karma?

[Elaira]

what is karma? i saw from a question of mine the word popped out. i don't really understand it so i'm hoping someone who's into wiccan can help me on this.

When a true samurai gets into battle, he is prepared for death bt more often than not it is the opponent who meets death.

[Sylv]

well, there are different ideas of karma
the Wiccan views tends to center around the 'Law of Three' aka 'Law of Return'
Basically, anything you do affects everything-including yourself. So if you send out negative energy, it'll find it's way back into your life. Same with positive energy.
Hope this helps!

[Ben Trismegistus]

My understanding of the meaning of karma, in its original use in Eastern religions, is very different from the Wiccan ideas of the law of three or the law of return.

Those Wiccan ideas say that any energy (positive or negative) that you put out will return to you in one form or another. However, the principle of karma is that any energy (positive or negative) that you put out will influence your NEXT incarnation, rather than the current one.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Rain Gnosis]

In eastern philosophy you have action and reaction - karma and vipaka. Your actions have repercussions - karma creates vipaka. You drop a glass - karma - it breaks - vipaka. Vipaka can return over time - during the current life time, during the next lifetime, and during lifetimes after.

Go here and find Karma for a detailed explanation - http://www.budsas.org/ebud/bud-dict/dic3_k.htm

Here's another good set of pages of explanation - http://path.homestead.com/karma1.html

In a Wiccan context you will usually find people talking about it meaning you send out nasty energy and get it back or are punished by the lords of karma, etc. I do not agree with this. I do agree that if you hang on to nasty energy and bitter feelings you have created your own environment - you don't send it and have it reflected, you create it and end up living in it. If you choose to do things with unwholesome motivations like greed, hatred and delusion, your life will reflect this, even if you do "good" things - for example if you do charity because you hate someone else and want to show them up by "giving more".

[~ Monk ~]

Here's a link to a possible Taoist view on karma. I agree with the author/translater when he says this may be more representative of traditional Chinese religion, but then again I could also see it having a place in religious Taoism.

http://baharna.com/karma/taoist.htm

[Cricket]

ditto Rain Gnosis
~Cricket

[Aidron]

I have never really bought into the Rule of Three or most popular ideal of karma according to Wicca, in that, whatever you release, will return.


I believe in cause and effect, much like what Rain spoke of. What you do can have an infinite number of reactions. For instance, if someone calls you a nasty name and then they get a flat tire the next day, many Wiccans might say that this is their own karma returning to them, though with Wiccans I have grown to understand that most do not believe that it has a set time, in other words, it can take a day or ten years to return.

I still do not buy into that. If someone calls you a foul name, and then they get a flat tire, I'm more willing to buy into that they got a flat tire because they forgot to put air into it, or they ran over a shard of glass. I kind of find it silly that there are omnipotent beings of any sort looking over humanity and judging our actions. We create our own heaven and our own hell. If you work with negative energy vibrations and are intent on sending those out to others, you will absorb it along the way as well and it will bite in you your bum. Like attracts like in other words, if you are a negative person and sending out negativity, that negativity will (because magick follows a path of least resistance) will turn around in most cases and adhere itself to you. Granted, it may only be a small amount each time, but it adds up. Eventually you will create your own unhealthy atmosphere.

[Magick]

What goes around comes around.. hehehe

[Open Again]

What goes around comes around.. hehehe

Too funny, i was just going to type the EXACT same thing.

In my belife system.... Karma is the univers insisting that you take reponsabilty and/or be rewareded for you actions.

Of course my orginal answer was cutter but Magick beat me to it...LOL