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09 August 2007

 
Karma

I don't know ANYTHING about religion at all, so forgive me if this is stupid.

I was just thinking about karma... well, my thoughts concern a few things but what started it off was the Flummel post ages ago about the 10 Commandments. I was reminded that in Christianity (I guess - that's what it said, anyway) it's enough to entertain thoughts of something for it to be considered a done deal. If you have ever thought about, say, dragging your neighbors pressure washer behind your car until it jounces to ruin, then you have sinned.

I don't agree at all, since I believe in actions. Eg and Ij, caveman friends, are hungry and each has an apple - the only food for a 2-day journey. Eg eats his apple at 7 pm on the first day then fantasises about knocking Ij on the head with a rock and taking his apple, but doesn't do it. To me, Eg is blameless as he has done nothing wrong. Of course, some people might think him guilty, but get this - Ij spent the entire journey thinking about mating with Ac, Eg's wife - so where are we now? Ac, by the way, spent her time inventing the wheel so she could drag her neighbor's pressure washer behind her car... but didn't actually do it (yet).

Presumably the idea of bad thoughts=action doesn't work both ways. If you think about giving all your television sets to the Poor but neglect to actually do so, I don't think you get Charity bonus points. Similarly, if a church asks you for your tithe and you say, "I paid it in my heart," I doubt that that would satisfy them.

I do believe that if you do something good you shouldn't mention it, though. I'm not sure how that ties in with this - maybe it doesn't.

Anyway, I was thinking about Ginko*, and marveling that anyone would ever have been attracted to that scheme. It popped into my head that for me, even worse than losing money would be having made money from it, as that would be a karma hit. "Investors" would have to know that any money they "made" was merely being taken away from other people. "More fool them," I hear some say, yet for me (I can't speak for others) the motives or what-have-you of other people are beyond my concern. I have enough trouble just trying to keep myself on what I consider to be a good path.

Karma has to do with actions, which makes it an attractive concept to me. Although that word has its origins in certain areas, there are similar concepts in other places. I really don't think we need ever be concerned with anything other than now, for right-wrong purposes. Karma has a "now" kind of thang going for it, which also is attractive to me. It isn't all totted up at some misty future point, but is more like a running total.

Ultimately, it's just a word for a concept that happens to coincide with my own views, I suppose.

*For non-SL-ers: Ginko was a ponzi scheme that recently went belly-up.

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posted by - 5:06 PM

Comments:
Dogbert said "Karma is great. It means I can do bad things to people all day long and assume they deserve it" ;-)
 
My personal view is that a truly vivid fantasy is telepathically communicated to the recipient, and does something weird to them inside ... as we feel the daggers coming from others' eyes.

If in my imagination I picture a real person for my sexual fantasy, I have used them psycho-sexually, and subconsciously they feel it. In my experience, the person may then appear in a dream in response.
 
Enjah is quite correct, and in fact Karma is not only action but most emphatically about thought. Buddhism believes all effects have causes, and all external phenomenon begin as imprints in the mind. A particular thing has no intrinsic quality separate from the mind that perceives it: a glimmering lake is a beautiful thing to the person on the shore who sees it at sundown, but may be a life-threatening thing to the boater a mile away with an empty tank of gas. The reason it appears one way to you and another way to the boater is a result of imprints: thoughts that you have entertained in the past. Interestingly, Buddhism will say the boater in danger because of thoughts he had earlier (perhaps much earlier, and accumulating over a period of time) that did not respect life. As a consequence he sees the lake as life threatening. The accumulation of "bad" thoughts can lead to our perceiving "bad" situations around us: Liars are themselves highly suspect of the truth. Certainly an occasional thought makes less of a karmic imprint than a word spoken or an action taken, but they all originate in thought and all have consequences. Like a mighty tree that from acorns grow, so mighty actions have their origins in numerous small thoughts, tens of thousands of them throughout the day, accumulating and forming our mind.
This is one reason meditation is so important in Buddhism. It allows the mind to draw away from the ego and its desires, needs, and emotions that color (infect, influence or mangle) our perception of the neutral world. There is no bad or good. Every death benefits another life, every loss is another's gain. When we stop thinking that our mind is limited to our body, that it can encompass our family, friends, neighbours, the rest of humanity, all living things and the rest of creation, then we no longer see the world in terms of loss or gain, life or death, me or you. But it all begins with thought.

I would not want to take responsibility for all the bad things I've thought either, but I am starting to realize they affect how I perceive the world, and in Buddhism, that IS the world.
 
I hasten to add that in Buddhism, because there is no good and evil, one can't really sin, and there is no one to confess to when one does. There is no heaven or hell. Buddhist pictures of tortured souls and paradises are based on a belief that living creatures exist beyond our perception of them, and all deserve compassion and enlightenment. We remake the world through our own practice, and the willingness to change our thoughts, words and actions can only stem from a wish to end one's own suffering and that of others.

Eg has done nothing wrong, so legally has not committed an offense, but his thoughts have changed who he is and what he thinks of the world. Ig likewise. Ac is creating something useful, but will tend not to see its use for helping her neighbour, only for harming her.

So in the end it's not a question of morality, of right or wrong, just about the kind of world you want to create for yourself and live in.

My profound apologies for hammering upon your ears, and for waxing dull, but your post hath touched me on a matter over which I have expended much thought in my idle hours.
 
Not that anyone is paying any attention to this old post, but yes! Young! Karma is effect and cause, as you said, not cause and effect really! The action or thot is a seed which can sprout in many ways. And the most effective thots are the subconscious ones, because they control our behavior without our realizing it. And meditation brings those to light! - Lucy
 
I sometimes think about things from a specific angle leaving out things I just don't feel like dealing with. It has something to do with trying to simplify things enough so that I can grasp them and experimenting to see where I wind up. It often leaves me stranded and in the position of needing to defend a position that I find myself amazed to be in. Indeed, sorting out things I believe in is never going to result in an entire garment of dazzling completeness but more likely a crazy quilt with the back missing and one corner chewn by puppies. I have a lot of bizarre stubs left from experiences, like anyone, I suppose. I watch the unconscious reactions I have because from them I can figure out what the base belief is (sometimes useful sometimes not).

I certainly don't believe thought holds no weight. What the hell do I believe... hmmm.. well, I think we are separate in the way raindrops are separate, and that dying is like raindrops that fall into the sea. I think we don't know much, but that it's all right. I think people who only allow into the world the things they can touch, see, read statistics on are about the same as a person who looks at a painted wall and concludes the wall is just a thin layer of paint. I try very hard to be what I consider good, which is only relevent to me, I suppose, as everyone else has their own ideas.

I've found it interesting to read the comments - thank you.
 

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I want to ask for thoughts about improving the world -- what do people need? How can things be organised?