The Reiki Cafe 

A few months ago, a friend of mine introduced me to this guy...he's in his fifties and has spent his whole life exploring mysticism, American Indian shamanism and many other spiritual paths. After many years of research, he concluded greek philosophy(esp Parmenides) was the path most likely to help a soul in its quest of truth/happiness. Being on my own journey of self-discovery for years, I was drawn to him and his wealth of experience in spiritual matters. So we started talking on the phone/exhanging emails regularly. At some point, I mentioned the words karma & karmic connection. He asked me what I meant by that. I thought that was a strange question. I told him so. He asked me again. So I said ''Well, karma means soul debt/credit depending on whether its good or bad. You accrue good karma from good thoughts/words/deeds and bad one from negative thoughts/words/deeds. So for example, if you 've hurt someone in another life, they will probably hurt you in this one. Or someone else will hurt you in order for the cosmic scales to balance themselves.''
That's when he got upset with me for throwing around such ''pompous'' words without doing proper research.

That discussion ended up in tears(literally) on my part. I felt he was being arrogant, sarcastic and to an extent abusive. Eventually, I hung up on him.

Since then, I 've been thinking about our conversation esp karma. I 'm still not sure what his definition of karma is(he never got to tell me, funnily enough) but I started thinking that karmic connections make sense only in this life i.e if you 've hurt someone in this life, then you could say you owe that person. But if you 've hurt someone in another life...I mean who is the ''you'' who did the hurting?Your soul? Ok, fine but again, it's not fair for ''you'' to suffer in this life for something ''another you'' may have done. It's almost like blaming a kid for what his ancestors did once to someone. Doesn't make sense.

Only instant/same life karma seems fair to me. It's also very important to explore the reasons behind one's wrongful actions. For example, a person may hurt another one as the result of the abuse that was inflicted on them in their childhood.That does not mean the person is absolved of any crimes as a result of a difficult childhood., it's just that extenuating circumstances should always been taken into account.

What do you all think?

Blessings,
Whatever

whatever,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- remember, mind-body-subtle bodies-spirit (including soul) are all related and symbiotic

- Soul affects the person (body + Mind + spirit) just as the person affects the soul thru his\her Intentions, actions, reactions, etc

- remember too, Karma is not good or bad (those are culture-specific value judgements that, as we know, may vary a good bit)

- and, the effects that will manifest from our actions cannot be predicted

- some acts toward another that someone might feel are compassionate may have effects that turn out not so "compassionate" - and the Karma that I accrue will, at some point in the furture, reflect that

>:-}}

- even telling a lie may have some effects at some point that might be considered beneficial - and some effects also that are not so beneficial

- but Karma will manifest appropriately for all those effects

>:-}}

- some Karma we accrue may manifest in this life - but some will have to wait for the next life - and some Karma manifesting in this life we brought with us, so to speak, from previous lives

- and, we are also affected, though at different levels, by the Karma attached to our particular ethnic or racial Group, for example, with which we have "history"

- our Karma is a direct reflection of our "historical" pattern of dealing with everything and everyone in each life - our habits (which are not easily recognized or changed) - but when we see these and alter our 'non-comapssionate' habits and reduce "grasping and aversion" we resolve Karma

- hope this helps

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

If your friend is looking to the greeks for guidance no wonder he's abusive! I'm here in athens greece and boy do i see where my greek husband gets his egotistical, misogynistic mean-spiritedness. And yes it does seem like the karma argument can be an excuse for exploitation and alot of other things. You know those ancient Greeks didn't consider women their equal or even people. OMG I wish I had a way to financial independence that was doable at my age and with three kids that need emotional care their Greek father won't give them! The middle east vibe here is really strong. All that wailing about misery and their dark emotions-jealousy,pride,vengence and they talk about it in the same breath as love! Stay away from anyone with a short fuse like that guy who came at you with so much vitriole! All that spiritual searching must've been pretty shallow.

Hi there

I am aware of Instant Karma and have no philosopy of what it means, as for me it speaks for its self.

My husband and I have lived by this little motto (instant karma)for many years, and both agree that our "karmic Paths" have interwoven.

Even the slightest bad feeling about eachothers interaction is more than istant.. So instant, that I have no room to explain how it happens.. We have been together for 20 years and still are vey happy.. We do have our moments though .. Chuckles*

I am not sujesting anything or casting any aspersions.. When I read your post I felt you might benefit from seeing a page .. give us an email maybe?

Warm regards of love light and laughter.. All the wat

Namaste.
Just today I was reading about karma in one of the books on vedanta.
Basically, karma falls in to three categories.
''sanchitam''/ Those karmas that we have accumulated over several births .This is indeed a big baggage that the soul is carrying with itself.
''praaptam''/ This is the present birth that the soul is going through, only a small amount of our collected karma defines the life that we are going through[ means sanchitam karma is going to affect our future births too].
''aagaami''/ knowingly or unknowingly we are accumulating karma in the present, which is again a bigger baggage than the karma from sankitam!
Ofcourse, I have simplied the sentences that I read, as I have understood the concept.
alamelu

whatever,

Hi,

A freind of mine, when I was early in my teens had a saying which is really quite illustrative of the matter of Karma. It is irrelevant for this post whether I abide this advice or not.

LOL

"Do unto others before they do unto you. If they do unto you first do at least double back unto them".

And no, The W is not the friend to whom I refer.

LOL

Cheers,

RC

Whatever,

Namaste. You say and I quote, 'Only instant/same life karma seems fair to me.' I feel the concept of fairness is very relative. Karma accumulation, if it exists, is done taking into account all kinds of extenuating circumstances, it is never black and white. Having said that, I have to say may be there is a possibility that karma does not exist at all, in which case I would be really put off because I see little kids struggling and only the concept of karma helps me to be able to cope with that. This could only be as a result of previous accumulated karma, otherwise why are little kids getting punished?

Mal

mal,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- karmically speaking, some might suggest that there is no "punishment" - only "lessons"

>:-}}

- and your apparent anxst and doubt might suggest that Karma does actually affect us all

>:-}}

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

Thanks to all for the replies. There are two ways to acquire knowledge: we 're either taught it or sometimes we intuitively know. Naturally, in the latter case, only when the ''intuition'' is empirically proven can it be called knowledge.

As for the things we 're taught, how can we really tell it's the Truth? That's the challenge of the human condition. I guess that's why we need faith. The only problem: faith can be detrimental sometimes, if placed on illusions.

I used to have lots of faith in Jesus. Unfortunartely, situations in my life left me questioning so many things including Jesus & the Gospels. That's why Greek philosophy appeals to me right now, it's allows you to use your reasoning powers. So now, I accept only what is proven to me.

With regards to karma, if you want to talk about different lifetimes, I think it makes kinda sense if you think of it as the universal law of Cause and Effect. But again, I don't consider it truly fair. Therefore, I stand by what I said: only instant/same lifetime karma seems valid to me, philosophically speaking.

Blessings,
Whatever