Something happened today to someone I know, and the first thing that came to mind was karma. In this case, bad. Do you believe in Karma?
I believe in the power of attraction by what energy you put out. Positive things happen to people that are positive because that's what they attract.... same goes for negative people.
Yes, absolutely. That is why I expect that jackass that cut me off and brake checked me this morning is going to have a bad accident if he keeps driving like that.
I believe in Carmex and Carnauba wax! Karma is for the weak minded. I hope that statement does not come back to haunt me!
^^^ Well put Fastviper I don't believe in karma really, the exactness seems rather impossible. If people believe it, they seem to extract that "karma" meaning when things go a certain way. But I do think that people do nice things for people that have been nice to them, and vice versa. Also, Karma requires some sort of definition on what's "good" and whats not. Perception seems like too big of a variable to decide.
Yes. The power of positive thinking, the bad effects of negative thinnking, and the way humans are highly interactive with, and connected to, one another makes it highly likely that the effects attributed to "good and bad karma" could actually take place in our type of society. I don't think it is actually the formal definition of "karma" but rather just a side-effect of the human condition. I think the book "The Secret" is all about the potential reality of this. (Not sure, I haven't read it). Old sayings like "What goes around, comes around" and "You reap what you sow" come from this same basic characteristic of human social/tribal connections.
First off after breaking your neck and hoping to get through it and working towards that goal is better for the mind and body then crying yourself to sleep for weeks on end. Second, there isn't a stiff breeze floating through the air that paddles people on the bum. Warning kids that "you're going to pay for that later" is a way to get people to what you think is right. Saying Saddam and CO. died because karma kicked them in the butt is moronic. They died because they lived an entire life of violence. If you surround yourself with death and violent people you will eventually die because of one of them. If you race cars at death defying speeds and die in a crash, guess what IT WAS A POSSIBILITY! Weak minds hold on to weak ideas. Hoping a bully one day faces a bully that whoops him good is simply a hope. Karma is like Santa Clause but most people grow out of the hopes that Santa will give them what they want.
No, not really, nor do I believe in Dharma, which will be very familiar to anyone here who has studied Indian literature/history.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It really depends on how I think what would happen to me if something bad I saw happens to me.
Not really. In solipsism, you would still have free choice to perform good or bad or indifference. Everyone around you is just an extension of your imagination, nothing more. Thus, karma has nothing to do with that belief structure.
I guess that would be a good way to explain the view from the outside. On the contrary, anybody that has any of their roots in solipsism would recognize that the generally accepted definition of karma can also be interpreted as the interconnectedness of 'this' philosophy. The Solipsist that doesn't believe in Karma is a masochist. Another confusing word to try to attach to that way of thinking is 'selfish'. It seems that the word 'selfish' could have been invented just to describe Solipsism. Yet, to the individual looking outward; to be selfish is actually an act of giving. Belief in Karma is one step away from accepting that Artists are the sculptors of our physical future and Physicists are inventors of Sub-atomic particals. The irony, to me, comes in the 'asking' of this question. Does the belief system of you next door neighbor (or future neighbor) decide your future? [That's rhetorical. Of course we all know the 'correct' answer. ]
Of course. It's basic physics. Every action has a equal and opposite reaction. You do not need religion or philosophy when you have science I remember hearing this: The order goes from science, to religion and then to philosophy. I can tell you why a ball goes up, and then down. But what causes that ? And then why ??!