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Original poster

To be shocked how many of you believe in karma?

107 replies

Fanfeckintastic · 01/08/2014 13:09

Do you really or do you just say things like "what goes around comes around" and talk of karma as a turn of phrase?

I'd like to think people are kind naturally and not because they're frightened of karma?

If you do really believe, then why? Is it not like believing in magic or something? For what it's worth I do think it's a nice thought and I wish it existed!

OP posts:
ThursdayLast · 01/08/2014 13:12

I believe in karma like I believe that 'it's nice to be nice'.

Hostility breeds hostility, kindliness encourages further kindliness. That's how I understand it. And I believe that to be generally true.

CalamityKate1 · 01/08/2014 13:13

I know. It always amazes me when people I assumed were quite intelligent start waffling earnestly about how karma will get someone in the end.

Good things happen to awful people all the time. Shit happens to good people. Some absolute arseholes lead what seem to be charmed lives and never face any negative consequences for their actions. That's life.

sillystring · 01/08/2014 13:13

When I was younger I believed it, I thought if I did anything sneaky or rotten it would come back to bite me in the bum. I think it's just an expression of having a conscience if you don't believe in a Higher Power.

It's all bollocks though, good things happen to bad people and vice versa but the notion of karma can sometimes make you feel "better" about an enemy getting their "comeuppance" or preventing you from being a dick for fear of repercussions.

cailindana · 01/08/2014 13:13

I think most people use the term Karma is the sense that if you are kind to others they will be kind to you - you reap what you sow in other words.

CalamityKate1 · 01/08/2014 13:14

Like breeds like - yes.

But the belief in karma as some sort of universal force that ensures everyone gets their just desserts?? Nope. Just silly.

DioneTheDiabolist · 01/08/2014 13:15

The more kind people are, the kinder society is and the more beneficial it is to everyone. Also, if you indulge in unpleasant behaviour, it's liable to come back and bite you in the arse.

I think that this is what many people think of when they talk of Karma (I know few Buddists, but plenty mentioners of karma). And this is not magic, it's common sense.

ThursdayLast · 01/08/2014 13:17

Yes, I think others have described it better.
I don't believe in Karma as a greater force.
I use it as a simple way to describe an attitude to life.

OldLadyKnowsSomething · 01/08/2014 13:18

I'm glad karma doesn't exist. While it's nice to think if you're good, good things will happen to you, there's a very nasty side to it too, to do with the associated belief in reincarnation, which means that if you're eg disabled in this life, it's your own fault for having been evil/wicked in a past life... Doesn't lead to a very charitable attitude.

SorryForTheTypos · 01/08/2014 13:19

Agree with CalamityKate about the extent of karma being like breeding like and nothing more.

The concept of "karma" comes dangerously close to Glenn Hoddle's view of disabled people IMHO. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa. That's life, not karma.

Same with good "luck" - no just a combination of how much effort you put in and life in general.

CoffeeTea103 · 01/08/2014 13:21

I believe in it just as Dione explains.

TheFariesAreBack · 01/08/2014 13:22

People mostly misinterpret Karma to mean 'you'll get yours' - anyone who says that is surely going to get theirs too.

Iggly · 01/08/2014 13:23

Actually to me karma is about people being arses and one day it will go badly for them as a result. Not by fluke but by their own doing.

I.e. piss enough people off and you won't always get away with it.

sillystring · 01/08/2014 13:24

I have an aunt who is a practising Buddhist, the real deal, goes on retreats for years at a time and has people in orange robes living in her house. She believes that illness/disability/being murdered is all your own fault cause you were a shit in a former life. It's utter, utter bollocks.

CatKisser · 01/08/2014 13:25

I'm with you OP! Considering how many people are quick to say "ghosts do not exist," there seem to be very few who dispute the existence of karma. I believe in being nice because I'd expect the same of others, but that's just logic isn't it?
For me, karma does not exist.

littlepeas · 01/08/2014 13:26

I believe in it in the sense that living a generally good and honest life is better for your well being.

TheLovelyBoots · 01/08/2014 13:28

I believe in it in the sense that living a generally good and honest life is better for your well being.

I agree with this.

But I don't believe in karma. And, I cringe when I hear someone say, "karma's a bitch!".

FreudiansSlipper · 01/08/2014 13:28

I believe for many people their conscience catches up with them

so if they hurt others in a deliberate way they themselves at some point have to face that and that can impact their lives and other relationships

that is what Karma means to me

sillystring · 01/08/2014 13:29

There's a saying going round now "karma's only a bitch if you are" which is quite funny.

Vitalstatistix · 01/08/2014 13:29

I think people who talk about karma as you say - the idea that 'you'll get yours' - like to believe that others get punished for the shitty way they treat folks because it simply pisses them off too much to accept that in most cases, you can be crapped upon from a great height and the crapper will go skipping off and live quite happily.

So they'll link events and call them karma.

he was a shit to me 12 years ago and today someone crashed into his car in the car park and it's a write off - karma.

Well, no. he was a shit to you 12 years ago and on an entirely unrelated note, someone had an accident in a car park today.

i think that's about people feeling that someone ought to be punished by the cosmos, or something.

chockbic · 01/08/2014 13:30

I don't believe in it.

I've seen some really good people go through hell and some really horrible people breeze through life.

For myself, I try to treat as I'd like to be treated and not be too much of a twat!

Original poster
Fanfeckintastic · 01/08/2014 13:31

Dione I agree with everything you say but as you say that's just common sense, not karma.

Take the thread about not being charged for the shoes for example, the OP sounded like a perfectly lovely lady etc but so many comments said Oh no karma etc. It doesn't sound to me like the OP is regularly spreading negativity into the world so why would people assume that if she didn't return the shoes karma would have it in for her?

I do understand that being nice and kind makes you feel good and makes it less likely for someone to want to harm you etc but it's the actual belief a lot of people seem to have that one random little move could turn karma "against you"

OP posts:
SanityClause · 01/08/2014 13:37

I don't believe in karma, per se.

I believe more in "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Also, "if you live by the sword, you die by the sword", which is different to karma.

I also like the concept of poetic justice. But I don't believe that it is inevitable, which is what karma implies.

SanityClause · 01/08/2014 13:39

"For myself, I try to treat as I'd like to be treated and not be too much of a twat!"

This, really!

thornrose · 01/08/2014 13:39

I think lots of people use it as a turn of phrase rather than an actual belief system.

WobblyHalo · 01/08/2014 13:39

I don't believe in Karma at all. You just have to look at people like Pol Pot, who did awful things to his own people (Cambodia), yet he died peacefully in his bed, as a 70-something old man. There was no Karma there.

Or Fred Phelps, from the Westboro Babtist Church in America. A despicable man who lived to the ripe old age of 84, in comfort. No Karma there...