Karma | Vital Football

Karma

Stephen Jay Hawkings

Stephen Jay Hawkings

Vital Football Legend
Does anyone here actually believe in Karma?

It was something I thought about today, when recently a friend of mine, who is non-religious and skeptical about pretty much everything, casually remarked after something good happened "hey, it's karma".

And he's not the only one, I've heard it from loads of people throughout my life, as if it's just a universally accepted thing.

Personally, I believe the concept is utter bullshit and makes no sense with my understanding of the universe, but what do others think?

 
I believe it to a point. If your unpleasant to people you generally have very few true friends. If your nasty to someone you generally feel bad for saying it and in turn they will be unpleasant to someone else because you put them in a bad mood and the ripple effect starts and eventually it comes back to you. We are all one in my opinion and connected in many ways.
However some people have just been delt a poor hand with ill health ect or other issues. I think the view that they did something wrong in a past life is nonsense though and this view got Glen Hoddle sacked.
 
Yes, I do to a point. I don't believe it is a supernatural force, but if you are kind and considerate to others not only do you get the positive feeling of giving to your fellow person they are more likely to do you a favour or a kindness. If you are a nasty piece of work or a user and a user you will eventually find yourself all alone.
 
Maybe its just the balance of nature restoring it's equilibrium, rather than karma?

I'm not a fan of good/bad & right/wrong, as one is basically judging a genetic makeup and the nurturing of a life form.

A puppy is born, if you slap it about then the chances are it could grow into a vicious dog(along with years and years of tampering with breeding/genetics). If you show the puppy love and affection it may well grow up with an entirely different nature. So if the vicious dog became vicious because of how it was nurtured and it ends up falling down a hole - how can that be considered karma?

Alternately if a man/woman shoots a giraffe in a glory kill on the plains of Africa, then a lion jumps up behind them and rips off their head - how can it be called Karma? Surely the answer is looking into "why" the man/woman felt the need to kill a giraffe in the 1st place (nurture/genetics?).

Not turning this into a religious thread, even though karma could be associated with such but Jesus said, love thy neighbour(even the people that we consider bad). Maybe this is because Jesus knew that good/bad, right/wrong are just labels we have put on a life form, when it all comes down to genetics and nurture.

This then comes back to the system....As in schools, politics, media and tv. We have built this world as a species and we have good/bad, right/wrong attachments. We have helped shape the genetic make up, the nurturing of how we behave and act today. Then if someone acts in what we judge as bad and then gets comeuppance - we then say "that's karma".
 
"You reap what you sow."

Is that the same as karma?

I certainly like to think hard work, treating people well and contributing to society are all likely to bring positive outcomes. Whereas, failure to behave in such a way will more than likely end badly, and bring negativity, loneliness and misery.

I'm not sure that's exactly the same thing as karma, but it's certainly in the same ballpark.
 
Kind of believe in karma. Karma is just another word for God, natural forces, cause and effect, reaping what you sow as JPA has said, Justice or even the statement ''xyz is getting what they deserve'.

I do believe somehow or another things tend to generally (not always) even themselves out in the universe. Right/wrong, left/right, up/down, good/bad. I think the majority of things have an opposite.

Waits for the bright start to come along and say xyz doesn't! Ha

Even the magnetic fields have opposites so it is part of the universal laws.

Sometimes though ''karma'' or whatever you wish to call it, doesn't happen in the most obvious ways and very unlikely will happen in the timescale we wish it too, which is like straightaway :14:

Ill give you an example; i never got the ex locked up for his behaviour which I should have done especially when he turned on our eldest. When I finally fled I was very bitter and angry.

He seemed to have got his life back together and he was riding the crest of the wave for 2 and a half years. He walked round like he had done nothing, had no part and everything was my fault for the first few years we were involved in the system.

I was the single Mom fighting to get our lives back together, meaning the children and I and very emotionally unwell.

It took 2 and a half years for it all to start turning on him and oh boy it did. He is a prisoner and still is today of his own making. I didn't have to send him to jail to make him a prisoner. He will live this life a prisoner in his own mind of his part in everything.

Justice, Karma, God, call it what you want re-balances everything usually. It is usually not straightaway. It happens
 
The Hindu concept of Karma is quite different from how it is believed to be in 'The West'. It's easy to find the original definition on t'internet.
 
As others have said, the law of what goes around comes around seems pretty legit. Work hard, be nice to people, do your best and you'll be alright. Slack off at work, lie to people, pull a few scams and it will all bite you in the ass.
 
Yeah, it falls down for me when I think of the operations and ill health I've had. If that was karma from this life, it doesn't stack up. I'm fairly decent!

I don't really believe in past lives / religion. It is the only way karma would 'work' in relation to my own life (if that makes sense) but no, I don't really buy it.

I - same as some of you above have also said - like to think you reap what you sew in some ways though. I try to be positive, decent and a giver in life. It doesn't always come 'full circle' but I seem to have some great friends now (wouldn't have that if I wasn't decent) and a community of people on here/social media/around the things i do at Villa where it seems more like me than don't.

But even if things didn't come full circle karma wise, I feel better living life as I do. I read a book on Buddhism once. It was a philosophy not a religion to start with. I was carrying a lot of anger around with me really, friends at the time of my brain op were woeful (and it was pretty heartbreaking) plus putting up with all the ops etc.

The one thing that resonated with me - don't worry about others, just worry about yourself. if you open the door for something that's a positive thing you've done. If they don't say thanks, that's their problem. If you then get angry at them, you've got rid of your positivity and also have a problem.

Tired, not explaining it well perhaps. But it did help make me think a bit. Then again, it didn't just take a book on Buddhism, a positive thinking one I read also suggested similar and not to take our your issues on others

IF there was one religious thing I wouldn't mind believing it would be that this life is a test, a journey you have chosen in order to reach whatever the feck it is (enlightenment is the Buddhist aim). That would tally with how my life has gone illness/ops/pain wise. I think in that case, I must have been a right bugger in a previous life :3:

But no, I don't buy that.... nice enough thought though!

I like the pay it forward theory as well. Even if it is just setting a good example, picking up litter, holding a door, being pleasant with people. It sets a tone.
 
kefkat:

Kind of believe in karma. Karma is just another word for God, natural forces, cause and effect, reaping what you sow as JPA has said, Justice or even the statement ''xyz is getting what they deserve'.
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I'd argue with that first point. It is not another word for God at all. For me it has nothing at all to do with God.
 
The Fear - 26/10/2016 21:16

kefkat:

Kind of believe in karma. Karma is just another word for God, natural forces, cause and effect, reaping what you sow as JPA has said, Justice or even the statement ''xyz is getting what they deserve'.
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I'd argue with that first point. It is not another word for God at all. For me it has nothing at all to do with God.
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 It depends on how you understand God JF. For me my faith is interpretational. God is abstract and is love.

From where you come from I know why you would argue that. From where I come from it makes total sense. Often not easy to get your views over properly on a forum
 
I do go along with what some have said regarding being decent to others, and it makes your life easier, although I think that only applies to those close to you, whether friends, family, work colleagues or occasional acquaintances.

It doesn't matter a jot when your kind to strangers, the suggestion that something good will come of it is nonsense, if so then there's some magic hocus pocus at play. Not that it matters, as I'm mostly kind to strangers, and I do agree with the pay it forward theory that Fear mentioned. Being a decent, kind, understanding and accepting human being will generally work in your favour. Unless you work on Wall Street or you're a politician, but then you're just a ****** anyway so fuck off.

It's kind of the same with that law of attraction thing that was big a few years ago. Putting you're energy out into the universe to get what you want by just thinking about it and wishing for it. But in reality, it's just a case of working hard, being motivated and having a little luck on the way that will get you what you want.

 
I once stole a jacket by accident. We were in the pub and had piled our jackets up on a chair. I was the last to leave and there was one more jacket on the chair. I took it assuming it belonged to one of us. We were heading back to a mate's house and it took me about 10 minutes to catch up with the front runners and realise that the jacket didn't belong to any of us. I should have gone back to the pub but I was pretty drunk and I did fancy another 20 minutes walk so I kept it.

I wore it to The Church in London a good while later when it got stolen and I had to walk home without a jacket in the freezing cold.

I don't think that qualifies as karma but what goes around....
 
"Be good in this life" & then "the next life you be rewarded" .

If the Mother of the yet to be born child smokes during pregnancy, or a heroin addict during pregnancy and then the baby is born with a few defects. Goes to school does poorly because of the defects, might get bullied by others, might struggle to get a job, might end up getting involved in crime, mixing with the wrong kind, then ends up in prison. So in the the next life does the reborn get dealt another bad hand, or rewarded with a good hand? (Any Buddhists care to answer that one?)

The playing field with an unborn child from a healthy Mother, great start & chances etc is completely uneven as the unborn from an unhealthy Mother. This is without me even comparing genes & family tree history either.

Pay it forward - this concept works. A good deed will spread onto others, this is in fact the life I believe Jesus was trying to create for humanity. Love all, be kind etc. However with NATO currently sending more arsenal into the East & Baltic states, I do worry that the message to all love each other has got lost somehow.
 
I believe that, when we do good or bad things a giant lizard sets on motion cosmic forces to reward us appropriately.

I call it the karma chameleon.


 
Villan Of The North - 27/10/2016 21:10

I believe that, when we do good or bad things a giant lizard sets on motion cosmic forces to reward us appropriately.
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No, that's Scientology. :17:

Can we say "Scientology" here? I don't want to be responsible for a bunch of whackos turning up at Fears house taunting him while filming him at the same time :10:
 
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