Karma and The Golden Rule
Karma isn’t fate. Nor is it a punishment imposed on us by some external agent. We create our own karma. Karma is the result of the choices that we make every moment of every day.
Karma and The Golden Rule – Cause and Effect, and the Harm and Benefits
Usually, when we experience drastic changes in our personality or in our way of acting or thinking, we may start to consider the bad things that happen to us as karma for having hurt, deceived someone, being selfish, or even for thinking badly without any foundation.
In other words, we find ourselves experiencing a kind of return from all the negative actions that we once practiced.
“The first step towards a cure is to know what the disease is”
~ Latin proverb
However, it must be borne in mind that it is not only the negative attitudes considered on the scales of balance. Our cheerful, altruistic, charitable, and benevolent actions also return to positive karma for our lives.
The association of karma as something negative comes from the human being’s natural tendency, which is to remember more of the adverse events because being hurt or hurting others usually marks much more in our memories than pleasant and joyful moments.
Karma isn’t fate. Nor is it a punishment imposed on us by some external agent. We create our own karma. Karma is the result of the choices that we make every moment of every day.
~Tulku Thondup
The Meaning of the Word Karma
The best way to understand the concept of what is called karma is to realize that everything and everyone around us has its own energy, just like ourselves.
It means that every time we interact with the universe around us, these actions produce particular energy that can be good or bad.
The word karma has its literal translation precisely under this concept of “making and collecting the entire field of physical, verbal, and mental actions.”
This particular web of the energies generated in each action and every step we take end up creating situations. Many times we cannot recognize the real damage we cause when we act unfairly with someone.
How each one will receive these energies may be different. Therefore, the human being tends to react in a much less indifferent way when going through the same situation.
By experiencing the other side of the coin, we create greater empathy for others’ feelings, and we can understand their reactions. Only through the learning of compassion, we awaken a compassionate heart. We learn the spectrum of our actions, and we become aware and responsible for our own attitudes and thoughts.
Cause and Effect
At this point, one can better understand what karma and the law of cause and effect mean. They are one and the same. They are basically about balance and understanding. It is about getting feedback from your actions directly experiencing its causes is undoubtedly a very effective way of understanding your actions’ magnitude.
Karma teaches us the Golden Rule
However, as mentioned, the concept also applies to the positive return of energies, or positive karma. Even if these do not mark us in the same way as more bitter experiences, the attitudes that result in goodness must produce energies rich in positive charges, which will surround us with a magnetism conducive to happy events.
Everything you say, every thought you entertain, and everything you do have a direction, which serves as an advance or a retreat regarding your pursuit of excellence. Everything, regardless of size or intent, has bottom-line consequences; therefore, everything counts – this is the golden rule of excellence.
~ Gary Ryan
The ethics of reciprocity, also called the Golden Rule, is an Ethical teaching or moral principle that can be expressed as a positive or negative injunction:
Each must treat the others as he would like him to be treated (positive or directive).
Each should not treat others the way he would not like him to be treated himself. (negative or prohibitive form, or silver rule).
The concept of reciprocity (it resembles the same blueprint as the Karmic Teaching) occurs, in some form, in almost all religions and ethical traditions. It can also be explained from the perspective of psychology, philosophy, sociology, and economics.
Psychologically, it involves developing empathy with others. Philosophically, it consists of a person perceiving his neighbor as an “I” as well.
Sociologically, “love your neighbor as yourself” is applicable between individuals, groups, and individuals. In economics, Richard Swift, about David Graeber’s ideas, suggests that “without some kind of reciprocity, society could no longer exist.”
This idea of positive or negative return, always in accordance with a magnetic aura that we are responsible for creating, demonstrates the personal control over what happens in our lives and that we must plan for the future by assuming responsibilities without placing all the weight of the acts and destination decisions.
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About the Author
Cathedral of the Soul intends to undertake the challenge of creating a multidimensional healing space that is dedicated to those who seek to enrich, enlighten, and heal themselves while serving and assisting in the healing of others. Cathedral of the Soul is one of the many spiritual outreaches of Humanity Healing International, a registered 501C3 nonprofit with Church status. https://cathedralofthesoul.org
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