Do you believe in Karma?

[Brampton_Boy]

Growing up in a Hindu household, Karma served as a fundamental tenant of my life. God's system of checks and balances, do good and good will follow etc.

As I got older and my belief in organized religion began to wain (and eventually disappeared), I still held on to the concept of Karma. While the rational side of me understands that there is little causality between one's actions, and being rewarded/punished in a future time period (beyond things that are obviously linked, i.e. cheating and divorce, crime and jail), I still can't shake the feeling that I'm wracking up cosmic brownie points or penalties.

I try and live a pretty decent life, but when I do something I know I shouldn't be doing (downloading a pirated movie, watching porn etc.), I try and "buy" my salvation by doing something charitable - normally donating money to a cause of some kind.

Even though I don't believe in religion, and my belief in God is best described as "tenuous", I still feel as though karma is a real thing - an unseen balancing force in the universe.

Anybody else have any thoughts on this? Even if it isn't real, Karma seems like a useful construct to help guide one's life - alternatively, I am a simpleton holding onto irrational religious belief beat into me as a child.

 

[bowened]

Nah. I don’t believe in it all.

Useful construct for guiding one’s life? Sure. But people don’t need it as a guide.

 

[EL CORINTHIAN]

In the metaphysical sense no. But I have seen karma being physically delivered either manually or by taking too many risks.

 

[Thai Domi]

Nope.

 

[Treeloy]

No, but I know people can bring Karma upon themselves if they feel they have done something bad/wrong. Sometimes people with good hearts will punish themselves as a form of Karma for past mistakes. They may feel undeserving and that they deserve to be miserable, bringing punishment upon themselves

 

[minute bull]

As a mindset where you feel most harmonious doing the things you are meant to do? Yes.

As a churlish response to random misfortune smiting one's enemies? Yes.

Hooker name? Yes.

Putting him- and/or herself through med school? No.

 

[badascan]

Just finished a book on Buddhism. As I understand it, karma is the way your thoughts and actions affect your world around you or how you are affected by the reverberations of your thoughts and actions. For instance, if you are in a bad/negative mood, people around you recognise it and might feel worse or treat you in a different way than they would if you were in a positive mood.

It's not a 1 to 1 return on your actions... It's real because you affect your reality...

 

[Alphaboy]

No.

It's something people tell kids to make them feel better.

Don't get me wrong, I WISH it were real and good actions gave us good consequences but life is not a Disney movie.

With that said, I think sometimes (not always) there can be a correlation between our deeds and actions and people falsely attribute it to some force in the universe.

If you're a dick, many times you'll make enemies. If you commit horrible crimes, many times you'll be caught and go to jail. This isn't karma though, there are tons of people who committed horrendous crimes, haven't gotten caught, and lived happily ever after.

 

[Brampton_Boy]

No, but I know people can bring Karma upon themselves if they feel they have done something bad/wrong. Sometimes people with good hearts will punish themselves as a form of Karma for past mistakes. They may feel undeserving and that they deserve to be miserable, bringing punishment upon themselves

I think I am guilty of this.

I often feel ashamed of myself when I knowingly do something wrong. There was a period in my late 20s where I was traveling alot for work and knowingly had casual relationships with woman who were married/in relationships (little risk of getting caught when I would be in a different city in a couple of days). When I actually sat down and thought about what I was doing, I felt this enormous guilt where I hated myself (and the woman) . When I had an engagement end recently, I simply chalked it up to my past transgressions catching up with me. While I'm a different person now than I was 5 years ago, I rationalized my relationship ending as having to pay my karma debt.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Karma makes sense in a general way. Putting out positive vibes is likely to get you those in return and negativity will get you negativity. I don't believe there's some cosmic system of in-kind retribution.

 

[bortt]

I can relate, and it tends to lend itself to obsessive thinking. Applying, in spite of yourself, every good deed or transgression to some cosmic scale of justice, and then reprimanding yourself for trying to be a good person for some selfish karmic reward, instead of for its own sake.

 

[Frode Falch]

Yes i do. But not like a magic force or anything like that.

 

[SpiderCrawl]

Not at all, I literally believe in nothing. You live you die, no heaven no hell, no ghosts, nothing special.

 

[Phlog]

Just finished a book on Buddhism. As I understand it, karma is the way your thoughts and actions affect your world around you or how you are affected by the reverberations of your thoughts and actions. For instance, if you are in a bad/negative mood, people around you recognise it and might feel worse or treat you in a different way than they would if you were in a positive mood.

It's not a 1 to 1 return on your actions... It's real because you affect your reality...

This.

If you're a nice and useful person you attract other nice useful people.

It's actually easier to just be nice rather than convincingly fake it.

 

[Naught2Sixty]

 

[spin]

there is too much depravity that happens in this world for me to believe there is any benevolent supernatural balancing of the scales.


especially down to the individual

 

[KrazyKanadian]

It depends what you define karma as. If you're saying it's that magical bullshit where people get what's coming to them be it good or bad, then no.

But I do believe that if you're a good person, you have a better chance of attracting and being around good people. Obviously, it's not a rule but there's a higher chance of it.

 

[Mike]

No. It's impossible to grow up in grimy poverty surrounded by immoral dirtbags that always get their way, to believe in fairy tale stuff like that. Plenty of innocents suffer endlessly, and plenty of corrupt sociopaths get everything they ever wanted.

 

[Tuf_guy]

Mostly, I seem to believe in it when something bad happens to me, like genuinely "Wtf did I do to deserve this?"

I don't expect other people to get their comeuppance consistently, though. I don't believe we live in a just world, though.

And a strange thing is to genuinely wish death on someone for something they've done, only to remember that it'll be you one day. Maybe even before them.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Still, sayings like you'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar do have a basis in reality.