Does Karma really exist?

Wanderer2010

I always like to treat people with kindness and would never be intentionally cruel to another human being as I do believe in the theory behind karma and in the past when I have been a bit of a dcik Ive had it handed back to me twice as bad within a few days. However....

Friend of mine in tears the last 6 months, woman in work treating her like absolute ****. Mocking her, ignoring her requests, talking down to her (friend is an office admin in her late 30s and has worked loads of places, woman is the office manager who has been there 20 years), she told the boss who is a spineless coward and he just said she has personal problems and to suck it up.

Heres the rub: There have been 14 (14!) workers before her who have lasted no longer than a year. She has a rep for bullying people out for nothing but pure sport. I had to be held back by friend for not charging in there and putting this wagon in her place, it boils my blood that people can do that. I had to hold back as friend is handing in notice. This cow has a great house, car and holidays. Maybe there is no karma and people can do what they want and nothing ever happens to them? Thoughts?

mansize

No.

How often does thread appear on boards???

JuliusCaesar

No, it doesn't.

flutered

yup it does, its a bitch

The flying mouse

What goes around comes around






Says the man throwing the boomerang .

eviltwin

No of course it doesn't. Bad things happen to good people all the time.

mzungu

Nope. Karma does not exist.

RobertKK

I think if you are not nice, it eventually catches up with you, one can only get away with something negative for so long, before someone else decides 'enough is enough', but that is not karma.

Glenn Hoddle believed in karma, and he lost his job over believing in it.
Some might have said 'that was karma' given what he had said.

Yes but not in the way it is normally meant. For example if and individual is a nasty cynical individual they then to associate with other nasty cynical people marry then do business with them they do this because it validates their world view so mixing with people similar to themselves they get treated with nastiness and cynicism.

smokingman

People like to blame everything on some outside presence/thing/luck/abstract concept instead of taking responsibility for their lives.
It's just easier really.

whoopsadoodles

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

This cow has a great house, car and holidays.

They're just things. They don't mean she's not miserable.

tiger55

George Soros is living well in his 80's

darkpagandeath

RobertKK

tiger55 wrote: »

George Soros is living well in his 80's

But is he happy?

NickNickleby

"you'll get yours" is probably an expression of hope of there being Karma. When on the receiving end of such obnoxious behaviour , I remain stoic and think "you'll get yours". The 'yours' being your share of bad luck.

I would never even secretly wish evil upon such a person, but should they suffer misfortune, I'd probably say "well, it couldn't happen to a nicer person!" I think a lot of people think like this (well, of those I know).

On the other hand, if we didn't believe in some form of divine retribution, might we all resort to the old baseball bat.....:D (or even, standing up firmly to bullies non violently).

Don't know how that smiley got up there above my post, must learn how to use this computer..

learn_more

mansize wrote: »

No.

How often does thread appear on boards???

What goes around comes back again.

Cartouche

Karma makes as much sense as astrology.
none

Capt'n Midnight

I believe in karma, that means I can do bad things to people all day long and assume they deserve it.

Rothko

No

munster87

Yes of course. I had a nice one last week but I went for pilau rice instead of my usual basmati, regretted it.

Spanish Eyes

No good deed goes unpunished.

Sue Pa Key Pa

I firmly believe in the concept. Has served me well anyway

222233

That woman probably exists in bad karma, to say she's such a miserable creature. Usually bullies have a clipboard of problems, I reckon karma already got her. Those types generally have some kind of complex that makes them bitter at the world and reflect it onto those they are jealous of, I believe in karma, but I think her type are living karma.

mansize

Karma is a load of bollix

faceman

Karma doesn't exist.

Next time a friend gets dicked around by someone and people say "I hope karma bites that person in the ass", respond by asking what bad thing did my friend do that warranted the bad thing happening in the first."

Makes no sense. Nonsense

In saying that Buddhism and karma have different interpretations for what karma is.

El_Duderino 09

Not-a-tall. Karma is a nice thing to think about when you just got sh1t on, or when you just did something altruistic for someone else. But it's not real.

dpofloinn

What is it about office jobs? People are either utter cnts or absolute emotional wrecks working in them. I don't have first hand experience of them, but friends and family all have horror stories. Even just reading the work and jobs threads, its all bullying and stress because of bullying.

I know it happens in all walks, but I in my own job if you push anyone around like that you'd either get the head digged of you or you'd get road or both no questions

And to answer the original question NO karma does not exist, bad thing happen to good people and good things happen to bad people with no comeback

El_Duderino 09

dpofloinn wrote:

What is it about office jobs? People are either utter cnts or absolute emotional wrecks working in them. I don't have first hand experience of them, but friends and family all have horror stories. Even just reading the work and jobs threads, its all bullying and stress because of bullying.

Ah you hear about it in offices because so many people work there compared to anywhere else. And there are procedures to deal with bullying so it gets brought to light.

I've seen terrible bullying on building sites and it was just laughted off as banter.

Summer wind

The wheel will always go round. Nobody ever has it good all the time or bad all the time.

jobless

No I don't believe in karma, but if that was my wife I might inflict some of it on the bully... Why is always women so horrible to other women

Beasty

If it does exist I must have been up to some no good over the past few years....

StinkyMunkey

I'm not spiritual or religious, but I believe in Karma, when it catches up with you it's a bitch.

infogiver

No it doesn't exist.
But.
I know now that the happiest people on this planet are those who get out of bed in the morning and head out with the intention of at least trying to be kind to the other humans they meet.
It involves not putting yourself and your own interests first and foremost.
Even when it gets ****ed back in their faces they just shrug and keep going.
I think that's probably karma-ish

wakka12

Ive known too many purely beautiful people who had absolutely heart breakingly worst things happen to them through no fault of their own so no I don't believe karma exists

fizzypish

I'm re-iterating what other people said but anyway.... No karma does not exist but if you pretend it does then you will be much less of a dick in general. Your non dickishness could spread to others thus creating some form of bastardised karma but never expect it to return to you. Just be pleasantly surprised if it does.

El_Duderino 09

fizzypish wrote:

I'm re-iterating what other people said but anyway.... No karma does not exist but if you pretend it does then you will be much less of a dick in general. Your non dickishness could spread to others thus creating some form of bastardised karma but never expect it to return to you. Just be pleasantly surprised if it does.

I meet you in the morning and give you a dirty look, we go for our desks and you don't offer me a sweetie.

I meet you and smile and ask about your weekend and while we have a nice chat you offer me a sweetie.

That's as real as karma gets.

Riddle101

No, don't believe in karma. It's superstitious at best. I mean you read about bad things happening to good people, and good things happening to bad people all the time. Where's the karma there?

Walter H Price

Nope not at all , i know some really not very nice people who have great lives and some really nice decent people who have had really sh!tty luck.

Vincent Vega

There are a few problems with the way most people interpret Karma. Like most eastern concepts we pick and choose, basically only taking the gist of the idea, running with it and trying to fit it into our own way of thinking.

Since most of us wouldn't believe in reincarnation in any sense, karma may as well not exist, because we tend to understand it in a very egocentric way of 'look at me and all the good deeds i'm doing' and keep clock watching and self regarding waiting for something to come our way.

Then we get fed up and whinge about there being no big pay off :pac:

biko

I'm usually a dick to everyone because I know karma made sure they had it coming.

bou

yes
But it's not like, I do this good thing now and I get a return on my investment in a few weeks or years (as Vincent V said above). Also, if you react aggressively out of hatred to someone who "deserves" it, from a karma point of view, you are making negative karma. Likewise, being a dick, or "they get what they had coming".

I would say that, if you only believe in the substantial material world and nothing else, then you don't fully believe in karma.

There is another way of looking at karma that doesn't require a belief. And that is to look at perception and conceptualisation.
I am human. I walk into a bar, a party, an office. I see people, I see me, I see people seeing me (imagine, really). In these split seconds, I am forming a multitude of images and theories and fantasies about the world and me in it. Mostly it's imagined, completely fabricated out of my notions. I create an image of me and how I look. Or rather, I create tonnes of images about how I think, or hope, or fear that people are thinking about me. I imagine a me. I imaging tonnes of ideas about the people around me, about the place. I'm evaluating, deciding what is good or bad, trying to figure what will work out best for me, or what is a threat to me. An imagined me in an imagined world.
Yes, there is a real me in a real world, but most of my perception of it is imagined.
Then, over a long period, I become accustomed, habituated, to ways of seeing and interacting with the world, ways of imagining and reacting. This is karma, habitual ways of perceiving and interacting.
To see the process more clearly, it's helpful to become acclimatised to resting the mind in present awareness - meditation. I can experiment with letting go of some rigid patterns of mind and can find that many things are not really exactly as I imagined. I can be more aware of unhelpful negative reactions: hatred, desire, jealousy, pride and I can decide in some situations to promote more helpful ideas and emotions. I can try to see a more nuanced "me and my world", one where I am a part of the world, inter-related, interdependent. I can allow my perception of "me" to broaden to include the world and others a little more so that self-interest becomes more world interest. In that way, the karma of "me"-perception and "other"-perception is eased a bit. The more I let go of me, the less I feel attacked and threatened, the less I suffer, the more I open to the fluid, interdependent relationship of "me and the world".
Perhaps, seen in this way, it's a bit easier to swallow for the less airy-fairy materialist.

osarusan

No.

bou

On second thoughts, no.
Karma is a fiction. It does not exist. It is however a fiction that we take as reality.

It doesn't exist, and believing in it is right there with 'asking the universe' to right a wrong.

The Just-world hypotheses looses steam as a belief when a person is born into poverty and hunger through no fault of their own, or becomes the victim of a random act of violence that changes their lives.

The belief that all bad actions will meet with appropriate consequences is what leads to things like victim blaming when that doesn't appear to happen. If someone is being bullied, what are they doing wrong to bring it on themselves? They must be doing something to deserve it, in a just world where karma evens up the scales.

Bad things happen to the best of people, and on the surface there have been apparently bad people who've never obviously been troubled by 'the universe' handing their asses back to them.

The Backwards Man

bou wrote: »

On second thoughts, no.
Karma is a fiction. It does not exist. It is however a fiction that we take as reality.

You sound a bit like a man without conviction

I don't believe in all that bollocks but then again I'm a man who doesn't know

andekwarhola

Kinda has some practical relevance outside of the silly cosmic stuff. If you go around making enemies, it often - albeit not always - does rebound on you sooner or later.

bou

The Backwards Man wrote: »

You sound a bit like a man without conviction

I believe in karma and karma doesn't exist. I have some conviction.

bou

Candie wrote: »

Bad things happen to the best of people, and on the surface there have been apparently bad people who've never obviously been troubled by 'the universe' handing their asses back to them.

I am not expecting a return on my investment. I'm looking to investigate the return

dudara

In a weird way, I kind of do believe, but not in a deeply spiritual sense. I do believe that how you act and conduct yourself influences others and it influences your environment. I also believe that we all have a chance to be a positive or improving force in the world. Does that kind of count as karma?

Estrellita

I don't believe in Karma as such, it doesn't make any sense when bad things happen to good people. However, I do believe that bad things happen to bad people. You put yourself in harms way if you lead your life in a less than than honourable way.

dd972

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Heres the rub: There have been 14 (14!) workers before her who have lasted no longer than a year. She has a rep for bullying people out for nothing but pure sport. I had to be held back by friend for not charging in there and putting this wagon in her place, it boils my blood that people can do that. I had to hold back as friend is handing in notice. This cow has a great house, car and holidays. Maybe there is no karma and people can do what they want and nothing ever happens to them? Thoughts?

It really seems that way, someone I knew at school who was and remains an uberc**t is happily married, nice kids, pillar of the community and all that, bottom line is some are born with personalities that aid and assist them in getting what they want from life and others are born with personalities that prevent them from getting where they'd like to be and what they want, don't think Karma comes into it much aside from obvious cases when a Dublin crim, for instance gets whacked because screwing people over and possible comebacks is such a constant in their lives.