Comments on: Karma — it’s not just for hippies any more

By: Gary Cucchiaro

Gary Cucchiaro — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:01:03 +0000

I love this explanation of karma. Unfortunately, the modern use mostly seems to imply vengeance — i.e. h”his karma will catch up to him”, hoping that the evil he has sown, will reap negative consequences.

I am happy to see karma in a more positive application.

Pay it forward

You honor me, esteemed upperclassman!

(For the six billion people not in on the joke, Gary was a couple of years ahead of me in high school, and we haven’t knowingly laid eyes on each other in about 50 years.

‘Tis a tangled web, indeed, that Tim Berners-Lee wove and, appropriately, today is the 20th anniversary of the birth of the World Wide Web.)

Namasté

By: My Religion «

My Religion « — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:09:11 +0000

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By: Walter Sargent

Walter Sargent — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:45:19 +0000

The purpose of my comment was to contribute something. I have studied a few different traditions, including Buddhism, but I am not an authority on the subject. For myself, agreement or disagreement on a doctrine level is largely academic.

On a personal level, I really liked your non-mystical interpretation of karma because it encourages honest examination and self-awareness. I also agree that an understanding of karma as a cosmic system of retribution and reward is kinda fuzzy.

I loved the Mark Twain quote. I love quotes, in general. One of my favorites is this one:

“Remember: What appears to be coming at you, is really coming from you.”

I don’t remember who said it, but it was said to (fictional character) Jack Flanders, from “The Adventures of Jack Flanders – Dreams of India”, I believe.

Contribute you did, and thank you. I was just unsure of your intent.

The quote puts me in mind of the old AA saying, “Remember that when you point the finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you.”

By: Walter Sargent

Walter Sargent — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:54:09 +0000

I was taught (in the yoga tradition) that karma was “action that leaves a deposit (or residue) with the power to recreate.”

In yoga, actions are understood to be thoughts, words and deeds, all of which have consequences and memories of the experience.

A pleasurable experience and memory reinforces a desire to repeat the experience – a power of manifestation. A painful experience reinforces an aversion to repeating the experience – also a power of manifestation.

Both attachments, attraction and aversion, can lead to suffering, but our value judgments make that hard to see. So, things that “seemed like a good idea at the time” often have unintended and undesirable consequences.

For me, “emotional health”, in the context of karma, would be contentment (santosha) which has a sense of detachment. Emotions come and go without dwelling on them or a lot of identification with them or what caused them. “Acceptance” (as in St. Francis of Assisi’s famous prayer) is another expression of this idea.

One cannot be attached to anything without being bound by that thing also. As I believe Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “All human relationships are reciprocal”

Peace,

That is all quite true, but I don’t understand the purpose of your comment. Are you agreeing with what I have written, disagreeing with it, or merely expanding on the idea?

By: My Religion « Ratana Ong’s Blog

My Religion « Ratana Ong’s Blog — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 03:39:01 +0000

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