Karma

Last week a man died a violent death.  The man lived a violent life.  My only connection with this man is that he had previously owned my dog.  In fact she was confiscated from him after he beat her nearly to death.  He was considered mentally challenged, but he also had a history of drug use and domestic violence.  It is no surprise that he died a violent death.  That is the environment he lived in.



Resi

 The article in the paper that reported his death slanted the story in such a way that it appeared as though a nice young, mildly retarded man was killed in a violent, unprovoked manner.  I posted a link to the story and simply stated that the man had be the same person who had beaten my dog.  It was posted merely as an interesting connection to my friends who know about my dog's history and her current problems.

One of my friends responded with the word 'karma' and what a flurry storm that set off.  Some agreed, some violently disagreed.  Some felt that the word 'karma' means a literal one to one correlation of a bad act to a bad result (i.e. he beat the dog so he deserved to die).  I think others felt the 'what comes around goes around' definition was being referred to.  Perhaps it was.  In some cases certainly some of my more passionate animal loving friends feel that beating an animal should result in death.  In any case, people responded emphatically and not altogether politely.



Budda

 It got me thinking about karma as a concept and why I don't believe in it, but it also got me to pick up a book (or the Internet) and do a little bit of reading about the concept.  Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, there is a lot of information about the concept and it doesn't all agree.  It was first described in ancient India and has been adapted by various philosophies (to include Christianity) over thousands of years.  My purpose isn't to teach you philosophy or religion, so I'm not going to go into all of the permutations of the idea.

In general, karma is the concept of  'action' understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and practiced/discussed in Indian religions and philosophies. 



Heaven

 In general, Karma is not punishment or retribution but simply an extended expression or consequence of natural acts. Karma means 'action' and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction, that governs all life. The effects experienced are also able to be changed by future actions so are not necessarily fated. A particular action now is not binding to some particular, pre-determined future  reaction; it is not a simple, one-to-one correlation of reward or punishment.

In some religions/philosophies, the concept can span several lifetimes of reincarnation, in some it is in this life alone, in Christianity it is equated to the reward or punishment one is to receive in Heaven (or Hell). 



Too good at being good?

 So when I say I don't believe in Karma, it isn't exactly true.  I don't believe Karma causes good things to happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, in direct correlation, at least not in one lifetime on earth.  Because in my experience the people who are the very best at being bad (think Drug Lords) live a highly rewarded, lucrative life on earth and the people who are the very best at being good (think Mother Theresa) are very unlikely to be rewarded for it on earth (and if they were, wouldn't they give the reward away?). 

The people who are bad, but not good at it, they are the ones who get caught...they are the ones people say 'karma' about.  Like this guy; he wasn't good at being bad.  He got caught both by law enforcement and by his own kind.  He was a pawn of someone else in the drug world, that is what got him killed.  And the rest of us, those of us who are good, but fallible...well, we are treated to a life of mixed pain and blessings. 

Karma as originally intended would have good effects as well as bad effects, but we (western society) don't see someone become successful and then say it was Karma.  We attribute it to hard work, talent, or luck.  Karma shouldn't be a 'bitch'.  Karma is simply cause and effect applied to lives (or after-lives).


Karma?