Believe me Alexandra Karma does exist while I respect your opinion I have to agree to disagree with you.Karma ALWAYS gets you in the end - I have seen it to much to think otherwise.
My belief is that Karma is "The Law of the universe"
I'm not saying that it doesn't exist. What I am saying is that your understanding of just what karma is, in the Buddhist sense, is incorrect.... Your belief is exactly that - a belief. But it isn't the Truth, as accepted by those who make a study of it.
You are absolutely correct in the fact that Bad Karma generates more bad karma... But it's what we do with it that is the clincher... We have it within our ability to focus and make changes.... we have the ability to choose and to transform....
Maybe this will help....
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In Buddhism, the 'Law of Karma' is used as an ethical principle, rather than a cosmological explanation for the world. Buddhists believe that the actions of beings will effect their own future, and because of this there are no private actions: all actions have a consequence.
It should be noted that 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 dependant on sufficient conditions, and therefore it is a mistake to identify Buddhists as fatalists, and likewise it is a mistake to think that Buddhists believe that victims are getting their 'just deserts'.
Buddhism distinguishes samsaric happiness (birth in the high realms), from the final state of enlightenment: nirvana; so likewise there is samsaric good karma, which leads to the high realms (such as the human realm), and then there is liberating karma - which is supremely good.
Therefore the major dichotomy is samsaric karma and liberating karma, of which the former is typically divided into the three: good, neutral, and bad (in accordance with the degree of samsaric happiness or suffering that will mature as a consequence).
It is worth remembering that term karma is often used to refer only to samsaric karma, as indicated by the twelve nidanas of interdependence.
This differentiation between "good" karma and "liberating" karma has been used by some scholars to argue that the development of Tantra depended upon Buddhist ideas and philosophies. [citation needed]
Due to the inevitability of consequence, Karma entails the notion of Buddhist rebirth; death is no escape in Buddhism! However, karma is not the sole basis of rebirth. The rebirths of eighth stage (and above) Bodhisattvas in the Mahayana tradition refers to those liberated beings who consciously choose to be reborn in a future life in order to help others still trapped in Samsara." (From the on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia.)
The person who started this thread, has certainly inherited the Karma from previous actions - be they in this life or a previous one. Her skillful actions now, would be to act properly and to transform this Karma into something more positive.
If however, you are speaking from the premise of "what goes around comes around" all well and good. But that, strictly speaking, is not Karma.
I'm sorry to be so pedantic about this, but it is important to me, as a Buddhist, that the available information or knowledge is not either misconstrued, or misinterpreted. That's all...
I thank you. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
