Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00183)

Jerry S:

>>If we invoke the aspect of mercy and/or forgiveness, then what
>>happens to the victims if something has been done to hurt them ?
>
>This is an area in which karma becomes murky and too profound
>to really be sure of what is going on. If someone hurts me, I will
>NOT feel better by knowing that that person is suitably punished.
>I am not vindictive nor do I insist on "justice" in the sense of an
>eye for an eye.  I would, in fact, forgive the person in the hopes
>that the person would then learn to forgive others.  In a sense,
>we are all "victims" in this world--victims of our own ignorance.

Some stray thoughts on the discussion ...

I don't think that we can have karma with someone else, outside
of ourselves and that other person. The karma is "unfinished
business" between us, unspent energy, needed adjustments in
our lives to account for previous actions, interactions, causes
set in motion between ourselves and the other person.

Some things that we do make new karma. They are actions that
we take that affect another, not in reaction to something done
in the past, remembered or not, but done out of our own free
will, our own initiative of the moment. Other things we do are
reactive, in response to what the other person has done, carrying
forward an "ping pong game" of action and reaction between us.

Karma doesn't cease until we no longer interact with that
other person, having no unspent energy between us and them,
no unfinished business to attend to, no future hopes and
wishes dependent upon interaction with them, etc. That is,
karma with that person ceases when they become an non-entity
to us, when we are indifferent to them in life.

A total indifference to beings in life leads to karmalessness,
but that isn't necessarily a good thing. Someone can, for a
while, exit the wheel of birth and rebirth, with no existing
ties to draw them back. That is, though, dropping out of life,
and is *missing something*. There's much more to belonging to
life, to having many strong, positive bonds with other beings,
leading to one making a significant contribution to the world.
That is being karma-full, something better, in this sense,
than being karma-less...

-- Eldon