Tag Archives: karma

Karma

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Karma, depending on how open you are to possibilities, and attuned to what really goes on in the world is either nonsense or fact. Karma is one of those life forces net everyone agrees may exist. karma is either real for you or it is not.

What is karma exactly is another question. Some who are familiar with the Christian bible relate karma to a biblical verse(es) about the sins of the father being visited on the sons down to the third generation. Other people think of karma as something that is paid back in your next life for things done or not done in this life. Some see karma as a type of immediate feedback machine. Others see karma as lifetimes of progression to an end state. Of course some see karma as an invention of the ignorant.

For myself and my world Karma is all those things and more. It seems obvious that because we are eternal beings as the bible and most major religions hold to be true, it certainly plausible that what I may do in this live could have consequences that follow me into future lives. Perhaps I am to do, or did something that makes a change to the world of the future. I will be born into a world where I live with the effects of the change I incurred in this lifetime.

karmaOf course believing in reincarnation lends itself to thinking it is viable that what I do, or do not do in this life, is either rewarded or punished in a like fashion in a future incarnation. For example if I were to murder someone, and was found not guilty in a court of law, I am subject to the karmic effects of the murder I committed. On the other hand, if I were to live a saintly life, I will be rewarded in my next life for what I accomplished in this life.

Believing in karma as a function of reaching an end state of perfection brings a belief that I am mobile in each lifetime and either have climbed up or climbed down the karmic ladder. Living a good life in this lifetime moves me up a rung on the ladder when I live the next life. Doing poorly with this life, drops me one or more rungs on the karmic ladder.

Of those who believe karma does not exist except in peoples minds, it is hard to comprehend for those that have a belief system how karma does not play a part in ones ultimate fate. After all one is judged on ones actions and if that is not a function of karma with finality, I am at a loss to think of what may be a refection of karma. Calling a cat a dog does not change the name or nature of the animal.

For myself, I see all these beliefs or reflections of what karma is and how it functions very limiting. We like to categorize everything in our life, placing everything in it own little compartment. Most of the time how we categorize those things in our life makes little difference. With a belief system, or something as dynamic as karma, that is like classifying a brilliant diamond on one facet, ignoring or choosing to be ignorant to the idea that there is more than what we see or choose to see.

How about the possibility that karma is everything and more than I mentioned? What if karma is dynamic, far reaching across generations, and does move you and I up and down the karmic ladder of life, and also provides real time feedback on how we are managing our spiritual life? This more holistic approach is more rational than trying to place something like karma in a little box on the shelf.

Right now, if I am lonely, feeling lost, separated, or life just is not going where I want my life to go, it is immediate karmic feedback on how I am managing my life? Perhaps I am intentionally ignorant, or blissfully unaware that my actions at this moment, or this day, affect how the world interacts with me tomorrow, and how I interact with it? It is so much easier to find an external source for our problems, or life struggles than it is to take some introspective time and determine what we are doing or not doing to create the world we are living in at this moment. Why not take some time to ponder what you personally are doing to make your world a world you want to live in, instead of settling for a world you must endure?

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Synchronicity, good luck, or chance?

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I went to a drive through for breakfast this morning. The bill was $3.20. I had a five so I handed it to the young woman working the window and told her to keep the change, she did. This young woman and I had differing ideas on what change was. My idea of change was literal, and her idea of change was figurative. I do not know if for the young woman, a $1.80 tip is the norm for a $3.20 bill, or her command of the meaning of everyday words is not that strong. I let it slide, and I let her keep all the change plus a dollar bill. There is a reason why these types of jobs exist, and I know how hard life is hard on a paycheck like that, even if there is another paycheck to help out.

I spent my morning reminding myself the next time I go through the drive through, and that particular young woman is at the window, to be very clear about what portion of my ‘change’ is to be hers. While this thought was floating through the back of my mind, I thought about how silly I was being over the whole thing. I could have asked for the dollar bill and explained a paper bill was not change. My other option was just what I did. In general, a dollar bill is not going to have a big impact in my finances, but it may mean much more to her.

Lunch rolled around and I went to a burger place. Yes, I live high on the hog, at least I ate sitting in a building for lunch. I did not feel like fries, so I set them to the side to give to the birds later. I ate my burger, and I drank my soda listening to the hum of conversation around me.

There is a gas station right next door with fairly good coffee. For me lunch is not complete without a cup of coffee. I fixed myself a cup of coffee and there were those packets of tasty cookies right next to the coffee. One of the brands I like the taste of. The man behind the counter says what is going on? I wasn’t sure he was speaking to me, so I did not answer. He walked out from the counter as I walked up to the counter, and asked if that was all I wanted today? I said yes, just a cup of coffee and the cookies ($1.96).

The Man said it as on the house. I asked if he was sure, and he said yes, he can do that now and then. Besides he added, the coffee was getting old anyway. I saw the last drips of the coffee being made as it dropped into the pot I poured from, so I knew it was not old coffee. I thanked him, meaning every word of the, “Thank you”. He said to me, “God bless you”, and I said, “You too”.

As I was walking out of the store to my truck, I thought once again of the young woman at the drive in window. I really am blessed I thought, and today my generosity combined with her play on words, that I was paid back. Somehow things like this always work in my favor, but today I felt a little guilty because I know without a doubt the morning mix up was half my fault, and here I was being repaid at a gas station five hours later.

Little things like this happen all the time in my life over the last years. I have found the more I pay attention and the more grateful I am when they happen, they seem to happen more often and become more obvious. I can’t really say they never happened before to me. They may have happened and I was just to wrapped up in my own little world, to notice how magical daily life really is!

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Reincarnation filtered through karma or the golden rule

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I have thought we are reincarnated since I was a kid. There is just too much evidence including the Christian bible to think it is not a fact that we lived before, and we will live again. Unless someone is a practicing atheist and not a Christian hater in drag, it is rare to find too many major religions that do not have some kind of after life programming in their faith.

Along with reincarnation comes karma, they kind of slide across the horizon as a matched pair. Some people may reject the idea of reincarnation, but they hold onto karma. I read an interesting thought on karma a few years back, I wish I had the source so I could cite it.

The person who wrote it, was thinking about Christianity, reincarnation, and karma. They arrived at the idea that karma was visited upon us over the next three incarnations where we would reap what we had previously sown. After I thought about this, it was a pretty sobering thought. What if I was reaping in this life those things I sown in a recent past life? Whoa, serious stuff. I had to think about those possibilities for a number of days.

Of course after slicing, dicing, and deciding it may be a possibility Then there was the small matter of where does it fit into my own belief system? I found a place for it, and I thought I was done with it.  In the middle of one night, I woke up and felt like I had enough sleep. The only problem was there were still over three hours until the alarm went off.

I lay there, and my mind starting churning ideas like they tend to do when we can not sleep. What pops up except the recent thinking I did about reincarnation? One of the scariest or most exciting idea that came out of this late night thinking about this line of thinking about reincarnation is the later reaping of what you sow now portion.

I woke up with the alarm that morning thinking, as I did believing we are reincarnated or at the very least never die, I myself am reaping that which I planted was a pretty sobering thought. My mind was churning thinking about all those things which I have done with my life up until this moment, both good and bad. That brought me to an old Omni Magazine story I remembered where a man lived his life so neutrally that it was taking him hundreds of years to balance the good and the bad of his life.

What do I have to look forward to I wondered? Where was the list of the good verses the not so good I have done through out my lifetime? Of course our minds have a pretty skewed version of remembering things that comprise our life, so it really was a futile task to try. How could I wonder how my life would be weighed, when I saw it though colored glasses of my own making?

I started, over the next few days treating people differently than I had done up to that point. I payed attention to the idea that they were people and their life was no better nor worse than mine, but the were entitled to the same respect and care from me, that I give to myself. Once again that may not be saying much, because of the glasses we wear of our own making…

After some amount of time, the idea became second nature, as I had been living it most of my life, in my adaptation of the golden rule.  This was the golden rule with a twist though. A long reaching twist at that. Whether true or not, it has I suppose made me a more aware person, if not a better person. Once something is introduced as an idea, whether we accept it or reject it, it is always there, floating though our mind waiting to be recalled at the most inopportune time, like the middle of the night. I suppose on balance, a thought in the night is a lot better than the thief in the night.

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