the law of cause & effect

[inspirit]

Indeed you reap what you sow.

But there is another variable there and that is God's amazing grace.

No...I don't.

Gem: I think Karma is a belief and not a particularly sound one either, it makes people imagine there is a reward or punishment for everything that happens and then they say, 'it's his karma' when they mean 'he deserves it'.

Sometimes it's just a blame game.

Well said.

I would also like to use this quote as to further explain why for me:

From: Rethinking Karma

Karma relies on the so-called “law of causality” – that every cause has a predictable effect. Therein lies a fatal flaw: there is no such law; as quantum physics is increasingly showing us, reality simply does not behave this way. We live in a universe of probabilities, not absolutes. While we can observe our surroundings and make generally reliable predictions about X event being followed by Y outcome, there is no guarantee that Y will always follow X for any given event. The best we can say is that there is a high probability that Y will follow X – but there is always the chance, however slight, that X could be followed by Z, Q or P (but not U; they’re overused enough as it is). For practical purposes this means that there is no guarantee that the outcome of one’s actions will correspond with the actions themselves in any way that makes sense to the logical mind. There can be no universal mechanism that infallibly balances out our actions as karma is said to do, because we can’t even say with total certainty whether a given action will produce the same outcome twice.

Beliefs and Subconscious Structures
The Buddhists may be onto something with this “seeds planted in the mind” idea, though I highly doubt that every single act creates a new one. What I can verify is that habitual thoughts, beliefs and actions create structures in the mind and energy bodies, which then exert a tremendous influence over what we experience. Our beliefs play a large role in creating our experience, as do the energetic structures created over time by habitual thought and courses of action. It may well be that holding a strong belief in a “law of karma” creates that structure within yourself, which you’ll then start manifesting in your circumstances. It’s worth mentioning that these structures can be nearly instantaneously changed or even destroyed, resulting in a corresponding change in the influences and experiences one attracts. Suffice to say that if there ever was a karmic mechanism at work in my life, I think I broke it. Oops.


These structures can influence us across multiple lifetimes, which may have given rise to some of the ancient ideas about karma. Similarly to how past aspects of ourselves can manifest old unresolved patterns in our present circumstances, these aspects of ourselves can also originate in other lifetimes. It becomes problematic to try and place these patterns in any kind of moral or ethical context, however. Invariably they are the result of unhealed trauma, and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Alternately, negative entities are known for implanting similar structures and interfering with one’s internal patterning (and by extension, the circumstances one attracts) without the awareness of the target. Over the course of my healing work on myself and others, where causes of present life patterns tend to be brought to light, I have yet to come across a case of someone “paying” for something they did in the past.

[Shabda]

Originally Posted by inspirit

Indeed you reap what you sow.

But there is another variable there and that is God's amazing grace.

also,another variable is, what does one individual or the other have to learn, karma is extremely efficient, often serving several individuals at the very same time...a VERY efficient learning tool...we come to the school of hard knocks (earth) for a reason, to advance more quickly...

[7luminaries]

You know it's very difficult to accept...but some of us...at various points on our path...are determined not to move forward...due to their mindset, baggage, and so forth.

If this is a family member, it can be very painful for other family members to deal with it...even if they cope with love and forgivenes.

And even watching as a 3rd party can also be painful, as you realise that progress for some may not occur quickly...or even in this lifetime...and you have to deal with the suffering they inflict on others you care about.

This would be an instance of the karma serving several ppl at once, LOL...sort of like the 6 degrees of separation.

Sometimes all you can do is be there for the one (or ones) you love. And thank God they are there for you.

Peace/blessings,
7L

No I don't believe the old views of karma as you only have to listen to people about their lives to realise that what goes around certainly does not come around.

Little old ladies who apparently were gentle, kind and giving being brutally murdered or attacked? The karma belief then tries to give this meaning saying it must be a past life thing or they has negative thoughts or fears. Excuses follow excuses to try and give justification for karma.

When it comes to people we are emotional about due to their "bad" or "evil" actions and from that emotional reaction creating judgements we try to create meaning about what will happen as justice for them afterwards as a way of punishment. Yet what is ignored is the bigger picture to that "bad" person and why they did what they did. Is the victim being punished or is the villain yet to be punished? It all gets confusing as to who is settling the karmic debt.

Karma is simply what comes next, how we react, interact and feel about what comes next and many factors will influence that. Later in life what appeared to be the negatives turned out to be the positives, it all gets blurry.

Also the fear of karma just gets people anxious as they try to obey societies rules and yet in reality they are doing nothing wrong. Just look at the guilt Catholics suffer from.

Its an idea and philosophy best left to gather dust as it just causes more harm than good.

[inspirit]

There are many false beliefs about karma. One of them in my opinion is the belief that you are born with karma transfered to you from past lives. I think that a society can have karma which results in bad things happening to innocent people but an individual's karma is always clean at birth.

Karma is not anything other than the natural laws of cause and effect. Just because something bad or good happens to someone does not mean that they did something to deserve it. Often the cause of one person's happiness or misery is at the cost of someone else's actions entirely.

However there is truth to the adage that you reap what you sow. Doing good will naturally cause good things to come back to you. Doing evil will naturally cause bad things to come back. This isn't God's punishment or reward however. God only supplies Grace, both to the deserving and the nondeserving.

Originally Posted by Gem

I think Karma is a belief and not a particularly sound one either, it makes people imagine there is a reward or punishment for everything that happens and then they say, 'it's his karma' when they mean 'he deserves it'.

Sometimes it's just a blame game.

I grew up with two brothers, and when weren't busy cultivating favor from the parental units, we were tattle-taleing to get each other into trouble. Kind of a parental karma game.