To believe in karma, even though it doesn’t always seem to work?

[DreamyPearlPeer]

I’ve always believed that what goes around comes around, but lately I’ve been questioning whether karma really exists. I see people who do terrible things and seem to get away with it, while others are good struggle endlessly. AIBU to still believe in karma, or is it just wishful thinking?

I don't particularly believe in karma but I do think there are consequences for choices. For example if you're an arsehole your whole life some people will dislike you. If you choose a shit man you will have a shit marriage and shit dad for your children. If you lead an unhealthy lifestyle you are likely to get sick. Most people who I know struggle have made choices that put them on that path, although sometimes subconsciously.

I look at karma like this; existence is all about energy. What we put out in energy, in terms of intention, that being a “positive” or “negative” intention, must have an energetic reaction, at some point down the line that will come back to us.

How does that account for children that are trafficked or have awful things happen to them? I’m not so sure, obviously the people doing the wrong doing are starting the bad karma. Perhaps the theories of past lives karma debt balancing hold some weight but we will never know…..it does seem so very unfair that children and some adults go through awful lives and just don’t deserve it.

I do believe that the wrong doers get karma even though it might not be obvious on the outside, on the inside the worthlessness they feel is karmic.

The problem with it is that in nature more ruthless creatures survive and thrive.
Therefore often "bad people " thrive.

I know someone who's been through absolutely awful abuse and trauma in her life. In childhood, and as an adult. Really awful, and she's still having a very hard time.

She's spoken to me several times, about needing to believe she was bad in a previous life - she feels it would be unbearable for there to be no reason for everything she's been through. She also hopes for karma in the next life on those who've harmed her in this life.

I personally feel uncomfortable about the idea - but I don't feel I have any right to judge her. For her, believing in karma is a source of comfort.

I am spiritist not registed anywhere I true believer after lots of personal experiences being interested in personal development and psychology in my 20s 30s I grow up in strong Roman Catholic family. After years of going through a lot and also reading a lot I started seeing mediums. We here and we go through karmic relationships is not that easy like karma pay you back in this life. I recommend reading Allan Kardec

This. The West has the meaning of Karma very wrong.

Or it’s just wishful thinking, with the added, sick caveat of ‘Wait six lifetimes, but the woman who stole your husband will definitely get it by being reincarnated as a child with a terminal illness’?

If I believed in instant or same life kama then I would have been woefully disappointed. Too many people who do unpleasant things to other beings just get away with it and it is rare that anyone even challenges them.

Reincarnation and karma make absolutely no sense to me as there is no opportunity to learn and not repeat bad choices if you cannot remember what you did wrong in the first place. It’s basically a no-win setup.

Also, i once read that many wealthy Indians refuse to assist those in great need as ‘it would interfere with their karma’. Sounds like a convenient excuse to me.

It's funny you should say this. I don't really believe in karma, but make of this what you will.

I obviously don't wish suffering on anyone before anyone suggests this.

I have a very rare disability and was bullied relentlessly through my school years by one girl. Life was already very tough and she made it unbearable at times. I recently found out that she has a child, born with the exact disability that I have. I feel sorry for her poor child having to experience life the way I have, with our condition but hopefully the child's mother is now more understanding of the misery she put me through and it's stopped her being a cunt.

Outside of its meaning in Buddhism, karma ime is something people invoke to comfort themselves in the face of their own powerlessness. They can’t punish someone, so they want to believe the universe does it.

Karma is a load of shite. My whole family are dead and I have cancer and I’ve never done anything wrong to anyone. All the people who have treated me badly have truly wonderful lives. Yes, I’m bitter.

Karma truly sucks if someone gets raped because of the sins of their past lives. Sort of like sins of the father get visited on the daughter. Great.

Not for me.

I must have been a right twat in a past life then !

No such thing as karma, only consequences and sometimes people don't get the consequences of their actions.

Married man cheats on wife. Wife kicks him out, he ends up in a hostel, the kids don't want to see him and he dies alone. Not karma, just consequence.

Same man could just have easily moved in with the OW, won the lottery and got 50/50 custody so he never had to pay the ex a penny. Then when she loses the house and moves back with her parents, he takes full custody and she ends up paying him out of her minimum wage paycheck after she quit her career to raise the kids.

I don't like the idea of karma being a multi lifetime thing. I'm probably Christian/Agnostic and believe what happens to you after this life is down to how you behaved while alive.

I do believe that karma exists during our lives. I have known so many unkind people, who may superficiously appear to have it all,are in reality struggling behind the facade. Be it financially, health issues, relationships etc.

My personal take on it is to live your life, try and be decent to others. Those that are 's remove them from your life. Live like that and you just go through the same good and bad as we all do and it evens itself out.

Interesting. I know someone who treaters wife horribly. They divorce. He bribed the judge and got custody of kids. He has been alienating the kids from mum for almost 10 years. They are now teen and 20. In that period mum has struggled in ok jobs while the ex-husband has thrived. His income has increased dramatically and he is living this amazing life with the "new" wife who may have been the affair partner. What have been the consequences of his choice to cheat on wife 1, take her kids from her, take every propery from house, land to plates and bedding?

Those struggling endlessly, are actually paying for the terrible things they did but got off with in previous lives.
Does that mean we shouldn't help victims of DV, abused kids etc because they need to experience their karma on order to live a happier life next time?

Does this mean war zones etc are heavily populated with people who were bad in their past lives? As such is war a timed consequence of previous evil on a huge scale? So all the Nazi's for example are now getting their comeuppance living as "victims" in attacked countries? Does that mean that foreign aid should be banned?

How does that work on a 121 level. Guy thinks he randomly murders and rapes a stranger. But actually it's karma for something she did in a previous life so it wasn't random but necessary. Is he then punished in his next life even though he was just doing what was needed to deliver her karma? Is it wrong to punish him in this life therefore?

I don’t believe in Karma as a long term levelling of the playing field.

I do believe that to some degree you can create your own luck - what you do and how you behave can have unexpected and far off consequences you could never foresee.

That’s peanuts compared with the lottery of when and where you are born, genetics, health and disabilities, etc etc. so it’s something of a luxury belief.

But how many good people do you know who are also struggling behind the facade? Where's their good karma? My friend has multiple health issues, is waiting for a biopsy on a lump, her husband has had multiple medical and mh issues. They're both really good people. She works for a charity that does positive work. If she's going through what bad people experience as their karma, how is that rational?

That doesn't mean he is really happy. His wife may have worked hard, now has an average life, quite possibly an average partner. But now sit on a Saturday night quite happily watching crap on tv with a glass of wine.

He however in reality is stressing because the latest mortgage payment is due and they spend money faster than it comes in. The kids in reality tolerate them because of what they can get. In reality when that money runs out they go back to Mum and realise Dad is a four letter word and he spends his old age alone.

Obviously I don't know your friend. But what I will say is that superficially succesful people that appear to have all the luck going, they often have crap going on that nobody knows about, The reverse can apply to those that appear to have all of lives struggles. While having health issues, they may also have the love and companionship of each other and friends that others only dream of.

Unscientific nonsense.

read this for more understanding:
https://www.hinduamerican.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/KarmaMokshaandSamsara2.0_0.pdf

Also this :
A Hindu’s ultimate goal in life is to reach moksha. Moksha means liberation or freedom from samsara and it can only happen after a Hindu has been reborn many times. If a Hindu gains good karma from many lifetimes, they will have gained ultimate knowledge and have freed themselves from the constraints of the material world. Once this happens, a Hindu’s atman no longer needs to be reborn into another being and is ready to be free from samsara. As a result, the atman will achieve moksha and will be re-joined with Brahman.

What if they keep being born a muslim or christian or atheist in their next lives? Does one still ‘get credit’? And why go through all these lives, without knowing exactly ‘what’ you are expected to learn, and failing continuously, instead of just being ‘promoted’ after one lifetime of being informed of what you must do to advance permanently? It sounds like some sort of elaborate video game where you repeat levels.