It seems important to me we keep in mind that whenever we speak of “karma” or “ego” or even “God”, that as words these are all “signifiers” and not things (i.e. the things they are meant to signify) in-and-of themselves. Words are really tools required to communicate about shared ideas to understand and enhance the experience of a shared humanity…

That is to say, while heads of state and church may use power to pervert meaning, that is not to say there is no relevance to our own ongoing efforts to understand what we and one another are talking about when we feel compelled to use such words as “karma”, “ego” and the like.

While your point is well taken, one quote re good deeds and rewards does not an entire argument make.

Careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water!
: )

To quote, “Best you should hope for is that your good deeds and acceptance of your fate in this life will warrant a promotion in the next one.”

Karma is NOT about gaining a promotion at all and those that think this (in my opinion) are being cohersed by their own ego as a direct result of ‘those in power’ (be it the curch or not) planting the seed of fear…

I could go on and on but you get the idea.

Bri

The concept of karma is merely India’s favorite spiritual excuse

but what is karma, exactly?

I’m just wondering, would it be right to say that the Christian idea of “God repaying debts” is a form of Karma too? Wouldn’t that also be a “what happened before will be paid for later” kind of philosophy? It seems to me that most of us follow something similar to some extent, whether it’s based in religion or a life philosophy and while it would be nice if people could just nice without it being because they’re worried about the consequences for themselves, as you say - it’s better than nothing at all

So if I say that something is my Karma, I am saying that it is my doing.

Whether it’s from a past or future life, or what exactly the Karma was, is irrelevent.

The purpose is to acknowledge that one’s actions have universal effects, and that there is nothing you can do to another life form that you are not doing to yourself.

Yourself, because Karma can really only be understood in the context of another belief, which is that all is one.

Biologists and nuclear physicists are just figuring this out now.

Recently, a friend of mine put it in even simpler terms (speaking of payback): “Karma, she is the bitch.”

To me, we can speak of Karma, Dharma — even shwarma — but much of it is about as easy to zero in on as a quark… (except shwarma — that’s
sliced up lamb, isn’t it?)

I believe in karma to the extent it absolutely CAN and IS a “what goes around comes around” even within one life. There are books, philosophies and different religions and philosophies on the matter…hell. There’s my own personal experiences. You give what you get and you get what you give. Simple matter of universal energy and I appreciate the HELL, doc, out of the plugin and how the name just goes so well with my site.

Thanks.

Thanks for Spam Karma. It saved my cat’s blog.

-jp

Brian Smith’s “Ritual, Resemblence, and Reflection” tells me that the work “karma” is a shortening of “karman,” the older word referring to what modern occultists would call “astral matter” created by Vedic magicians to construct astral temples to live within between incarnations. Eventually it became a term referring to the spiritual results of all actions, not just ritualized ones, and was said to determine your experiences between and in following incarnations.

Unless, of course, I’ve completely misunderstood it!

The original Vedic class structure was very much like the medieval Christian one you described, as the latter was based on the similar class structured used by all of the people who originally spoke Indo-European languages. See my essays on IE cosmology and caste systems on my website, or my August 2006 book on Druidism, for details. Only in the Vedic and decended cultures and subcultures did it get as nasty as you (correctly) describe, for reasons that may have to do with a political win by the clergy over the warriors in the old “geeks vs. jocks” war that’s been going on for 3000+ years.

higher Physics (Quantic Mechanics) start to agree with this ideas. Both are against “common seense” and absolutely infallible.

Dr. Stuart Hameroff (And R. Penrose, Nobel awarded ) have done an excelent job placing out counscience in a quantic field. This modern physics is reducing the matter roots to an unsettling Zen koan.

Exactly. Which is why I was careful to point out the difference between the western interpretation of karma (”instant karma” i.e. “what goes around comes around”) with the actual traditional definition (which involves more than this present life).