Is Kharma REAL? See, I just heard that a guy I know has developed

[radwriter0555]

cancer, a bad cancer. He's just in his 30's colo-rectal cancer, to be precise. They operated IMMEDIATELY. It's bad.

So he did me wrong in a business situation. And I made sure he knew that I knew he did me wrong.

All I can think of is "KHARMA".

Now keep in mind, he's not a bad guy. He's rather honest, doesn't lie, cheat or steal. He just did me wrong on this deal and shouldn't done what he did. His actions caused me a great deal of harm.

Kharma or coincidence?

[HEyHEY]

1. I hope it is

My car fucked me yesterday and I'm hoping for a new job - so if they balance out...

[pagerbear]

20. Hey, HeyHey, didn't you only recently get your current job?

Now you want to change? What gives?

[kikiek]

2. Think about it. Would Karl Rove be walking around? Or Cheney? List goes on

[Bunny]

9. Does the name Lee Atwater ring a bell? n/t

[kikiek]

12. We all die. At different times of different things. I am a

home hospice nurse and trust me many wonderful people are dying of horrible illnesses.

[Bunny]

13. I didn't mean to imply that only bad people die of terrible illnesses.

I was merely responding to the previous poster who remarked on how Rove was still alive. That's all.

[kikiek]

14. At least Lee Atwater voiced regret about his previous actions. At

least it was reported he did. Obviously it didn't affect those he tutored.

[Bunny]

15. That's true, and that's the sad part.

A man facing his own mortality was remorseful, and his proteges have chosen to ignore his deathbed regrets. More's the pity...

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. Coincidence

Far too much bad stuff happens to good people to say that kharma settles all scores.

[Catfight]

11. And good stuff happens to bad people, I'm a big believer in Karma.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. karma isnt that clear and clean

its not a tit for tat game that the universe plays....its far more complex than that

[Misunderestimator]

5. If Karma were that simple, the world would be full of liberals...

it's not a clear-cut kind of thing.

(I just realized I nearly repeated verbatim what lioness said...)

[anti_shrub]

6. I always believed in karma

and I'm agnostic!

I believe everyone gets whats coming to them sooner or later, it just doesn't happen fast enough for most people. Eventually, everyone will get theirs.

[NewHampshireDem]

7. As a Buddhist, I'd say that's really a misapplication of the concept

The law of karma really is not about discrete events but about actions and their causes (thinking backward) or actions and their consequences (thinking forward).

Simply put, wholesome, skillful actions lead to wholesome outcomes; or we could say that wholesome outcomes are the result of wholesome actions. Conversely, unwholesome, unskillful actions lead to unwholesome results.

Karma is not as simple as good-things-beget-good-things or bad-things-beget-bad-things. There is always a clear cause-and-effect relationship between karmic events. If your friend "did you wrong" on a business deal, and subsequently suffered damage to his reputation, then we might correctly say that reflected the law of karma.

That said, some Buddhists would argue that your friend's cancer may be a result of some past-life karmic burden. Perhaps his actions in a former life caused some other to suffer or fall ill in a similar manner. Frankly, however, that falls beyond my own personal practice of Buddhism.

Karma is the law, not the judge, jury, or executioner. Karma does not "punish" people, so to speak, any more than the speed limit on the highway punishes people. It's just the law.

A more interesting question is, what karmic implication does your friend's disease have for you? Will you approach him with compassion, or will you see his cancer as "divine retribution" or "just deserts"? Consider the karma you may be creating for youself when you needlessly speculate as to the cause of his suffering. Better to act in a compassionate way and avoid sowing the seeds of your own suffering.

Sorry if I've done a poor job of explaining this. Here's a link that might help:
http://www.buddhanet.net/fundbud9.htm

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. to add to that

society's karmic burden is also borne by us. hence this persons misfortune could be related to something else entirely.

[MrSandman]

16. New to karma but...

It sounds like the "Five P's" I was taught: Poor Planning = Piss Poor Performance.

[radwriter0555]

18. NewHampshireDem, THANK YOU for a wonderfully sound answer...

I needed that. Sometimes I get mired down in my own perspective and you've put it to rights, on the money, as it should be.

You're right. Though he and I were friends for many years before this event, I've been very very angry with him, and I need to lay it aside and treat him as I wish to be treated.

Thank you. I needed to hear precisely what you said, and you said it beautifully.

DU is the best.

[NewHampshireDem]

21. You are welcome!

Sending some good vibrations your way :)

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/b_prayer.htm

[sweetheart]

10. there is only karma if there is self.

The karma is that your sense of self is involved with this
event, and you've taken it personally.

As you walk through the forest of karma, what a lovely gift it is
to be alive and undistracted by obsession with personal history.

There is no karma, there is free will..." but what about me?".. well,
for "me" there is karma.

Similar to yourself, i put up some tibetan buddhist prayer flags
for blessings to end suffering of all beings. Someone cut them down
and died not far thereafter. It is bad karma to attack the blessings
of the buddha's. Individual will, is not quite governed by such
absolutes.

Multiple events in a life-play, correlate through ego and self,
what otherwise are but anonymous acts. Tibetan buddhist know that
it is 10000, times badkarma to attack an enlightened master, and
1000 times bad karma to attack a true monk.

I explain that, as that the master and monk are likely more able to
act without self, further magnifying the attacker. As well, such
people are much more powerful also further magnifying.

There are buddhas who defend justice. Just as well without karma,
you could say that Varuna, the vedic god of justice weighed in and
delivered justice. Or you could say that some cells got cancerous
and someone died. Explanations are secondary, just as is ego and
the artificial self.

[AlienGirl]

17. Then why, at 28, did I get tongue cancer?

[LastKnight]

19. i believe in kharma...

no matter how complex/simple the situation is... people get what comes to em eventuially, it may take awhile, but it happens.

-LK

[Courtesy Flush]

22. The guy who cheated us is dead now

Died of cancer earlier this year. He was still in his 30s. Cheated a lot of people in town. He was a fundamentalist christian, so I'm sure he's in heaven now. Chrisitans don't believe in kharma. "Get saved, and sin all you like".