Karma

@xhellotashyx

I'm sorry that life has been so tough. If you feel like sharing, what sorts of things have been happening in the past few years?

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I personally believe in a version of karma that says that based on what we experience/do/think/feel, our mind can change in certain ways or take on certain tendencies... and then that can affect what situations we put ourselves into or how we react to those situations. Sort of like there's just a natural cause-and-effect thing happening where certain actions or states of mind tend to create the psychological conditions for experiencing either happiness or suffering. To give a couple examples:

• If there's someone who lies a lot to others, maybe because of that they'll have trouble maintaining relationships with others (e.g. because other people might not trust them, or because they'll distrust others based on believing that everybody is just as dishonest as they are).
• If there's someone who is really forgiving and patient with others, then maybe when they make mistakes in their own life they'll be able to extend that same kindness to themselves and they might not suffer as much from self-directed anger/guilt.

There are some other versions of karma that I don't believe in quite as much just because I've experienced some counterexamples to them:

• "If you're a good/bad person, good/bad things will happen to you. If you suffer, it's your own fault because you did something wrong in the past."
  • I can't reconcile this with all of the unbelievably gentle/compassionate/amazing people I've met who have suffered through many traumatic events for years and been deeply wounded just because of having had the bad luck of being in a really cruel/destructive environment.
  • (One positive and really miraculous thing that I love is that sometimes people are so incredibly compassionate and beautiful precisely *because* of everything that they've been through. It's like their negative experiences end up becoming a gift/blessing that gives them a richer/wiser perspective or uniquely allows them to help other people who have gone through similar things.)
• "If you suffer enough, you'll purify all of your accumulated negative karma and good things will start happening to you".
  • I've seen and experienced the opposite where sometimes people will get trapped in a dark place mentally and that mental pattern will just become a sort of death spiral where things just get progressively worse rather than the suffering being something constructive or redemptive.
  • (One way in which this suffering can sometimes lead to positive results is if someone gets so fed up with being unhappy that they realize something is wrong and they become desperately energized/motivated and have the courage to make changes that wouldn't otherwise be possible under normal circumstances. Or maybe they are forced to realize certain uncomfortable truths about themselves or their surroundings that they wouldn't otherwise be able to accept, and their perspective expands in a way that's helpful.)