Is Karma real or it's a belief ?

[Windappreciator]

Are Beliefs not real?

[Godishere]

It's karma, because you're only doing it to yourself... Shitting in the pool so to speak

Edited August 18, 2021 by Godishere

[Ora]

21 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Enlightened beings still have Prarabdha karma – karma that they have to play out in this life.

not always. for example when venerable moggalana was beaten by thugs and had every bone in his body shattered because of past life bad kamma, he was able to use his psychic powers to temporarily mend his body and tell the Buddha he will take final nibbanna because he does not wish to live in this body anymore. Doing so he was able to escape any further ripening of his bad kamma.

[Carl-Richard]

15 minutes ago, Ora said:

he was able to use his psychic powers to temporarily mend his body and tell the Buddha he will take final nibbanna because he does not wish to live in this body anymore.

–  karma that they have to play out in this life, i.e. in this form, in this body. If your body ceases, then Prarabdha karma is over.

[John Doe]

On 8/14/2021 at 10:58 PM, Carl-Richard said:

Why not listen to people who talk about their past lives?

21:55 Jan Esmann talks about the time he discovered his past lives. Incredible stuff -- I recommend watching the entire interview. He has some really crazy stories. Absolutely shatters the materialist paradigm.

@Carl-Richard Thanks for sharing, seems interesting.

[Goldzilla]

A more real aproach on Karma from the martial arts and occult community. 

[snowyowl]

20 hours ago, Ora said:

for example when venerable moggalana was beaten by thugs and had every bone in his body shattered because of past life bad kamma,

Does that mean the thugs weren't doing anything wrong (and didn't incur bad karma themselves)  because they were just giving cosmic payback for someone else's bad deeds?

[Ora]

The thugs were not commanded or influenced to do anything, it was just the right time and place for the kamma to ripen and they happen to be the instrument to enact that kamma. The thugs did what they did because their own unwholesome mindsets not because they were made to do anything; so the thugs took on their own bad kamma because of their own actions, especially because it was done towards someone with high virtue, an arahant.

Kamma has no will of its own, it just is. So if you encounter bad experiences in your life, don't blame the person you think brought it upon you. They are just acting as the vehicle of kamma and the time and place was just right for your own kamma to ripen. So everything, good and bad that happens to us is by our own doing, our own past kamma. That is why the Buddha says "we are the bearers of our own burden." No one does anything to us but ourselves.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Ora

[AriSujan]

@Gabith A belief based upon reality.

[Consilience]

One’s karma is whatever is actually happening in the present moment. Karma is real only insofar as this present moment is real. 

[Goldzilla]

There is cause and effect. And reality in this planet, those whom disbalance life, they will pay for it, never doubt that. "God" has every detail. 

And the unawakened is just driven by karma, that is the reality, no matter how much you conceptualize that karma does not exist, only the awakened, the divine, the initiate, the "god", has the power to change reality. 

The other mass folk they just dream and rage, this is the reality, they can't control shit! Even if they know magic for decades, they are no match to those who awakened the Limbic system and know how to use it. 

 

[snowyowl]

13 hours ago, Ora said:

The thugs were not commanded or influenced to do anything, it was just the right time and place for the kamma to ripen and they happen to be the instrument to enact that kamma. The thugs did what they did because their own unwholesome mindsets not because they were made to do anything; so the thugs took on their own bad kamma because of their own actions, especially because it was done towards someone with high virtue, an arahant.

Kamma has no will of its own, it just is. So if you encounter bad experiences in your life, don't blame the person you think brought it upon you. They are just acting as the vehicle of kamma and the time and place was just right for your own kamma to ripen. So everything, good and bad that happens to us is by our own doing, our own past kamma. That is why the Buddha says "we are the bearers of our own burden." No one does anything to us but ourselves.

This sounds more like conditioning, where unenlightened people have a load of mental baggage which affects their behaviour. 

What I don't agree with is the individualism of the religious karma theory. We don't have our own personal stock of karma or conditioning following the soul through incarnations. Rather it's impersonal and distributed throughout society. The effects of one person's good or bad deeds ripple out through society and even nature because we aren't separate, there's only one of us really. Karma is communal not individual imo. 

Edit. With the example of the thugs, why are they thugs? Maybe an element of free choice, but also influences of nature/nurture. Genetics inherited from the family tree, and upbringing.  If someone's had a tough childhood it can affect their brain development. We are who we are because of the whole situation outside of ourselves. 

Edited August 20, 2021 by snowyowl