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saint_monkeyi keep seeing people misuse the idea of karma, and the nit-picker in me always wants to correct everybody. since it is a long explaination, i just thought i would put it here.
there are lots of modern misconceptions about the concept of karma. not suprising since the concept is one that the practitioners of religions that employ it struggle with all the time. karma as i will explain it is karma as set out by early hindus and buddhists. in order to correct for injustices and to account for congregational differences, karma as practiced by modern religions may be a little (or a lot) different than my description. so mea culpa if i offend anyone.
karma, as close as i can figure, is the answer to one of the basic human questions. mainly... "what good does it do me to be nice to everyone." any good religion has to come up with a good answer to this question, and preferrably it also has to address the sister question "why do bad things happen to good people, and vice versa." karma does this very well.
karma is the spiritual debris of a "wrong action". which brings me to the first big misconception. there is not good karma and bad karma karma has no polarity, it is simply karma. the debris of this life. it really has no evil nature and no good nature. the jains think of karma like "molecular dirt," simply something on an atomic level that clings to the molecules of your consciousness, and does not let it pass the spiritual filter into nirvana. so, if karma is just debris accumulated by "wrong action," what then is "wrong action?" wrong action can be physical, spiritual, or mental. it is simply every thing you do or think to sate your own ego. (which if you think about it, is everything, even the task of ridding yourself of karma... we'll get back to that in a bit.)
it is the goal of the buddhists and the hindus to lose karma, not accumulate it. so this brings me to misconception number two... karma is not "i do something good for you today, and i find money on the street tomorrow." that is "grunge karma." or as john lennon called it, (and i prefer this term,) "instant karma." Instant karma would never work as the tenet of a religion, since it so obviously isn't always true. some people go thier whole lives being nice to everyone, and then they reap no visible reward from the cosmos, and they die without ever being happy themselves. seems awfully sad. conversely, some folks live thier lives out for thier own amusement, without caring who they harm and how, and they are never "punished" by the universe.
this is why the idea of rebirth is so important to karma. it is necessary to believe that you will keep coming back to this world, again and again, like deja vu skipping the groove, and largely being miserable the whole time you are here,(you can really see why this works so well in india, a large portion of the population is wretchedly poor, and probably miserable most of the time, so even if you are rich now, the chance that you could live 500 lives as an "untouchable" or a slug or a squirrel, is enough to keep you in line,) it gives you a reason to be good, so you can sluff the whole of your karmic load and split for nirvana.
which leads me to the next big misconception... karma isn't "i do an evil thing and i come back as a squirrel or a slug or a microbe." (although the previous paragraph may lead you to think that is the case,) in fact, it's not karma's job to punish anyone for thier actions. rebirth is determined by the wheel of being, and is essentially random, you could be another man, and even a rich man, or a god for that matter, after finishing a life as an evil man. the goal isn't to work your way up the cosmic soul chain, but instead, the idea is to skip out on the whole chain altogether.
but that isn't easy, because there are rules in the mix. you earn karma as the creature you are, and that karma is kept separate from your karmic loads from other incarnations. there is karma that you earn as a microbe, and karma that you earn as a man, and karma that you earn as a cat. nirvana is unobtainable with a karmic load, and the only way to remove karma is as a man. (even the gods can not remove karma, and are subject to it, and are therefore capable of correct and incorrect actions, which is so obvious when you think about it, how many times have we thought that providence was playing cruel tricks on us? under the karma system, perhaps they are, simply for thier own amusement, and they are earning karma for it!)
so, i have to go to class now, so i willpost this, and write a little more about removing karma later on...
anyhow, that's karma 101.
there are lots of modern misconceptions about the concept of karma. not suprising since the concept is one that the practitioners of religions that employ it struggle with all the time. karma as i will explain it is karma as set out by early hindus and buddhists. in order to correct for injustices and to account for congregational differences, karma as practiced by modern religions may be a little (or a lot) different than my description. so mea culpa if i offend anyone.
karma, as close as i can figure, is the answer to one of the basic human questions. mainly... "what good does it do me to be nice to everyone." any good religion has to come up with a good answer to this question, and preferrably it also has to address the sister question "why do bad things happen to good people, and vice versa." karma does this very well.
karma is the spiritual debris of a "wrong action". which brings me to the first big misconception. there is not good karma and bad karma karma has no polarity, it is simply karma. the debris of this life. it really has no evil nature and no good nature. the jains think of karma like "molecular dirt," simply something on an atomic level that clings to the molecules of your consciousness, and does not let it pass the spiritual filter into nirvana. so, if karma is just debris accumulated by "wrong action," what then is "wrong action?" wrong action can be physical, spiritual, or mental. it is simply every thing you do or think to sate your own ego. (which if you think about it, is everything, even the task of ridding yourself of karma... we'll get back to that in a bit.)
it is the goal of the buddhists and the hindus to lose karma, not accumulate it. so this brings me to misconception number two... karma is not "i do something good for you today, and i find money on the street tomorrow." that is "grunge karma." or as john lennon called it, (and i prefer this term,) "instant karma." Instant karma would never work as the tenet of a religion, since it so obviously isn't always true. some people go thier whole lives being nice to everyone, and then they reap no visible reward from the cosmos, and they die without ever being happy themselves. seems awfully sad. conversely, some folks live thier lives out for thier own amusement, without caring who they harm and how, and they are never "punished" by the universe.
this is why the idea of rebirth is so important to karma. it is necessary to believe that you will keep coming back to this world, again and again, like deja vu skipping the groove, and largely being miserable the whole time you are here,(you can really see why this works so well in india, a large portion of the population is wretchedly poor, and probably miserable most of the time, so even if you are rich now, the chance that you could live 500 lives as an "untouchable" or a slug or a squirrel, is enough to keep you in line,) it gives you a reason to be good, so you can sluff the whole of your karmic load and split for nirvana.
which leads me to the next big misconception... karma isn't "i do an evil thing and i come back as a squirrel or a slug or a microbe." (although the previous paragraph may lead you to think that is the case,) in fact, it's not karma's job to punish anyone for thier actions. rebirth is determined by the wheel of being, and is essentially random, you could be another man, and even a rich man, or a god for that matter, after finishing a life as an evil man. the goal isn't to work your way up the cosmic soul chain, but instead, the idea is to skip out on the whole chain altogether.
but that isn't easy, because there are rules in the mix. you earn karma as the creature you are, and that karma is kept separate from your karmic loads from other incarnations. there is karma that you earn as a microbe, and karma that you earn as a man, and karma that you earn as a cat. nirvana is unobtainable with a karmic load, and the only way to remove karma is as a man. (even the gods can not remove karma, and are subject to it, and are therefore capable of correct and incorrect actions, which is so obvious when you think about it, how many times have we thought that providence was playing cruel tricks on us? under the karma system, perhaps they are, simply for thier own amusement, and they are earning karma for it!)
so, i have to go to class now, so i willpost this, and write a little more about removing karma later on...
anyhow, that's karma 101.
