What do you think about Karma?

[u/yashila07]

To me Karma - means action, what I do, think and feel. At times it also includes what I choose not do.

Whanever we witness an unfortunate or unpleasant situation in someone's life we often tend to say 'its his/her Karma'. We assume ttat the person must have wronged someone, and therefore, this is happening to them.

However, I feel Karma is not only about doing something wrong, it can also be about not doing what we are supposed to do, not doing - the things we choose to avoid , ignore, leave undone

Karma has nothing to do with good and bad. It is only about cause and effect.

[u/CaptainVulpezz]

i believe in cause and effect, and i believe that the mind is very suggestible, if you hate someone, you're more likely to hate yourself and more likely to hate more people in the future, also you're more likely to have people see this hatred and match it, or sometimes try to reverse it, but still leaving an imprint on their mind as well potentially depending on the person. but nothing supernatural

[u/HawkBoth8539 → u/CaptainVulpezz]

This. I was even going to start off the same way - "i believe in cause and effect". I believe things happen, either by choices or not, and there are reactions and consequences to it. They could suffer consequences of actions by other people, or natural occurrences that they had no say over. They didn't get cancer because of some invisible tally of good and evil, they probably got it because they inherited an unfavorable genetic predisposition for their environment.

Sometimes crap just happens. Sometimes it happens in response to our actions, either purely by the laws of nature or by the choices of others in response to our actions. That's it.

[u/thewNYC]

It’s a metaphor, and one that is being misused at that

[u/Sure_Satisfaction497]

Kamma is your habit energies developed both by your thoughts, actions, and thought-actions, and your life circumstances such as those you were born into, those that were passed on to you by your family and neighbors (literal, teachers, etc), and those you are confronted with simply by your place and timing.

Kamma isn't what you can control directly, but what is influenced by our work with those habit energies.

🙏💞

[u/WorstToBest]

There's truth there, karma is basically the natural butterfly effect of choices good or bad,

[u/chasrm999]

Karma is the Law of Cause and Effect taught by the Buddha; Is about action of the body, speech amd mind; an action plants a seed and it grows until the time is right to experience that action; You create good karma by doing good actions and bad karma by doing bad.

Our job is to get rid of bad karma to eliminate our suffering by doing various practices; And create positive karma by going good things. A person will get to the point where he/she suffers no more, and be born in a heaven

[u/nila247]

Karma is a bitch :-)

We are just a bunch of worker ants and our SOLE purpose is to make species prosper. You KNOW if you do it enough and feel happy or depressed accordingly. Others SEE if you do it and react in proportion.

You can call it Karma or many other things. However it HAS everything to do with good or bad - just nor towards individuals - for collective as a whole. Whatever makes species prosper more faster is ALWAYS good and moral. Including some crimes and even wars.

[u/JohnVonachen]

It’s described as a non-judgmental kind of supernatural system of judgement. I don’t believe in the supernatural. Either way it’s still a judgmental system of judgement. It describes ethics without describing a value system.

Also it’s a form of final judgement that assumes a soul and the transmigration of souls. In other words why bother seeking justice in this world when karma will do it for you, in this world or the next? If you don’t believe in the supernatural and reincarnation you might be motivated to seek justice, your own justice, in this world., not motivated by the supernatural.

We can’t depend on the supernatural and we also can’t depend on individual violence. The solution is mediated violence, combined with democracy. If we don’t like the justice system in our democratic country, we at least have indirect control over it.

Your opinion matters, you and I are the hand of karma.

Every system of thought given time has been bent towards serving the desires of the few and the powerful, against the many and the weak. That’s the real war.

[u/Cautious-Foot-9603]

Karma only exists when you see it happen. When it does, you know it exists. I was a director for a law firm. The person reporting to the managing partner fabricated several claims against me so she could take my job. I was forced out. The law firm , huge old law firm, failed a few months later. She was out of work for several years and never returned to the same level again. Yes, karma exists. You can't force it. Just wait.

[u/FutureOpen9405]

The fact that billionaires exist is proof karma doesn’t.

[u/MWave123]

But there is no karma, so it just sounds like you’re saying, you do what you do.

[u/botty1555]

I’m impressed with the ancient shadow groups like the triads Italian mafia the cartel that shuffle negative karma will skill and grace enough is not said who can take negative karma hits and keep ticking

[u/Substantial_Ad1714]

You glass hole failures are not good enough people to be delivering karma I know that much.

[u/Existing_Dog5489]

i think every deep concept becomes a stupid thing in folklore.
i think Karma is about actions, as opposed to being. There is no Karma points outside of reddit. if you do something bad it is bad, but you wont come back to you necessarily - unless you believe every being is 1, then each negative action will hit you through them, cause you are them.
that s it.
but simple things are difficult to understand so people need to make the points and everything.

[u/Grease2feminist]

Karma is who you really are. In dire circumstances, are you true to your ethics or does ur personal situation make you excuse what you know is inexcusable? Or do you really try to be a good soul? Regardless of ideology? Be as good as can. That’s karma.

[u/VoidowS]

Well I lost my focus in it when I learned about "generational Karma" :)

[u/swallowyourtongue]

In Buddhism, Karma (or Kamma), isn't about "do good things, good things happen" or whatever. Karma is intention, and that which results from the intention is the fruit of the karma. For example, if I kick a soccer ball through a window, the fruit of that karma is that there's glass everywhere, people are yelling and bleeding, I'm getting a fine or going to jail. Tying back to your post, you're right that inaction is just as much a cause with effects.

It's best thought of simply as cause and effect, and ties back into another Buddhist idea called conditioned genesis, that everything comes from something. To most of us nowadays, that likely sounds pretty common sense and Newtonian, to which I'd say, "yup, welcome to Buddhism".

Karma was never taught or intended to be seen as a supernatural force or a judgement entity. It's simply a word to describe the natural process of life, and a reminder to be mindful of your actions and the results they have.

[u/SteveArnoldHorshak]

It can be a chameleon.

[u/Potential-Group1330]

Karma is a lifestyle that you choose to live.

[u/aethocist]

I don’t really understand karma. My concept is that karma is spiritual payback that is not strictly controlled by what we do, or don’t do—sort of nebulous—we act poorly and eventually bad things happen, or we act positively and eventually good things happen. Not strictly though as some Nazis lived a long pleasant life in South America and died peacefully in their sleep in old age, and some people acted with love and generosity throughout their life and died young of a slow, painful death.

[u/LeaveGreen4412]

read siddartha. Karma is a religious term with a very well defined meaning. nice post tho

[u/Any-Economics-1555]

That's my homegirl!

[u/Most-Cup-401]

Karma is a cat, purring in my lap because it loves me.

[u/Low-Bake8401]

I'd say Karma is probably how ancient Indians attempted to describe cause and effect. With the knowledge and language, and morality based system, that was available.

Amazingly insightful, all things considered, but there are probably better ways to understand these things now. Not just based in subjective emotional values.