Karma is just coincidence. Our mind is pulling tricks on us.

If karma exist, then bad things shouldn't happen to a good person, right? But when it does happen, we say it's karma from previous life. How is it fair for a person who has no conscious of his past life to bear the consequence?

Care to enlighten me then?

Edit: Just to make things clear, I mean no offense by whatever I say. I'm just someone who's trying to learn more about karma and the way it works. I'm not trying criticize or bring anyone's religion down. So yup.

This post has been edited by objectifyme: May 23 2010, 04:53 PM

Wow, this is amazing.

I always thought karma is fate and destiny. It is enlightening of Beastboy to identify it as energy from newton's prespective.

I think there is so many definition of karma. Before we can continue with karma can we agree what is karma. As I see it form forumers who contributed, it is "what ever you do to others (good or bad) it will be eventually be done unto you". Many seem to disagree if had to be transferred to next or from previous life. So are we taking reincarnation out or in?

As to personal experience, I do not have the karma type of experience you guys did (eg lim00b scratching someone's car). I never seen the good or the bad I done (as in almost similar incident) being reflect back to me.

well, i dont look upon it as the universe's revenge on me, its more like the universe giving me a lesson ie, "the other person scratched you car and confess, shouldnt you try the same thing?"

but all in all, its just fancy over thinking on my part. still dont believe in karma despite at times i feel my life is part of some cosmic joke/movie

"At times"!!! Dont we all feel the same

Karma is easy to refute if you think of it as a linear phenomenon, as in if you are kind to people, people will be kind to you. I don't think cause and effect works that way.

Example: your parents may have said if you get a uni degree, you'll get more job opportunities. That's the typical linear relationship, do A, get B. What's forgotten is the thousand things you did that can change the supposed outcome of A. You may have chosen a field of study that is no longer in demand. You may have chosen to party instead of studying and scraped through with a GPA of 2.1, causing your resume to persistently get shoved to the bottom of the pile. Sometimes even just being present at a place can change the outcome of A, as in someone comes to you and says hey, didn't we go to class together? My dad's the VP of the company you're interviewing at!

In all the scenarios, the common denominator is you, and the seemingly random choices you made prior to that point in time. You choose to attend a particular uni, the field of study, to party & skip classes. Every little choice - even the time you hesitated to cross the road and missed getting hit by a truck by 2 seconds, contributes to the final outcome. That's how complex cause and effect is.

So while the common variety "do A get B" definition of karma is a joke, the study of how a set of micro forces lead to an outcome is intriguing. It is as complex as predicting weather patterns, and can probably use the same concepts as the butterfly effect.

As I see it, it is for this reason that my reward for doing a good deed may not be the same as your reward for doing the same.

+1

Since there is no linear relationship, then karma is not applicable?

No, it just means the common man-in-the-street definition of karma is a gross oversimplification of the process.

Okay I said, I never understood karma. So what is karma in the not simplified sense.

This post has been edited by faceless: May 25 2010, 11:53 AM

I doubt there's one definition of karma that everyone can agree to but I find this to be a good brief summary:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-karma.htm

To me, karma is an ancient name for a process and as I've said previously, the closest analogy I can find to it is the weather prediction process. Weather is a result of prior conditions. When inputting complex variables into a weather-scenario computer, scientists found out that small variations like rounding a number from .506127 to 0.506 can alter the course of weather forever, hence the name butterfly effect where the flap of the wings can change the weather's outcome. More on butterfly effect here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

The butterfly effect is based on chaos theory and suggests the non-linear nature of cause and effect. The smallest inconspicuous act can alter your future and what you are today is the result of millions of past variables, just as what you'll be tomorrow must take into account today's hundred variables. Some variable take a long time to take effect, like how years may pass before the cops knock on your door becoz of an old unpaid traffic summons.

Using formulas similar to weather prediction, the past and present actions of an individual can likewise be measured and fed into a computer and a future outcome predicted. That would be your "karma."

How to teach simple village folk a thousand years ago about chaos theory... it was easier to just say if you do something good, then something good will happen to you. The stories are preserved till today. In reality its a lot more complex than that.

There's one aspect about karma - past lives and future lives - I cannot resolve so I won't spend time speculating about something I cannot get empirical data to.

What your theorizes about already overstep the boundary of karma (which is.. as you said it.... another equivalent of gross oversimplication of karm too? lol) . For eg. based on what you've written, What person A does affects person B thousands of miles aways. So if person A chose to drink a cow milk today, its not longer HIS "karma" per se if it MIGHT possibly cause the death of an random unrelated person B the next day. Unless further thoughts link up person's B death which in return.... made person A to be kicked by a cow in the near future (a karma from drinking cow's milk

Person A drink milk > [ some random butterfly effects] > Person B (a farmer perhaps?) died > farm unkempt > livestocks strayed > cow wandered 100 km > feeling agigated from the journey, kicked person A who happens in the vicinity?

Now we have to solve the riddle/possible explanations on what kinda karma-tic caused person B to die? Another branching perhaps from person C who just did a naughty things likes running away after accidentally scratching another person's car?

As usual, you're turning another topic to become a "free for all. any thoughts are possible/logical".

I'd say, my "free for all, radical thoughts" at this moment would be... karma is related to some random undiscovered planet in some undiscovered galaxy, where there live a bunch of aliens working day and night to keep humans in check on what they do and assign their fate.

Im sure somebody (who post) after me can easily claim I oversimplified the understanding of karma by introducing yet another radical theory with bigger chunk of beef/details (taken from conventional science or simply a passable logical idea)

This post has been edited by alanyuppie: May 25 2010, 01:26 PM

Honestly, I'm not sure if the Butterfly Effect is applicable in this case, because BE doesn't factor in the intent of the action against the outcome, which is an important part of karma.

This post has been edited by VMSmith: May 25 2010, 01:36 PM

As I understand it, there is cause and effect for actions and there is cause and effect for intentions. The fact that we can die in an accident demonstrates that an effect can happen without intentional cause, hence why they call it an "accident."

I see BE figuring in the parts involving measurable action like the accident example but you're right, I don't see where BE fits in when two people sit blindfolded and think bad intentions at each other. How do you measure intention anyway?

Interesting thoughts. Very unique. I am just curious how you come up with this idea.

thinking bad intention will result in ugly features/negative aura which result in ppl not having favourable inpression about you which result in return less than favourable intentions.

have u seen a person who is pissed off all the time? u dont have to know him...u can just feel the negativity.

This post has been edited by teongpeng: May 25 2010, 08:43 PM

if there are such things as bad karma then should also have good karma, right?

That means you do good things and bad things will come to your later cause it's karma. Or does the mystique being on the universe know what is the difference between doing good and doing bad? Thus rewarding you for doing good and punishing you for doing bad (bad karma)?

if u eat shit and think it tasted bad...no one is punishing u wiht the bad taste. you are punishing yourself with your stupidity(or bravery depending on your line of thoughts )

But things tend to go haywire, even if you do good things there's still a very high possibility you might get something bad in return
as in the case you helped a person but the person didn't feel thankful instead accused you of trying to take advantage of him or her