5 ms·
For a similar idea from another culture, see the ancient definitions of karma: Now as a man is like this or like that, according as he acts and according a
by akprasad 3y ago
For a similar idea from another culture, see the ancient definitions of karma:
Now as a man is like this or like that,
according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be;
a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad;
he becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds;
And here they say that a person consists of desires,
and as is his desire, so is his will;
and as is his will, so is his deed;
and whatever deed he does, that he will reap.
— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
- EugeneOZ 3y agooligarchs who were killing, stealing, raping and betraying their whole lives, now are laughing on this joke so hard, on their super-yachts.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Aerbil313 3y agoThis is exactly why for karma to work an afterlife with proper punishment and rewards need to exist.
- mikrl 3y agoI try to live virtuously in a way Russian oligarchs might laugh at. No yacht, but no enemies either. Never have to worry about novichok or a drone hitting me. It’s not bad at all.
- berniedurfee 3y agoAnd a mostly clean conscience! Not something everyone has to deal with, but some of us do.
- EugeneOZ 3y agoDoesn't matter. their experience disproves that bullshit about "karma", that's all.
- achenet 3y agoIt doesn't. they live in constant paranoia of being assassinated. Their super-yacht comes at the price of their peace of mind.
- lennxa 3y agoI agree. But the message here is not an external occurring but rather internal. One's acts determine one's internal state. If you act virtuously by your definition, your judgement of yourself will be good/not corrupt, which is good. The key point here is that it's your own personal defination.
- EugeneOZ 3y agoI'm not praising the oligarchs, of course. I'm saying that the "karma" bullshit just doesn't work. Yeah, I don't want to be like these bad guys, but I have no illusions that some magical "karma" will reward me or punish them - that's naive.
- akprasad 3y agoI agree. The quote I shared above has nothing to do with external systems that dole out rewards and punishments. Ancient definitions of karma are very different from the mainstream definition in vogue today (edit: with the usual caveat that ancient concepts have multiple interpretations, and I'm sure there are contemporaries of the view I shared that are more in line with what you imagine).
- mikrl 3y agoI don’t believe in karma or in the words of Johnny Cash “god almighty is gonna cut em down” but the world does work in funny ways. Such behaviour is not sustainable and even if your network of nasties shields you from consequences, you’re making a giant gamble relying on that forever without some meaner network coming along and pop! with no moral issue.
- pseg134 3y agoYou are lacking the perspective to make that determination but I will pray that on your deathbed you will achieve total enlightenment so you can see.
- barrenko 3y agoAnother way to think about this and the parent comment is that karma is instant.
- SeanAnderson 3y agoReminds me of, "Luck is just when preparation meets opportunity."
- dr_dshiv 3y agoAt my summer camp, we used to hear: “Sow an act, reap a habit Sow a habit, reap a character Sow a character, reap a destiny”
- akprasad 3y agoThat's a nice way to phrase it! Google tells me this quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who himself was deeply influenced by ancient Indian thought (see [1], e.g.). [1]: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2709649 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2709649 (edit: replaced [1] with a better link.)
- andorov 3y agoSimilar quote from Lao Tzu. I like the inclusion of thoughts -> words -> actions. "Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny."
- hsjqllzlfkf 3y agoThis is excellent, thank you.
- cyrillite 3y agoThe only thing I would change here is “watch your thoughts, thoughts become words” and reverse it. Your words are so often careless attempts at thought. First approximations of ideas. All too often, however, they are spoken to oneself and heard by oneself as truth. Be very careful about your words, they will go on to constrain oh so much. Now, strictly speaking thought may come first. But, it’s that thinking about words which becomes so trapping, not the initial conditions that give rise to the words. Interrogate your language, distrust it, scrutinise it.
- ineedasername 3y agoRarely do people get what they deserve. The idea of Karma only "works" when embedded in a spiritual belief system that adheres to some form of iterative life cycle, e.g., reincarnation.
- dzolob 3y agoThat’s a common misunderstanding. Karma is not a “restoring force”. Karma is habit. Act with kindness and your life will become one of kindness. Act with rage and your life will become one of rage. Karma is not there to get you. Is the law of cause and effect. If you seed rage, you will get rage. No other result can become from rage than rage.
- Slow_Hand 3y agoI doubt this is a novel thought, but as a non-believer in the Christian afterlife I’ve always considered Hell to be the place that one ends up in (while still alive) after a lifetime of bad choices. It is the terrible reality that you find yourself in, full of demonic people and meager circumstance, as a consequence of your bad choices. Not a literal dimension of pain and suffering, but a manifestation of all the rejection and shunning by others that your terrible behavior warrants. Unworthy of love, or forgiveness, or pity. Untrusted and unhelped by others because of your untrustworthy reputation.
- dr_dshiv 3y agoYes. I consider the independence of self to be an illusion. Instead, our self is composed by our influences. In that sense, “reincarnation” happens all the time as we influence each other and upload our selves. From this view, karmic influences are even more pronounced, as we create heaven and hell for our extended selves.
- Aerbil313 3y agoNo. Reincarnation leads to a paradox: How would the last life before the universe’s end’s deeds and sins be karma’ed? It actually only works in a religion with a proper afterlife. Not one in which everyone is saved regardless and go to heaven no matter what. One in which punishment is one-to-one to the sins in this life, like Islam.