How does karma really work? What happens to people when they die?

[howdoistopobsessing]

I saw the video about karma but am unsure if I believe it because apparently in Hinduism, you cause harm to yourself when you eat meat and possible when you consume animal products, which makes me think that egoic thought alone doesn't "cause" bad karma. Also, when people die, are they reborn and that process continues until they reach enlightenment and then they forever get absorbed into the God mind? Also, I'm on medication so it's not a good idea to take psychedelics and I have fears that I'm afraid will feel out of control if I'm tripping. Don't want to become mentally damaged. Also, Yogananda I think said that you need a teacher but Leo says to practice Kriya yoga from a book. I read that it can be very harmful to not have the guidance of a guru. Whose advice should I follow?

Edited April 8, 2019 by howdoistopobsessing

[Jkris]

@howdoistopobsessing Forget Karma. Its just a theory. Moral theory. If you do good you will get good. Do bad you will get bad. Is it that happening in your direct experience? 

There is no cause and no effect. 

What ever happens happens we cannot control. We dont know why creation happened. 

God alone is. But There is no personified God sitting and monitoring each and every action of every organism and records good or bad and rewards or punish your actions. 

Generally its adviceable to practice yoga under guidance of experienced guru. That's the general advice given. 

For gnana marga, bhakthi, karma yoga not necessary. But for yoga it is. 

Be ethical moral don't harm others don't eat meat why kill a fellow living being for the sake of your survival when other options are available. Live and let live others. The whole world is a family. 

Let all living beings be happy. Is the principle of not eating meat non violence ethics morality. 

Ethics and morality are man made social constructs. So be wise and act according to your conscience. 

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Jkris
Added

[Harikrishnan]

5 hours ago, Jkris said:

@howdoistopobsessing Forget Karma. Its just a theory. Moral theory. If you do good you will get good. Do bad you will get bad. Is it that happening in your direct experience? 

There is no cause and no effect. 

What ever happens happens we cannot control. We dont know why creation happened. 

God alone is. But There is no personified God sitting and monitoring each and every action of every organism and records good or bad and rewards or punish your actions. 

Generally its adviceable to practice yoga under guidance of experienced guru. That's the general advice given. 

For gnana marga, bhakthi, karma yoga not necessary. But for yoga it is. 

Be ethical moral don't harm others don't eat meat why kill a fellow living being for the sake of your survival when other options are available. Live and let live others. The whole world is a family. 

Let all living beings be happy. Is the principle of not eating meat non violence ethics morality. 

Ethics and morality are man made social constructs. So be wise and act according to your conscience. 

 

There is no Good or bad or karma or anything. But mind want to be otherwise. 

[Harikrishnan]

B/w Hinduism has a 1000 books and most cotradict each other. And since most are sanskrit monks interept according to there own beliefs.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Harikrishnan

[rothko]

yeah i guess there is alot of contradiction. and its all like what you believe, of course experiecne will help you beleive too.  for instance if u have experiences with past lives, and your dreams start getting crazy all of a sudden, it kind makes you think its believable. but based on my experience and knowledge of consciousness so far, karmas are legit. basically u came to this life with karmas to burn.and if u burn them, all ur enlightened.  and basically karmas aren't this thing of doing good things gives you good karmas and bad things give you bad karmas.  its kind of right but its not so black and white.   and basically uve lived millions of lives as many differrent animals/insects ect.  basically u evolved up the food chain.  and every life has accumulated karmas. but basically a karma is an unfulfilled desire. we have also accumulated many from society, like for instance our constant need to feel liked based on reasons maybe that arent unique to us, but more based on our peers accepting us or whatever.

 

and every one of your chakras has unfulfilled desires based on past unconciosuness.,  so bascially karmas are just moments in your life where something traumatic happened and it was due to an unfulfilled desires, creating moment so intense you rejected it when it happened.  so basically if u live in the moment as much as u can in this life your karmas will manifest, and if your conscious enough,  when they arrive, and you can be present enough to not let them run you into depression or whatever unconcious desire they try to run u into. thats basically how u burn them. but also its like meditating and all kinds of stuff thats kind of complicated. 

 

One key though is dont worry. thats actually ur unfulfilled desires in the solarplexus/manipura manifesting. unclutch from worries. do whatever you feel is right in the moment, treat every moment as one. dont connect things. the less things u connect the less things will give you reasons to worry. ur not going to do the wrong thing many times. trust me.  if it makes u suffer. u will learn not to do it. 

 

as for eating meat its kind of like taking on desires from society. ur basically consuming the traumas of that animal and taking on their karmas/unfulfilled desires.  they basically were murdered pretty brutally, and lived a shitty horrible life, full of intesne sufferring, so basically your taking on their biomemory when u consume them.  this can manifest in ways like parasites, worms, even something simple as a headache.  all its really doing when u eat meat is basically making your own karmas harder to see. so if ur doing conciseness expanding stuff ur still burning those karmas. it just makes no sense to add more karmas to burn if you already have a ton yourself.

 

do more research to find out who's advice to follow. the more research you do. the more you will get similar ideas or the right ideas coming through. the more your consciousness will flow from you to do the right thing. but starting with breath meditation and being present isn't going to throw u into a spiral of whatever your afraid of.  try reading some eckhrat tolle, a new earth. and just being present.  people who say you need a guru to practice yoga are potentially trying to sell you a program.  but yeah, just research and read and practice patience. you will know what to do in time.

[rNOW]

@howdoistopobsessing The word 'karma' translates as action, not a punishment or a reward. But all actions have consequences, whether they are good or bad depends on our judgement about them. And action here doesn't just mean physical action, it also means mental and emotional action. As long as you are alive in this world, you cannot escape taking action. What you can do is, take conscious action. 

How I understand is this way, that basically, all beings are a form of a single consciousness. When you realize this experientially, and not just theoretically, you realize that when you harm another being, you are eventually harming yourself- because there is no distinction between yourself and the other. Everything in this world is made up from the same 5 elements that you are made of. Example: if your body reacts to your thoughts about yourself, then your body will also react to your thoughts about someone else. As and when you become completely 'judgement-free' so to speak, when all your actions are taken with absolute consciousness, you reduce your karma to that extent. However, it is very difficult to practice.

I have no idea about what happens after death, but I have read a few things, from different perspectives- if you are interested in studying Hinduism, you could check out the Garuda Purana which concerns itself with death, karma and rebirth. 

[Salvijus]

Well sayed by @rothko

@howdoistopobsessing everything you heard about karma is true. Performing good karma will lead to prosperity, performing bad karma will lead to suffering, dissolving karma will lead to enlightenment  but it's complicated and it takes some time to understand it. There's a lot of room for missunderstanding also, that's why it seems like there're contradictions.

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Salvijus

[Nahm]

23 hours ago, howdoistopobsessing said:

I saw the video about karma but am unsure if I believe it because apparently in Hinduism, you cause harm to yourself when you eat meat and possible when you consume animal products, which makes me think that egoic thought alone doesn't "cause" bad karma. Also, when people die, are they reborn and that process continues until they reach enlightenment and then they forever get absorbed into the God mind? Also, I'm on medication so it's not a good idea to take psychedelics and I have fears that I'm afraid will feel out of control if I'm tripping. Don't want to become mentally damaged. Also, Yogananda I think said that you need a teacher but Leo says to practice Kriya yoga from a book. I read that it can be very harmful to not have the guidance of a guru. Whose advice should I follow?

I don’t know about “harm”, (with the meat comment) but you’ll be sacrificing the majority of your ability to focus. The body’s energy that could have been used for mental clarity goes to the digestive system to power through the heavier foods. 

Karma has absolutely nothing to do with death / reincarnation, etc. Only this life. The entirety of how you’ve perceived all of your own actions with the world. Egoic thought is what makes ‘karma’. Ultimately, there is no such thing as karma, but you may need to undo some none-the-less, to aid in quitting the mind, for the sake of the path. 

This overthinking you’re doing right now, about dying and being reborn - that is the cycle of birth & death. It’s happening within you, via overthinking. Enlightened, there is no overthinking, no karma, no birth & death cycles. All that was your own thought stories. Had someone never mentioned it, had you not read it and believed it, you wouldn’t even be thinking about it at all. On the other, it can be a useful map. Don’t over emphasize it though. Move on. 

Find a guru. 

You’d be very surprised what you might experience (guru wise) from taking yoga and reiki classes somewhere. Pathwise, there is a limit to what can be realized with other people still in the picture. Then of course, there is an apparent limit to what can be lived in terms of the mystical abilities etc, without other people. God is so perfect and sneaky. Imagine being the most enlightened person on earth, and then keeping your mouth shut and listening to a yoga or reiki instructor. There are new experiences there. Unbelievable expereinces. 

[ajasatya]

23 hours ago, howdoistopobsessing said:

How does karma really work? What happens to people when they die? Whose advice should I follow?

you have to understand who you are. that's it...

the actions of your parents, grandparents, grandgrandparents and their friends and parents and sisters and brothers... that's karma that influences your life. and what you do will influence the life of many to come.

what is the relationship between you, your parents and your grandparents? who are you? who are your parents? who am i and who is the dog? what is Life?