There’s this whole Karma thing that people toss around. Especially on Facebook when someone does something horrible and, in turn, something bad happens to them immediately. Instant karma, they say in their posts.
I’m not so sure about the notion of this. Something about karma seems sort of “eye for an eye” -ish.
By definition, karma is (in Hinduism and Buddhism) “the sum of a person’s actions in this, and previous states of existence viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.” Straight from Webster’s mouth to your ears.
To further the concept, it follows along in this way:
The nature of the “cause” will produce like “effects.”
So it goes that a good deed will lead to future good effects for that person. Conversely, those bad deeds will lead to future harmful effects.
I just don’t know about this. And I should add, I don’t know squat when it comes to the mysteries of the Universe. Is there an afterlife? Do our spirits go on? Does doing good deeds send us through those Heavenly gates? Or, does thinking about the decadence of Snickers Bars in church put us into Satan’s hands for eternity? Do we have just one trip on earth, or are there thousands of lives? I don’t know. I don’t know. And. I don’t know.
But I certainly wonder. Someone wrote to me saying that karma is one of the Universal Laws: The law of cause and effect. Action and reaction. They said the law of karma is an integral part of spirituality. It gives us a basis on which to make the right choices and create a beautiful future for ourselves.
It sounds good in theory, I suppose. But I know a lot of good people who go through terrible terrible things. Horrible illnesses, or the loss of a child, or spouse, or someone close. Rape. Torture. Injustice. So, karma tells me that those people have done something equally horrible at some point in their lives? I’m not buying it.
I know the person who sent this to me was trying to appeal to my scientific brain, explaining “cause and effect.” The “Universal Laws” are not science-based. The 12 universal laws of spirituality were created by man at some point. I found different sources cited for the origins of these.
They are the laws of vibration, attraction, divine oneness, compensation, polarity, correspondence, inspired action, cause and effect, relativity, gender, perpetual transmutation of energy and the law of rhythm.
These universal laws are said to help us adjust our understanding of why things are the way they are. It gives life a deeper meaning.
Not to be confused with things like Newton’s Laws of Motion, the Laws of Thermodynamics, or the Universal Law of Gravitation. Scientific Laws.
I feel I should mention that Newton’s third law of motion is this: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Basically, a cause and an effect.
Which brings us back to karma and the “Universal” law of cause and effect. Everything we do, added up, and coming back to us in equal measures. Each human thought we have. Or. Working in a soup kitchen. Taking two free samples, when it says “take only one.” Tossing a pebble in a pond. Frying an egg, I suppose. Pressing the elevator button more than once.
It seems I’m not sure of anything when it comes to the laws of the spirit. There were those ten rules that came down the mountain on stone tablets. And the whole thing about not biting the apple. And now the twelve Universal Laws.
To be on the safe side. I think I’ll stick with that old Christmas song, “…he knows if you’ve been bad or good. So be good, for goodness sake.”
Check.
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“Suspecting and knowing are not the same.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
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“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
― Plato, The Republic
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“Even though there are no ways of knowing for sure, there are ways of knowing for pretty sure.”
― Lemony Snicket
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Karma good, or not so good. Or not at all?
