Month: November 2004

Bad Karma for me is always when I let my thinking go its own way.  And, I can always counteract it by saying something that may sound crazy.  I simply say to myself, "Devil, get away from me." God always wants us to enjoy life and have contentment.  He gave us control over our thinking, but we must use that control.  Just think about what we sometimes allow to happen in our thinking and what we say to ourselves. Imagine this:  "If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?"

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MN:

I love it! Great truth of yours, Pastor Bob: "If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?"

The "devil" seems indeed  to be our own selves at times, isn’t it?

Whenever something happens in my life that I would label as "bad" karma, I immediately begin to look for the lesson that needs to be learned from this "bad" karma. I know that whatever the lesson is, I need to learn it, for somewhere in my life I will need this information.  The "bad" karma turns into a blessing for me and my family.  Sometimes it teaches me patience, perseverance, or how to handle things when I am told  "NO, not this time" or just "NO"!  Most of the time when this happens, I find  that something better is around the corner, so the  "NO" was a "WAIT!"   I believe God is constantly honing me for His will, shaping me to become better and better as His person.  Peace and many blessings,   Marcia Ann

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MN:

Your comments, Marcia, remind me of the words to one of my favorite songs: "Unanswered Prayers." Whether we’re a country-western singer, a stay-at-home mom, or the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, all of our wishes don’t always come true.

Thank God (literally!), and ourselves, when we can have the strength of faith – and then the proof! – of the existence of A Bigger Plan. Those Wealthy Souls who learn to go with the flow know exactly what you mean.

As a Christian I do not believe in bad karma or good karma. I believe God has placed me in a circumstance to be taught something or to be used by Him for a purpose I may not recognize. But I know God uses His children for the glory of His Son Jesus, because of Calvary. Each situation must be bathed in prayer and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We never know where God is leading and using us in His service. Sometimes the situation is to increase our faith in Him. Sometimes He is using us to reach others. That how we bring honor and glory to God. To be obedient and willing to serve and do His will and not our own. We must learn to die to self and live for God. Jesus was obedient and died for me on the Cross of Calvary. I must take up my cross dailey and die to self and live for Jesus to glorify Almighty God the Father. Be blessed … Brother Martin

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MN:

Indeed, Brother Martin – what could one say about the karma of Jesus? Was not he a tool of His Father, just as we .. . . through our responses to our challenges . . . can be a tool of the same Father?

Many blessings for sharing your wisdom.

You write books. it does not mean you control absolute thruth, same as a "pope" does not.  I just read the 9 Insights of the whealthy soul, and I like them very much.

For my humble opinion, karma does not exist. It is all in the imagination of the reacting person in front of obstacles or uncontrollable events. If you accept the 9 insignts, as a way of transforming life, you will probably agree that the most difficult insight is to spiritually surrender, to be able to be patient with life  I have had my BIG share of badluck in my 70 years of life, but I really feel that the events were the consequences of decisions I have made, one after the other, to put myself into trouble for being "not patient" with my wishes and for following bad advice concerning possible gains that were not timely and kosher. Not Karma.  I have accepted the situation long ago, on certain aspects of my life, but always search for "the solution" for a better life. I have not surrendered spiritually  and I hope the book I just ordered will help have a better insight, with patience. Thank you, and Better daily future to you, Mike.

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MN:

Ah, you bring up a good point, Maurice! Does karma really exist? Indeed, from the perspective that we are so largely in control of it, it only exists as far as our response to it.

Do we make lemonade out of lemons? Or, conversely, does a life of lemonade make one a "real lemon!"

Thank you for bringing up that mystery!

Dear Michael:

"There is nothing good nor bad, but thinking makes it so." Thus wrote the great playwright over 400 years ago.

No, you do not have bad karma. You have simply labled your experiences "bad", "good".

Challenges are opportunities for growth. Embrace them; bless them. Behind these dark clouds is the glorious "silver lining". Be like the modern jet plane and climb until you soar above the clouds. It’s a beautiful sight up there!

Pardon me for running on; you have raised the question and I do think you have answered answered it far better than I.

Thanks for raising the question, and thanks for the answer.

Warmest regards,

Wentworth.

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MN:

Beautiful quote, Wentworth. Funny how simply repeating a wonderfully-stated truth at an appropriate time is sometimes all you need to do to reinforce "the good."

Thank you!

Michael,

Your take on karma is encouraging but denies a reality – bad things happen to people who do bad things.  This has been recognized for thousands of years. The Torah and the Talmud are replete with examples and admonitions about karmic acts as are the sacred Buddhist texts and the writings of wise people from most ages and religions.  The Christian bible teaches that you reap what you sow.

Certainly, how we react to bad events is important to how we deal with them in the current monent, but the fact that those events occur in the first place is where karma manifests.  Karma is cause and effect – past life (or lives) intentional acts effecting current events.  Karma is not the result of how we think about those prior acts but of the intentional acts themselves.  Homicide bombers, and those who motivate them, "think" that their acts are meritorious but do you really believe that just thinking so makes them so? I’d bet aginst it.  I think there is some very bad karma created by such actions.  Conversely, do you believe that the acts of a Mother Teresa generate anything but good karma?

Becoming aware of our prior acts and their impact on others leads us to a greater appreciation of what effect our current acts have on the world, the "others" in our immediate relationships and our God – whoever s/he may be.  In the sense that we can affect our current behavior we can affect our future karma.  That’s why Buddhists and other mystical traditions rely heavily on meditation practice and developing awareness.

This does not mean that random events which effect us are karmic.  Hurricanes and earthquakes may have a karmic component that is related to the acts of many (and even that is doutful) but they are certainly not directed at anyone personally. In that sense, how one reacts to the results of such events is more important to that individual than the event itself.  A bad reaction might create future bad karma and, conversely, a compassionate and non-self centered reaction might create future good karma.

I could go on for longer but let me end with this.  "No good act goes Unpunished" is a political axiom that is countered by another – "What goes around comes around."  There’s something about karma in both of them

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MN:

Agreed, Jeffrey! My take on Karma was more "poetic" than "literal" – meaning, I avoided getting into the philosophical "good creating good" and "bad creating bad" discussion (classical Karma)  . . . even though I do believe that. The viewpoint I took was simply that WE have the opportunity to create our own karma by creating Good out of Bad every day.

Great points!

Okay, Michael, NOW you are sounding like the philosophy that I carry within me. It has taken a lot of years. (I am 80.) For 25 years I was married to the most pessimistic man I have ever known. Nothing was ever good. Nothing was ever right. Nothing was ever fair. Finally with the help of a good pshchologist I walked away, went back to school working as a dorm mom while going to school and caring for my four children still left at home. It took a lot of years, but gradually I began to see myself as a nice worthwhile person, the world as a wonderful place, and always expected good things to happen~~and most of the time they did.

At first money was scarce~~Oklahoma’s teachers had an even worse pay scale then than they do now.But I read inspiring books, took courses to boost my optomistic thinking and gradually learned to get in the flow of life. I always expected~~and most of the time got~~a parking place close to where I needed to be and I frankly told friends I was riding with, "There will be a parking place by the door ." When they found this to be true they joked they were always going to have me ride in their car. Then once a friend told me "When you start to think about money the way you think of parking places, you’ll never have to worry about money again." This has worked for me. I do not live extravagantly but buy the things I need and my life is comfortable. I live on retirement income, supplementing it by still ‘subbing’ in the schools, and have had a bit of success with writing, having (real life) stories published in three national magazines.  I have read it before and I’m convinced that it is true~~Life is a mirror. What we see outside is a reflection of what is within. No one can make another person happy. It all comes from within and is self-made. Wasn’t it Lincoln who said people were about as happy in life as they made up their minds to be?

Thanks for the letter which reached me on a cloudy rainy day in Oklahoma. NOW I’ve got to find those two $50 bills I hid from myself in a book on my computer desk bookshelf. What karma  caused me to thoughtlessly place them in a book without conciously registering what book they were in?( Care to envision me finding them?) Sincerely, Virginia

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MN:

What a wonderful story, Virginia! You are a testimony to "the simple, good life." I’m inspired!

Regarding those $50 bills – losing money is like Karma, isn’t it? Just when we think we’ve run out of Good Karma, it reappears!

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MN:

You’ve got it, Karen. Bad karma does turn into Good Karma – it’s up to us to be the alcehmists and make the transformation!

Hi Michael, I’m new to your writings and to this blog. I just got home

from a discouraging morning to find your email on bad karma v. good karma.

VERY TIMELY! It put a smile on my face and some much needed encouragement

in my soul. I have a tendency to freak out about challenges in my

life…fear I suppose of not surviving through them. Perspective is a much

needed tool in pressing through and persisting to the point of reaching

ones goals in life. Thanks again, and I look forward to getting those

books I ordered soon! Encouragement was the way my perceived "bad" karma,

turned into "good"!

I do not not believe in “bad” or “good” karma. Karma just is. Who are we to know if something is good or bad in the greater view of our soul’s journey? With each challenging event that occurs we have a choice, to center ourselves and act, or react. Holding on to the notion of judging whether karma, or anything, is good or bad, only sets us up for again judging if our actions are going to produce more good or bad. How to we know? It’s only conjecture and yet another opportunity for our overactive, ego centered, thinking mind to take us over. If we move from a centered place, a heart place, what we produce will be the right action. Again, neither good nor bad.

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MN:

Precisely! Did Nelson Mandela have Bad Karma going through all he did? Do professional athletes have better karma than me or you because of their fame, talent and salaries? Ultimately, it is exactly what you say, Chip – how we respond to the challenges and the lives we were given.