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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 14 of 14. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by mist on August 17, 2002, at 23:22:54
I'd like to know what I can get away with in this life.
Posted by Ritch on August 18, 2002, at 0:42:11
In reply to How long before karma catches up with you?, posted by mist on August 17, 2002, at 23:22:54
> I'd like to know what I can get away with in this life.
That's a good one.
I suppose it depends on what you *think* you can get away with at any given time. Also, if you don't believe in any form of eternal punishment for any ill thing you may do, your "sins" will be self-limited based on the everyday wisdom you accumulate based on experience. In other words, if you think something is just plain stupid to do (even it it merits some short term gain), you won't do it. We are our own ultimate police.
Mitch
Posted by mist on August 18, 2002, at 11:52:46
In reply to Re: How long before karma catches up with you? » mist, posted by Ritch on August 18, 2002, at 0:42:11
>In other words, if you think something is just plain stupid to do (even it it merits some short term gain), you won't do it.
Although some people do "stupid" things for the short term gain! I'm not usually one of them though (tend to be overly cautious if anything and too depressed to do anything very exciting :)). I wasn't entirely serious in my question about karma (as it applies to my life) although it's an interesting topic and I like hearing people's views on it and related issues.
Posted by homewood on August 18, 2002, at 19:31:42
In reply to Re: How long before karma catches up with you? » Ritch, posted by mist on August 18, 2002, at 11:52:46
Posted by Ritch on August 18, 2002, at 21:04:52
In reply to Re: How long before karma catches up with you? » Ritch, posted by mist on August 18, 2002, at 11:52:46
> >In other words, if you think something is just plain stupid to do (even it it merits some short term gain), you won't do it.
>
> Although some people do "stupid" things for the short term gain! I'm not usually one of them though (tend to be overly cautious if anything and too depressed to do anything very exciting :)). I wasn't entirely serious in my question about karma (as it applies to my life) although it's an interesting topic and I like hearing people's views on it and related issues.
That's OK. I wouldn't interpret anybody's response personally on such a general topic. I wonder if anybody has ever been *threatened* by karmic intervention-if somebody didn't get what they wanted from you? I worked in a liquor store while I went to college and there was this girl who got pissed at me because I wouldn't front her half the price of a half-pint of cheap whiskey. "What goes around, comes around!", she screamed at me. I wasn't very worried about it and she got back into her cab and drove away.Mitch
Posted by mist on August 18, 2002, at 23:11:20
In reply to Re: How long before karma catches up with you? » mist, posted by Ritch on August 18, 2002, at 21:04:52
>I worked in a liquor store while I went to college and there was this girl who got pissed at me because I wouldn't front her half the price of a half-pint of cheap whiskey. "What goes around, comes around!", she screamed at me.
I guess that means in your next life no one will front you half the price of a half-pint of cheap whiskey. You reap what you sow.
Posted by Jamro on August 19, 2002, at 5:45:46
In reply to How long before karma catches up with you?, posted by mist on August 17, 2002, at 23:22:54
How long? Twelve years, five months and three days.
> I'd like to know what I can get away with in this life.
Nothing. Your life is on the scales 24/7.
And now you will bring us another shrubbery.
Posted by Ritch on August 19, 2002, at 13:06:05
In reply to Re: How long before karma catches up with you? » Ritch, posted by mist on August 18, 2002, at 23:11:20
> >I worked in a liquor store while I went to college and there was this girl who got pissed at me because I wouldn't front her half the price of a half-pint of cheap whiskey. "What goes around, comes around!", she screamed at me.
>
> I guess that means in your next life no one will front you half the price of a half-pint of cheap whiskey. You reap what you sow.
Yes, that is an interesting idea. Whoever turns me down might be doing me a cosmic favor of sorts.
;)
Posted by madison88 on August 19, 2002, at 22:41:54
In reply to How long before karma catches up with you?, posted by mist on August 17, 2002, at 23:22:54
I didn't think it is unavoidable that you personally will suffer more for your actions than everybody in general. If you believe that you are part of a greater something and will return to it when you die, then it is the greater whole that suffers. There is a popular, cliched Buddhist analogy. You are a wave in the ocean when you are alive. When you die, you lose your distinct properties and are just ocean. Reincarnation, which I am not sure about, holds that you become another wave at some point, so if you believe that, you, having messed with other waves by doing something nasty, will then suffer payback then. I tend to think that once you lose the distinct properties of a wave, you become ocean and never again the same wave that you once were, therefore the you that did something nasty doesn't get payback, because it isn't really you, as you exist now. You may suffer for your actions now since messing with other waves messes with the ocean, and you are ocean. The greater whole suffers, of which you are part. So my final answer is that you may suffer now and in the future, but not anymore than anybody else suffers.
Posted by Ritch on August 20, 2002, at 1:49:53
In reply to Re: How long before karma catches up with you?, posted by madison88 on August 19, 2002, at 22:41:54
> I didn't think it is unavoidable that you personally will suffer more for your actions than everybody in general. If you believe that you are part of a greater something and will return to it when you die, then it is the greater whole that suffers. There is a popular, cliched Buddhist analogy. You are a wave in the ocean when you are alive. When you die, you lose your distinct properties and are just ocean. Reincarnation, which I am not sure about, holds that you become another wave at some point, so if you believe that, you, having messed with other waves by doing something nasty, will then suffer payback then. I tend to think that once you lose the distinct properties of a wave, you become ocean and never again the same wave that you once were, therefore the you that did something nasty doesn't get payback, because it isn't really you, as you exist now. You may suffer for your actions now since messing with other waves messes with the ocean, and you are ocean. The greater whole suffers, of which you are part. So my final answer is that you may suffer now and in the future, but not anymore than anybody else suffers.
Thanks for the input! So, our current individual "sins" are negatively tainting a future *collective* existence (through the reincarnation process). IOW, you make the future world (of alive humans) more unpleasant and uninhabitable by our current, day-to-day, realworld decisions. So you are *responsible* for the future's "climate" by your acts of today. But, that brings us back to the individual again. Christianity is very individual-soul oriented, Buddhism is not (there's the crucial difference). What we have to contend with is the individual MIND at odds with both philosphies. I guess that is the RAND thing. I have read her stuff, liked it and then grew disillusioned with it, but that has been the case with all other ideas I have read about. Maybe that's why I still seem to trust my feelings in absence of reasoning. That is the only way I can explain my belief in God.Mitch
Posted by Cam W. on August 21, 2002, at 3:15:56
In reply to How long before karma catches up with you?, posted by mist on August 17, 2002, at 23:22:54
Do anything you want in moderation; or in other words, look both ways for karma when crossing the street. - Cam
Posted by mist on August 22, 2002, at 2:02:54
In reply to Re: How long before karma catches up with you?, posted by madison88 on August 19, 2002, at 22:41:54
Very interesting. It's an entirely different way of thinking about life/afterlife than I grew up with. Regarding karma, I think a lot of people who don't know too much about its origins use the word to mean some kind of direct payback to the individual (that's how I've thought of it). It's interesting that the concept is significantly different in Buddhism.
> I didn't think it is unavoidable that you personally will suffer more for your actions than everybody in general. If you believe that you are part of a greater something and will return to it when you die, then it is the greater whole that suffers. There is a popular, cliched Buddhist analogy. You are a wave in the ocean when you are alive. When you die, you lose your distinct properties and are just ocean. Reincarnation, which I am not sure about, holds that you become another wave at some point, so if you believe that, you, having messed with other waves by doing something nasty, will then suffer payback then. I tend to think that once you lose the distinct properties of a wave, you become ocean and never again the same wave that you once were, therefore the you that did something nasty doesn't get payback, because it isn't really you, as you exist now. You may suffer for your actions now since messing with other waves messes with the ocean, and you are ocean. The greater whole suffers, of which you are part. So my final answer is that you may suffer now and in the future, but not anymore than anybody else suffers.
Posted by mist on August 22, 2002, at 2:05:35
In reply to Re: How long before karma catches up with you? » mist, posted by Cam W. on August 21, 2002, at 3:15:56
> Do anything you want in moderation; or in other words, look both ways for karma when crossing the street. - Cam
That's a good rule to live by. :)
Posted by Robin.d.j on August 22, 2002, at 15:38:25
In reply to How long before karma catches up with you?, posted by mist on August 17, 2002, at 23:22:54
Is it not something like the law of nature ...When you do good good comes to you and when you do bad ..oh oh look out it comes in all shapes and forms
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