There are some miserable pessimistic bastards on this forum, so I firstly apologise to them for wasting their time.
For the more positive of us, I would like to share some examples of “karma” with you.
I am someone who always has believed that spontaneous acts of generosity can be cosmically rewarded. And I have just been reminded of us this by a call from the Mother.
While waiting for a bus, which only took exact change, a woman asked if I had 2 x 50p coins for a pound. I only had one 50p, but insisted she take it. That evening while getting a taxi into town to see some friends, I pulled out the usual fiver for the journey. "That's ok sir," came the reply. "No charge".
My Dad bought me a suit a couple of years ago when I started a new job. That night he won £100 at a pub quiz.
And just this moment, my Mum rang me at work with a similar story. She's a teacher, and two (good) students keep nagging her for a Mars bar each, a cheeky request in return for some excellent work. Whilst doing the shopping just now, Mum popped two Mars bars into the trolley. When she went to pay, she realised they didn't have a barcode. "That’s ok Madam," said the store manager, "Have them on us".
Now obviously there lies absolutely no scientific proof behind this, but I was wondering if other more cheerful forumites have had similar experiences of cosmic balancing?
What goes around comes around?
I'm a firm believer that one good turn deserves another and you will often get some 'reward' after doing a good deed.
Examples escape me at the moment but I've also had similar examples of "karma".
Likewise what goes around does indeed come around. But that goes for bad deeds as well. There's few people that have done something "bad" that haven't received retribution in some form. So behave!
Examples escape me at the moment but I've also had similar examples of "karma".
Likewise what goes around does indeed come around. But that goes for bad deeds as well. There's few people that have done something "bad" that haven't received retribution in some form. So behave!
Good Lord!
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Gavin Scott
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Yep - its also my experience that there is a sort of karma thing going on in life.
Whether its an "energy" thing or merely an expected outcome you become more aware of I don't know.
Whatever it is, I find myself observing it with a fair amount of regularity.
Whether its an "energy" thing or merely an expected outcome you become more aware of I don't know.
Whatever it is, I find myself observing it with a fair amount of regularity.
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Gavin Scott
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Well, and I don't mean this in a hurtful way, if you put a little more love out there I for one would definitely reciprocate.Nini wrote:If karma is true, I probably should be dead now.
no i don't really believe in karma, I don't believe in anything like that to be honest. Having said that I'm not utterly vile to random people as it tends not to get you anywhere, I know this as I have always treated unpleasant customers with the distain they deserve (hidden of course behind fake niceness) and I suspect others would do the same to me if I was unpleasant to them. So I'm not, and have been known to apologise to call centre workers when I snap at them due to the company being annoying.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
Well I think the belief of Karma is sort of backed up by evidence. If someone does something nice to/for you and you remember it, you will be more inclined to be nice to someone else. In other words, many positive actions that people do for you are based on a selfless belief that humanity is good, and actions need to reinforce that belief. In the taxi driver example, the driver had probably had a good day in some way.
In a similar way, if you behave selfishly toward someone, they will likely pass on that selfishness to others as they will have been made miserable. So yes, I do believe in Karma, but not 'fair' Karma, which, yes, sort of defies the whole point of the definition of Karma which is all about fairness (if you're nasty to someone, they'll be nasty to someone else, not you - you only suffer the marginal decrease from the 'niceness' pool).
In other words, I believe in Karma, but not 'personal' Karma; rather, a total Karma pool that's shared amongst any connected society. Sadly, this means people can go around being complete arseholes and having strangers still being nice to them. But that must be a minority, since if everyone behaved thusly, nobody would be nice.
In a similar way, if you behave selfishly toward someone, they will likely pass on that selfishness to others as they will have been made miserable. So yes, I do believe in Karma, but not 'fair' Karma, which, yes, sort of defies the whole point of the definition of Karma which is all about fairness (if you're nasty to someone, they'll be nasty to someone else, not you - you only suffer the marginal decrease from the 'niceness' pool).
In other words, I believe in Karma, but not 'personal' Karma; rather, a total Karma pool that's shared amongst any connected society. Sadly, this means people can go around being complete arseholes and having strangers still being nice to them. But that must be a minority, since if everyone behaved thusly, nobody would be nice.
I don't believe in karma, the world regulating itself through some sort of cosmic ordering, or fate. What I've been staggered by is just how many people do, and I think it stems from an insecurity, and a desperation to hold onto the idea that life isn't as crap as it is.
Now certainly how you put yourself out there will affect how people respond to you, but there's really nothing profound about that. I'm sure if I spent my life shitting on children and addressing everyone as "Your Cuntship", I'd struggle to get very far. The idea that this fairly simple concept has been dragged out to create vulgar nonsense like The Secret is depressingly hollow.
People generally like to justify concepts like karma, much like they do with fate, by picking on isolated coincidences that will have cropped up over decades of living. I'm not the first to point out that this whole phenomenon of attaching ourselves to false positives in such an over-bearing way is little more than a facet of our instinct to find patterns in chaos.
Ultimately, I don't serve to benefit from submitting myself to a concept like karma. As far as I'm concerned, the casual acceptance of karma, fate, destiny etc. is no different from blithely accepting religion.
(Apologies for any 'I've already read this'-related confuzzulation - just moved this post back out of the branched off thread)
Now certainly how you put yourself out there will affect how people respond to you, but there's really nothing profound about that. I'm sure if I spent my life shitting on children and addressing everyone as "Your Cuntship", I'd struggle to get very far. The idea that this fairly simple concept has been dragged out to create vulgar nonsense like The Secret is depressingly hollow.
People generally like to justify concepts like karma, much like they do with fate, by picking on isolated coincidences that will have cropped up over decades of living. I'm not the first to point out that this whole phenomenon of attaching ourselves to false positives in such an over-bearing way is little more than a facet of our instinct to find patterns in chaos.
Ultimately, I don't serve to benefit from submitting myself to a concept like karma. As far as I'm concerned, the casual acceptance of karma, fate, destiny etc. is no different from blithely accepting religion.
(Apologies for any 'I've already read this'-related confuzzulation - just moved this post back out of the branched off thread)
How about the existence of free will in a quantum universe?
Anyone? Anyone? Shall I start? I'm not convinced it exists. If the electrons zipping round in the brain don't figure out where they've been till they arrive at their destination then how can every decision not be a foregone conclusion?
Anyone? Anyone? Shall I start? I'm not convinced it exists. If the electrons zipping round in the brain don't figure out where they've been till they arrive at their destination then how can every decision not be a foregone conclusion?
Knight knight
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Nick Harvey
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I'm not sure what it is, but I always notice that if I let someone in from a side turning when it's my right of way, then someone will let me in at the next junction when it's theirs.
Well, while "momentary" actions cannot be controlled, humans are reactionary beings, and every action is an adjustment of a prior action in some way. Are these reactions not "free will"?Sput wrote:How about the existence of free will in a quantum universe?
Anyone? Anyone? Shall I start? I'm not convinced it exists. If the electrons zipping round in the brain don't figure out where they've been till they arrive at their destination then how can every decision not be a foregone conclusion?