
I should hope not. There's insufficient supporting evidence, at present.
The Reverend Bob
Fart Machine and Beastmaster
And thus I see no reason to see reincarnation or multiple lives or karma as anything meaningful
The Reverend Bob
Fart Machine and Beastmaster
Do I need one?
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Cause and effect and how it interacts with other causes and effects hence the ripples and waves that can be long or short in duration.
Very natural. Simple to understand, yet can be very complex.
I think the only concern is how we can go about dealing with the effects of Karma. A bit like rocking the boat , or going full outboard.
The Reverend Bob
Fart Machine and Beastmaster
I am none of the above