Karma is not Punishment

[Jenla]

I'm not sure about the concept of "karma" but I think I live with persons who are paying it.


I'm not sure, I'll explain.


I have two older sisters, they're 20 and 16 years older than me, is a huge difference, , since I was a child, I think that I'm here for a specific reason, my mother gave birth to me when she was 41 years old, she didn't know she was pregnant until the 4 month, she said she was near to abort me, and when she was 5 months pregnant she was in danger again.


But I'm here, well...


My sisters are really the opposite of each one, a friend of mine told me they have karmas, because they were enemies in a lot of PL, then I think, well, they have to learn how to be friends, and love each other, and I'm so sad when I see that they are not learning that at all.


They are not fighting anymore, but their decisions were, "not to talk to each other, avoid the problems".


Honestly I don't know what to do, I feel I have to, but I just don't know.


My mom, said one day "I probably have a karma or something with them", my dad and me said "Well, you're not the only one".


What I want to ask, is.


Is karma something you have to learn?, even with the problems of other persons, in this case my sisters?


I have read your post, but I'm still confused.

 

[Nightrain]

Is karma something you have to learn?, even with the problems of other persons, in this case my sisters?
I have read your post, but I'm still confused.

The trouble with Karma is, that very few of us know what our karma is supposed to be. We can guess that your sisters most likely have differences to resolve; and it may be that your job is to rise above it and witness the harm such differences bring about. My experience has been that we can't change others. We can only change ourselves. Our job, or Karma, is to do the "right" thing to the best of our ability. What we do may not always meet with the approval of others, but we can't help or change their opinions. If we make a mistake, the best we can do is admit it and move on.

 

[stardis]

Hi Jenla.


Just my personal thoughts about karma:


When I was in my teens, I was in an Asian country and was traveling with a Buddhist acquaintance when we met a legless man begging for money. I was appalled at the poor man's condition and wanted to give him some money but my friend pulled me away saying, "No. No. It is his karma". I never found out what my friend meant by that statement but I have always thought about that chance meeting. I think the unspoken thought was that the beggar had to suffer and that helping him would, in effect, not be helping him.


I have since realized that it is probably not possible to understand what is or is not karma when it comes to other people. I am sure that Mother Teresa gave little thought to the karma of the people she helped nor to her own karma, and in the end she just helped people out of love for them and her Creator.


I know that karma means "cause and effect" but sometimes that is hard to understand when you see the vast suffering in the world. I have never felt like saying to anyone that they were suffering because of some past life action. (I actually did say that once and regretted doing so - it is kind of a mean thing to say when you really think about it). Neither would I want to say they were having a fabulous lifetime because of something in their past lifetime. Probably most problems in life are related to our inability to live well with each other in this lifetime. Your sisters problems are probably just differences in their personalities - the cause of many problems.


The best that we can do in this life and in all of our future lifetimes is to follow the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That is the best rule to follow to ensure that you are doing the right thing when it comes to karma even when you don't really understand how karma works in your life and that is what I try to do.

 

[Nightrain]

I have never felt like saying to anyone that they were suffering because of some past life action. (I actually did say that once and regretted doing so - it is kind of a mean thing to say when you really think about it).

You reminded me of an instance, when I was 10 or so, and riding my bike with three other kids, one of whom was particularly irritating and complaining. Being a Catholic at the time, I invoked the "God's justice" opinion about his behavior. Instantly, as soon as I uttered that opinion, I was somehow thrown off my bike -- much to the amusement of the irritating kid.


I realized that my mistake was to make such a pronouncement; and figured that I was being punished for having done so. I laughed it off in spite of the embarrassment. But, I remembered that lesson ever since. Deep in my own subconscious soul, I knew that what I said was wrong, and I became distracted, losing control of the bike and resulting in me eating my own words. That's an example of Karma.


I can still be a harsh critic, especially when it comes to politicians. But, I know that I can't pass judgment as to what a person's Karma is or should be, because doing so would become my own bad Karma.


I would venture to say that my idea of Karma is very much like Conscience, except that Karma applies even when someone has no Conscience.

 

[stardis]

Wonderful story, Nightrain.


Your statement above makes me want to examine whether I really do or really don't believe in karma. I have read on the internet about karma being the original sin repackaged (Seth material) and I no longer believe in the original sin. Perhaps we mistakenly think that karma is cause and effect intertwined with our past lives when it is just the cause and effect of our actions in this life or even just our current life's storyline. But whatever it is, I think we make it a millstone around our neck and that our Creator never intended it to be so.


Don't anybody gag, but I will have to think about karma in light of my questioning of simultaneous lifetimes.

 

[Charles Stuart]

Hi to both of you,


Personally I believe that all things have a purpose, and that there is no such thing as a coincidence. Certainly this would also englobe physical or mental impairments, for whatever reasons may lie behind them; and no, I certainly don't believe that all such things are brought about by errors in the past. Many times there are other reasons behind such events. A child with a deficiency can, for instance, suffer of such an ailment as a choice this soul made to teach parents and family a lesson in love.


As a personal story, I have already shared here the story of my 1st wife, whom I married and had my first son with when I was just 21, and who left me for my best friend when I was 27. I could not express all the pain I underwent, but it was only when I had a sequence of dreams of a possible past lifetime as a German soldier in WWII that I came to learn that I may have taken her life then and that her husband, the friend she left me for, had been her father in that lifetime.


Certainly I am no longer who I was in that lifetime and in the lifetime as Bonnie Prince Charlie. I do consider myself now a much better and more evolved person, but apparently the Divine Justice is set and does not permit that we might avoid past karma. Only the chance to diminish it via our conduct in the present.


Just for the record, however, the implementation of karmic rescues is in my view not an issue directed by God, but by the Spiritual Masters and Guides who supervise our spiritual progress.

 

[deborah]

Please vote - I'm curious.

 

[Malvina]

What happen karmically with suicide?.
I have always wanted to die, and i also feel that I have killed myself in any past life.
I think reincarnation is true, therefore i won´t kill myself even when i have dark times and a very difficult life. I also think that there is not punishment for souls who did that, only that you have to come back one more time and with the same issues, therefore: suicide was not useful, and you will have to face the same situations that caused you so much pain in a past time. Like when you sleep for many days in order to "rest" and avoid sad events: you wake up with the same events after those days, and you will have to solve them, so...to sleep was not useful, same for suicide. In relation to punishment, who would punish a soul that was already tormented and decided, in that desperation, to kill himself?.

 

[Eowyn]

What happen karmically with suicide?.

Once again, NOTHING. I killed myself in WWII. That choice hasn't influenced my current life more or less than other lives, not even "facing the same situations", because circumstances are always different. I am in no war currently, I wasn't in a real war in my previous life (where I died in West Germany in a helicopter accident), and hopefully I won't see much violence in the rest of my life, I won't be raped or see my boyfriend die again, shot down by the enemy.

The ONLY thing that remains in your next life are unresolved emotions, and that's independent from the way of dying. Obviously, those unresolved emotions might be quite hard in suicides, due to the circumstances you were in when you decided to kill yourself, but that happens with all traumatic deaths, not only suicide.