--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Stu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: .. > Karma translates directly > as action. The concept is entirely empirical. Action can be observed. > Newton codified causality when he said for every action there is an > equal and opposite reaction. This is the law of Karma. > > The law of karma becomes murkier when applied to human behavior. ...
> However the law of karma breaks down when psychopaths murder. Here > human behavior becomes subject to errant physical characteristics in the > brain. I think a distinction between you you, and i believe Richard, karma is that you see and event an look back and ask, "what karma caused this". Total randomness would be one view -- no correlation at all between perpetrator and victim. And that may very well be the case. In some ways, its like trying to put humpty-dumpty back together after the fall. My interest in karma -- or action and action is from the opposite side (what I perceive as) of yours-- I ask, "what effect this action will have"? Through trial and error, and learning from others, one gets an idea of what the effect of This will be on That. If there is no effect, then things like tennis and baseball (even cricket -- though that already seems so random to me) are fraudulant put-ons -- throw or serve the ball and even after 1000's of hours of practice, the damn ball goes shooting off randomly, anywhere. If a person acts nicely to another, the reaction is not hard to predict. If a country treats another country like assholes, its not a huge leap to expect the recipient country to at some future point to return the favor. That actions of countries affect others, and create some reaction seems not to be a huge mystery. One would hope that good acts by individuals or countries bring some positive effect (even if that is not the purpose). To argue against this type of "modern" karma seems to leave one with total randomness. No causality. Thats a strange universe. However, to argue against ancient, supersticious metaphors -- of gods and demons -- well thats just common sense IMO.
