Do you believe in Karma?

Question

Yesterday I complimented this older gentleman about how beautiful his eyes were...he and his wife smiled and said "thanks dear"....It felt good to compliment someone....

About 4 hours later a woman came up to me and complimented me on how beautiful my eyes were.

Could be a coincidence...I like to think it was good karma.

Answer 1

absolutely!
what goes around comes back around!

Answer 2

I believe in karma. I have seen it at work many times.

The good thing about karma is that we can change the type of karma we receive by making better choices in our life.

Answer 3

Karma, the consequence of Action.

This is one of the Lord Buddha's fundamental teachings and one to which I, as a Buddhist adhere.

You have described a wonderful encounter, your compassion and Love are unselfish and spontaneous, an inspiration if I may say, thank you for a lovely story. You have unintentionally practised 5 of the 8 elements of the Buddhist eightfold Noble Path to enlightenment becoming aware of the benefits to be gained as well, this from a novice. Words fail me I am very impressed and honour your effort. I am not trying to embarrass you, just making you aware of the similarities in ideology, I'm assuming you are Christian...forgive my mistake if I'm incorrect, and I do not mean to call you Buddhist...I apologize for the inference, it seems to my mind that you have done a good deed for another human being in a Christian way, and have earned Buddhist Karma as well, I thought it was a nice analogy.

The elements you've practised from the 8 are
1. Right Intent
2.Right Speech
3.Right Action
4,Right Effort
5.Right Mindfulness

A great effort, well done indeed.

A parable may explain Karma a little further as you seem a little confused
on Karma's meaning as to consequence...please bear with me, its about a man who meets a hunter in the forest.

Every time a person acts there is some quality of intention at the base of the mind and it is that quality rather than the outward appearance of the action that determines the effect. For example, a man walking in a forest encounters a deer that runs past him in distress. Subsequently, a man dressed in hunting gear with a gun also passes him asking which direction the deer went. The man misinforms the hunter sending him in a direction other than that in which the deer went. Although he has told a lie, he has acted out of compassion for the deer which forms the underlying intention behind his action. That volition (cetana) behind the action will be a cause for his own future well-being.

On the other hand if a person professes piety and virtue but nonetheless acts with greed, anger or hatred (veiled behind an outward display of well-meaning intent) then the fruit of those actions will bear testimony to the fundamental intention that lay behind them and will be a cause for future unhappiness. In this sense the Buddha spoke of wholesome actions (kusala-karma) and unwholesome actions (akusala-karma).

Karma is thus used as an ethical principle, rather than a cosmological explanation for the world. Buddhists believe that the actions of beings determine their own future, and because of this there are no private actions: all actions have a consequence.

The emphasis of karma in Buddhism is on cause, not on effect: Buddhists do not say "it was due to her karma that it happened to her" - indeed the karmic consequences of one's actions are dependent on sufficient conditions.

There is a further distinction between wholesome karma that leads to more exalted and rarefied forms of samsāric happiness (birth in higher realms), to neutralizing actions (called in Sanskrit and Pali Kriya - see Kriya Yoga) which lead to enlightenment: (nirvana). Therefore there is samsāric good karma, which leads to more fortunate rebirths (such as the human realm), and then there is liberating karma - which is supremely good. Nonetheless, the Buddha advocated the practise of wholesome actions: "Refrain from unwholesome actions/Perform only wholesome ones/Purify the mind/This is the teaching of the Enlightened Ones."

My intent is to inform rather than instruct...please forgive me if I offended...It was not my intent....

So you see then that when you yourself were complimented, this was not really due to Karma, it may have been due to someone seeing your good deed and honouring it by returning it to you.

That said you have earned a good deal of good Karma which will benefit you in the long term and will be the cause of your future happiness. Your good deed will have flow on effects too. Once goodness starts it always has a ripple effect. You have taken the first steps into a larger world, welcome, you are a true human being on your own Path....

Peace from a Buddhist...to all...in the season of joy

Answer 4

I've had that happen also. When I asked a monk about it, he said it couldn't happen that way because karma is rewarded after you die. I think he is preaching dogma and not from experience.

Answer 5

Yes I do. I've seen it firsthand so many times. When people have done mean things to me, it always comes back and bites them in the butt and I had nothing to do with it. What you put out comes back to you good or bad.

Answer 6

I certainly do believe in karma. It's wanderful.

Answer 7

Yes, I hoped it would happen and it did.

Answer 8

no