posted January 27, 2016 08:33 PM            

One person believes that she will get good karma by doing good.

Another person believes that by doing good, she's singling herself out for exploitation, snide remarks, and even abuse (but because she doesn't believe the universe is good, she believes it's that much more important for her to do good, because if not her, then who will?).

Both do good anyway, one expecting the best (and perhaps downright mercenary about it, and I have heard more than one person gloat about say giving money to a homeless guy because they were expecting to get back more than they gave due to karma or equivalent process), and the other fearful of the consequences and certainly not expecting any reward out of it.

If karma really is determined by our definitions of good and evil, then who gets the better karma? The mercenary who believes, or the one who doesn't believe but promotes the well being of others anyway?

posted January 28, 2016 05:47 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Valentine:
It makes sense to me that what we put out, we get back.

The saying what goes around comes around is the same.

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posted January 28, 2016 11:34 PM            

My teacher warned about magic used in malicious ways, because to project that energy out, one must experience it first (that is, invoke/evoke it, so that destructive energy just might hit them first or in addition to their target).

On top of that, whether a force was invoked (shaped by forces within, which may or may not include gods and spirits called into the magic worker), or evoked (shaped outside one's self, the classic elemental or "astral robot" which when charged/filled with malice becomes the classic "conjured demon to do the bidding of its summoner") then one not only has to expose one's self to that same force, but then if the aura of the target is stronger than that of the mage (which is probably the case if the mage is desperate enough to resort to such tactics) then that malicious occult force will rebound with the strength of the aura it rebounded from added to it (which means it will come back to attack the mage or witch that sent it out in the first place more than twice as powerful than when it was sent out).

posted January 29, 2016 12:00 AM            

In both a PTSD support group and also women's self-defense (and elsewhere) I've heard horror stories of that, that they felt to blame somehow...or OTHERS did. (One woman in the PTSD support group I used to belong to put another woman in the hospital who said something about karma and bad things only happened to bad people--I asked her if the woman she beat so badly considered that severe beating her own bad karma, but the one who exploded on the other preaching karma didn't know, she just knows it was worth the jail time to beat her into a hospital.)

One of the most heartbreaking was a woman who lost all her friends, because like her believed that God protected good people, and therefore her friends could not deal with the idea that they, too, might suffer the same fate. They may have even thought the victim was bad and deserved the horrible violence she endured (one requiring corrective surgery). So when she needed them the most, they were gone, because of their beliefs that bad things don't happen to good people (and no doubt didn't think that anything bad that happened to them after--as everyone suffers problems--had nothing to do with that). She had enough to deal with, and her beliefs in the justice of the cosmos (be it God or karma) only made it that much worse for her, dealing with not only what happened, but also thoughts that maybe she deserved it, and losing her support structure when she needed it the most.

And it comes down to victim blaming...even children who are raped to death have sometimes been said to suffer their "just karma" (presumably from a previous life).

posted January 29, 2016 12:20 AM            

I also recall reading of an old woman tortured in Soviet Russia, who later realized that a man who came in for a few minutes to calmly watch was Stalin. As she was raised on the belief that God ordained the earthly rulers (very similar to beliefs in karma, and also comforting, at least if you don't think about the implications too much) she wished she could've said something as Stalin would've let her go, knowing she was innocent of whatever she'd been accused of.

That reminds me of a great grandmother I met. Very kindly, but her tales as a little girl in Soviet Russia were both horrifying and humbling. It's probably too much to share here, though it does raise some interesting ethical questions if you want to include metaphysical elements to it, on what she and her family did to survive (and escape).

posted January 30, 2016 03:30 AM            

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Originally posted by PixieJane:
Personally, I think it would be interesting to explore the idea of the Law of Attraction in comparison and contrast to any laws of karma.

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posted January 30, 2016 03:40 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Valentine:
Have no fears as what you fear will also be what you will experience. I could go on about it, but won't.

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Ah, but what if you have no fears but have earned bad karma for those fears to come about? Which takes precedence, the laws of karma or attraction?

posted January 30, 2016 03:41 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Valentine:
Our thoughts are powerful, what we daily think about and focus on becomes our reality. As an example, I tell myself daily, and have done this for years, is that I look good and feel good and i do.

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posted January 30, 2016 03:45 AM            

Interesting enough, when I hitchhiked from Texas to California, I was sure I was going to have to accept at least some amount of sexual abuse, but it was one of the most wonderful experiences in my life with no sex abuse whatsoever. I was not only scared of it, but certain it would happen, and yet it didn't.

However, when I wasn't expecting it...