turquoiseb: > At any moment you could and do > something else... > How are you going to just say "Just say no" to the force of gravity? Karma means action and reaction - are you thinking that there is a mental component to karma?
> Free will *has* to coexist with karma, or there would > be no possibility of ever changing. > How could someone have free will yet be bound by karma? Either you are free or you are bound. If free then you have no need for a spiritual technique; if bound you need to have a yoga that can help you free yourself You cannot have free will, and be at the same time, bound. Nobody can avoid the effects of gravity so they can levitate. What are you going to do: Yell out while standing at the top of a cliff, "I will fly!" and then jump off? Maybe Turq should think about what it means when he uses a Sanskrit term like 'karma' and 'free will'. Go figure. > > > As I see it, what happens > > > in the universe is the sum total of all of the individual > > > actions made by all of the individual sentient beings in > > > it -- no "guidance" behind it, no "Plan" behind it, just > > > karma plus free will. I *get off* on the idea of karma > > > plus free will being the Operating System of the universe. > > > > So Turq-How did you get introduced to the idea of 'Karma', > > was it MMY? > > Nope. I'd been reading about karma for years before > I ever met -- or heard of -- Maharishi. > > > If so, don't you have something to be grateful for from > > Maharishi? That knowledge alone may save you from much > > suffering in life.... > > I have a few things I'm grateful to him for, and have > said them on this forum numerous times. None of them > were ever valuable enough to "save me from much > suffering in this life." :-) > > > PS. BTW, isn't freewill and Karma a Plan? > > Absolutely not. It is the complete opposite of a Plan. > > > ...and don't the administration of the laws of Karma > > require 'guidance'? > > Not at all. In my view karma is pure physics -- every > action has an equal and opposite reaction -- "admin- > istered" on a purely physical level automatically as > a kind of Operating System for a universe that was > never created, and in fact is and always will be > eternal. > > Many people haven't really "thought through" karma. > Free will *has* to coexist with karma, or there would > be no possibility of ever changing. > > You do something in the past, and the reverberations > of that action affect you in the present. But they > don't *control* your present; they are merely an > influence on it. You could allow the samskaras from > the past to influence you, and just do the same old > same old again, but you don't have to. At any moment > you could "Just say no" and do something else. It's > the "something else" that allows for spiritual growth > and evolution and spiritual progress. >
