What is Karma?

[DarkRange55]

I've mentioned on this thread before that there does seem to be something to karma - "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword." And to some extent, I would still say thats true. But I've been thinking, maybe all these different concepts are all just different spins/flavors/whatever of looking at the same idea: some call it karma, some call it providence, some call it fate, cosmic synchronicity, determinism, some call it etc., etc. And in Western secular terms, we call it cause-and-effect. Maybe it's not mysterious or spiritual or… even sacred. There seems to be a strong reverence for the principle of, "what goes around, comes around." But maybe thats just it - Things happen that lead to other things. And that particular "karmic" event is just one of them. Not a design, just an outcome, a consequence. Choices have consequences just like every action has a reaction/consequence. Maybe it's all just coincidence (theory of randomness). Things happen that lead to other things.

At a minimum, people who live by the sword also tend to hang out where there are swords, and people who tend to hang out where there are swords tend to die by the sword.
Add up enough similar links and you start to get karma.

This is not to disprespect the principle. Just a discussion of perspectives.


Any thoughts?

 

[The Morningstar]

I think you summed it up nicely.
"You get what you put in."
But not always. Sometimes luck gets in the way. Chaotic nature of the Universe, after all: entropy.
Getting what you "deserve," though? "Deserve"? On whose authority?
I have decided it is better to take accountability for my screw ups. Learn from them. Grow with them.

 

[R. A.]

I was thinking of maybe making a snide half-assed comment suggesting Wikipedia (for starters) could tell you better than any of us, but you know what? The one thing I thought I knew about the Hindu concept of karma - that it plays out over several lifetimes - has been hotly debated among Hindu scholars since antiquity.

 

[Pluto]