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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

K is for Karma

My theme for this year's A- Z Blogfest is DEATH (who I hope is like DEATH in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series): "...tall, thin (skeletal, as a matter of fact), and ALWAYS SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Generally shows up when you're dead, or just when he thinks you ought to be." Today we have K for Karma.

In Hinduism and Buddhism, Karma is the principle of retributive justice determining a person's state of life and the state of his or her reincarnations as the effect of past deeds.

So, if you screw up this time, next time might not be a picnic. Of course, sometimes there's lessons to be learned and unfortunately most lessons have to be learned the hard way: by doing them over and over repeatedly until it finally dawns on us that there's another better way. Like in Groundhog Day.

Do you believe in Karma? Or are you like Han Solo when he so famously said, "Kid, I've flown from one side of the galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense."


Excerpt from Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett...

"I meant," said Ipslore, bitterly, "what is there in this world that makes living worthwhile?"

Death thought about it.

CATS, he said eventually, CATS ARE NICE.

14 comments:

  1. I believe in karma in this lifetime. At some point, being a jerk is going to catch up to you.

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  2. I believe in karma and have experienced the come back of some of my 'I could have done that better' moments. I try to be the best possible person I can be, but it is only through making the mistakes that I've learned how to do that. Great post.

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  3. Well, I'm sort of in the middle—not quite Han Solo, but not a true believer.

    And if Death thinks cats are nice, he obviously has never encountered mine... :)

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  4. I kinda believe in karma - some stuff just seems to happen and it's too much of a coincidence. I'm thinking that Death's cat is a panther

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  5. Yes, cats are nice.

    Karma is just the force of what you put out there comes back to you. So, good deeds pay off.

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  6. Cats are never nice to me!

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  7. You now, I've never been a fan of Terry Prachett... But I'm starting to get curious!

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  8. Sometimes I wish karma moved quicker. Quite a lot quicker.
    And how I love DEATH. Enjoying rereading Mort too - thank you.

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  9. Death likes cats? That figures. A neighborhood feline left the back half of a rabbit as a gift on my front porch this morning. ~grin~ The idea of karma reminds me of the great comedy, "My Name Is Earl".
    Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
    Best wishes!

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  10. I do believe in karma. I think balance in all things must be some sort of cosmic rule. Light/dark, up/down, coffee/tea... I think you get where I'm going here. Anyway, cosmic laws are laws whether we accept them or not. In the end, they prevail. For instance, if you fall, you're going down... not up.

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  11. I have been reading a lot of folktales from Buddhist cultures lately, and it took me some time to figure out that nobody gets their comeuppance in them, because everyone assumed karma would just take care of it in the next life... :D

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    The Multicolored Diary
    MopDog

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  12. I agree, if you get a good cat, they are nice. I would say I half believe that karma exists, but that means someone has to be keeping a tally. . .I do believe in reincarnation, I like the idea of getting another chance.

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  13. LOL, cats!
    I wish for karma to work lots of times but it seems to be asleep when I want it to act.

    Susan Says

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  14. Not sure if I do or not but I enjoyed the quote from Han.

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