This is a good question. Maybe I'm just negative, but all I ever seem to see are the effects of 'bad karma'.

I didn't mean that to sound so cynical...

TIE

No, not in the least. Any wise person would say that of the world, especially if they are interested in taking on that karma. I will say, however, that simply being able to communicate in the forum is really good karma. Sometimes we need to look at all of the good karma we have. Most of us don't. Look at the karma of Western civilization... fantastic eh!? I remember living in the States and it seemed, at least to me, that not paying attention to all that good karma was starting to come full circle and turning into its opposite.

Maybe good karma has a shelf-life?

My best to you,

Mick.

Hey Mick,

I really liked this definition that relates karma to intention and then to consequences. Make me think more about how my intention is going to make more karma... oh, I have to think about that one. But, it is hard for me to think about not making good karma. I have a few Buddhist friend and they are always talking about whether something is good karma or bad karma, but it seems, that both are the same?

Thoughts on Karma don't occupy much of a place in my life, except to notice that some people are always attributing everything that happens to them to it, whether Good or Bad. That isn't my view of the world. It may be that whatever you put out into the world comes back to you sooner or later, but I think it's also true that much of the time stuff just "happens". I suspect that life is made up of many more random and haphazard elements than a lot of us "spiritual" people like to admit!

DP,

Stuff happens, that's good! I like it! But after that, we must respond. Then, depending on our intentions, we create karma and quickly get stuck in the loop.

Here are really big examples of 'stuff' that happened. I was born. Here's another; I became self-aware. Here's another; I became an independent human being.

Now that I know these three things how should I respond to life? This is the second part of what my original idea for being the moderator of this group was; to open a forum where we could answer the question: How shall I live?

What if you are not aware of karma (as the momentum generated by the consequences of your past actions) or you 'don't believe' in karma? Does that mean you are going to stay stuck in pinball machine mode, bouncing off one reaction to the next until another big 'stuff' happens... you die?

my best to you,

I hope I didn't give the impression that I think my having been born was something that "just happened"! And I'm certainly open to the idea that much or even most of the pattern of our lives reflects the working out of "cosmic laws". I was thinking more along the lines of the way Karma becomes, for *some* people, a substitute for "God's will", as if everything that happens has a purpose and is part of some predetermined Great Plan ("not a sparrow falls", etc etc). Whereas I've found it liberating to think rather that the game is much more open-ended, and that the "stuff that happens" to me represents a roll of the dice, so to speak. Then it's up to me to decide where and how to move--to participate in creating the meaning of that event. The "cubic centimeter of chance", as Don Juan said. I don't think that's necessarily incompatible with what you're talking about when you talk about Karma, if I'm understanding you correctly...

peace out

I think Mick's question, "how shall we live?" is a good one. Do you think we have the power to change "bad" karma?