Karma isn't Something to Stress Over

Karma. This is a term and a philosophy that most people are familiar with. I, however, am losing faith that people actually know what it is and how it works.

The term Karma originates from cultures and religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. It's a concept that believes that your actions and deeds are direct cause to the effects of the outcome of your life later on. That they actively shape the present and future, and its adaption in the western tradition in Christianity is the whole idea of "You reap what you sow".

So when adapted to a generalized culture, it's a general understanding that Karma is simply in place to encourage good deeds and morality. You do something good, something good will happen to you. You participate in heinous behavior, and then life's waste matter hits the fan.

Everyone knows that Karma can sometimes be a… well, not very nice.

Most people just focus on the bad side of Karma like it's some voodoo curse you may spray upon the world and walk about cursing people with bad Karma. Like as if Karma undertook the deeds that you wish you could do yourself makes you a much purer minded person. Yes, continue being na've. It's amusing.

About two weeks ago, I was walking through campus in a hurry because I'm always late and running behind, when a certain organization (I will not throw out any names because you know, Karma) stopped me and asked me to donate to their cause. I felt in my pockets and bag for change and realized I had absolutely none. I apologized and tried to move on. The friend I was walking with, however, did have money she was willing to donate, so we walked over to do so. When my friend placed her dollar bill in the collection tin, I got cursed with bad Karma. The person asking people to donate, point blank told me that I would have bad Karma and fail my next test because I did not donate, and my friend would have good Karma because she did. I was rather shocked that someone would be willing to curse me with such a harsh punishment because I didn't have money to donate. But I walked away laughing at the matter, and both my friend and I were shocked at the audacity of someone just freely giving out bad Karma in the school court yard.

I think cursing someone with bad Karma simply to try to persuade them into cooperating with you just simply to get your way is bad Karma. There is no way you can expect for something good to happen when you are too busy trying to give bad Karma to everyone else.

Good luck to those who have wished bad Karma on everyone else for selfish endeavors. Just sit back, live your life and let Karma do the trick, and remember-what goes around, comes around.

By: Veronica Ivey

What is karma?

Sharon Stone claims the earthquake in China is the result of bad karma for its treatment of Tibetans. Is her definition - "when you are not nice, bad things happen to you" - correct?

Radiohead sings of the "karma police", called in to arrest those who upset Thom Yorke: "This is what you get when you mess with us." And Boy George warbles about a "karma chameleon", in a toxic relationship because he's not "so sweet" anymore.

Cause and effect, see. Actions have consequences.

And Sharon Stone, a convert to Buddhism, has claimed - to much criticism - that the earthquake that killed at least 68,000 people in China was bad karma for Beijing policy in Tibet. "I thought, is that karma - when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?" she mused at the Cannes Film Festival.

Karma is an important concept for Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs. Translated from the Sanskrit, it means simply "action". Because karma is used in a number of ways and contexts - even among different branches of Buddhism - this can be confusing.

Dhammadassin, a teacher at the London Buddhist Centre, says that Stone's take on karma is common - glossed over as an outcome that is the result of something done in the past - or even a past life.

"This reduces the enormously complex matter of causes and their effects to a question of retribution meted out for unspecified previous actions," she says.

But the law of karma states that it's the motive behind one's actions that affects the outcome of that particular act.

"So an intentionally ethical action - for example to promote kindness, generosity, contentment - is more likely to have positive, beneficial consequences. An intentionally unethical one - to promote self-aggrandisement or greed - will be more likely to have unhelpful, even harmful consequences. Unhelpful, that is, for the positive well-being of either the doer or the recipient or both."

In a complex world, it's too simplistic to expect that a positive intention will always have a positive outcome as many factors are involved, she says.

The idea of moral causation has long been held in India, but the doctrine of karma was formulated and explained by the Buddha, a spiritual teacher thought to have lived about 2,500 years ago. Some believe that he was a human who became enlightened; others that he was a god.

His teachings hold that whatever comes into existence does so in response to the conditions at the time, and in turn affects what comes after it.

Sangharakshita, the Briton who founded the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in 1967, explains this with the following example in his book Who Is The Buddha? "Rainfall, sunshine, and the nourishing earth are the conditions from which arises the oak tree, whose fallen leaves rot and form the rich humus from which the bluebell grows."

Dhammadassin says that despite its simplicity, this example reflects the inter-connectedness of our world, "in which our views, attitudes, opinions and intentions all have a part to play in creating our actions and their consequences". And what many call karma is actually closer to the idea of poetic justice, she says.

Nor do Buddhists believe karma is the only cause - others are:

• inorganic or environmental factors, such as the weather

• organic or biological factors, like bacteria or viruses

• psychological factors such as stress

• and transcendental or spiritual factors (such as the sometimes powerful galvanizing effect of spiritual practice)

"The earthquake in China or the cyclone in Burma have much to do with environmental factors," says Dhammadassin. "To invoke karma is more to do with our desire to nail things down and find someone to blame. But that's not ours to do."

By BBC

The Earth's Spiritual Hierarchy

Cosmic laws: The Law of reincarnation, the law of evolution and the law of karma
Apart from the teachings about the structure of the universe and the function of the Earth's Hierarchy, Theosophy describes in great detail a number of universal laws which govern our lives, as well as the lives of lesser and great beings. One of them is the law of reincarnation which simply says that human beings (as well as many other life forms) go through many cycles of physical incarnations in order to evolve, gain experience and grow, until a state of perfection is achieved. When we have learnt all there is to learn in the physical realm, we become a Master of wisdom and graduate from the Earth school, free to continue our service and evolution here or at another place in the universe. Connected with the law of reincarnation is the law of evolution, a basic universal law, which describes how every unit of consciousness evolves towards and strives for higher states of being, experience and self-expression. These two link with the law of Karma (or the law of cause of effect) which states that whatever any life unit sends out through its actions and thoughts, it will receive again - "as you sow you shall reap". These laws govern our personal lives as well as the life of cosmic, together with other cosmic laws such as the law of love, the law of mercy, the law of periodicity and the law of contrasts.

The Seven Rays
Another important part of theosophical teachings is the teaching about the seven rays. The Seven rays are divine intelligences or energies which permeate this solar system, emanating from the seven stars of Ursa Major (the Great Bear) and going to the seven stars in the Pleiades (the Seven Sisters). It is said that all living beings within this solar system is characterized by one or several of these rays and their qualities, for instance this solar system is a 2nd ray system (the second ray expresses the qualities of love and wisdom), while the planet Earth is a 3rd ray planet (active intelligence). Any person will have his personality on one of these 7 rays, and the personality again is a mixture of physical/etheric body, astral body and mental body, each of which has its own rays. Much can be said about a person's character, potentials and development problems from his rays, and therefore, the science of the 7 rays will form an important part of the psychology of the New Age. Within this field, a pioneer work has been done by Michael Robbins with his book "The Tapestry of the Gods", and also by Benjamin Creme who lists the ray structures of many famous people at the end of his books (Maitreya's Mission I - III).

Buddhism

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