The Unchangeable Karma Dilemma

[Owledge]

Here is an exploration of a thought:

Imagine someone who has a karmic blockage that prevents success in finding fulfillment across the whole spectrum. Naturally that person, after failed attempts to pull it off on their own, would seek help.

But anybody with the theoretical potential of causing positive change in that person's life would naturally become part of their experience of that karma blockage, thus unable to have that impact in their life.

Now supposedly there are people who are skilled in helping others dissolve their karma blockages, right?

 

...

 

They can't do shit for that person.

...

Because they won't.

Because karma.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Owledge

[Flolfolil]

...

Edited March 5, 2015 by Flolfolil

[idiot_stimpy]

This does not make sense from my perspective.

 

I see karma as being the conditioning the mind has that leads to action/reaction or cause and effect taking place.

 

But what I see is true is, some people cannot be helped it they don't want to be helped.

[Owledge]

i think karma is an awful joke invented by mean people to cause other people unneeded pain

Thank you. That made me laugh.

 

--------

 

OK, when I said karma, I probably could have said destiny/fate. All those three words don't exactly hit the nail on the head though.

But what I see is true is, some people cannot be helped it they don't want to be helped.

I'd almost call this a popculture scenario, because that side of spiritual drama seems to always be examined and treated like it's the only damn side possible. The complete opposite, welcoming help and not getting it seems too scary or abstract or whatever, and the fact that it's treated like it doesn't exist kinda hints at part of the problem and why so few people know how to tackle it.

It reminds me of a related problem, which is when people say stuff like: "As long as there is progress, no matter how small or slow, things are fine." Because people who say that are oblivious to how those words are received by people who don't make any progress, but are more like falling down.

It's like that popculture part of the spiritual community (in lack of better words) is in denial about the really tough stuff, and those who are going through such tough stuff see how all those people in denial cannot help them, because THEY would need help first for shedding their fear and repulsion of the stuff others have to deal with all the time.

Some are especially vicious and will become judgmental and blame them for having so much difficulty, because imagining that it might not be their fault is too scary and shatters their illusions of an orderly world of harmonic problem-solving.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Owledge

[idiot_stimpy]

It could be suggested that your destiny is a theme you're exploring, while the karma is whether or not you will have a good time exploring the theme or bad time.

[Aetherous]

There is no such thing as "unchangeable".

[Jeff]

Here is an exploration of a thought:

Imagine someone who has a karmic blockage that prevents success in finding fulfillment across the whole spectrum. Naturally that person, after failed attempts to pull it off on their own, would seek help.

But anybody with the theoretical potential of causing positive change in that person's life would naturally become part of their experience of that karma blockage, thus unable to have that impact in their life.

 

Now supposedly there are people who are skilled in helping others dissolve their karma blockages, right?

 

...

 

They can't do shit for that person.

...

Because they won't.

Because karma.

 

In the moment, Karma can be dropped or let go.

 

One who can truly help with such a blockage is "beyond" karma and hence not affected by it.

 

Best wishes.

[idiot_stimpy]

There is no such thing as "unchangeable".

 

Maybe only the truly unconditioned is unchangeable, but in the realm of conditioned things such as karma, it is changeable.

Edited November 7, 2014 by idiot_stimpy

[Owledge]

There is no such thing as "unchangeable".

This is the kind of unpractical wisecracking I'm talking about. One can view that word from any philosophical angle they like, but there is a context; e.g. a limited timeframe in which something does, in fact, not change.

 

I am so not impressed by words anymore. I have experienced how easily they are uttered, while even the simplest of compassionate action sometimes seems too scary to people.

A computer monitor can moderately light up a dim room, but a mere grain of raw matter can light up a whole city. That's how much more powerful the means of the physical realm are, due to the easy access to them. The immaterial might be potentially more powerful, but only to a select few who put in the effort to use it.

 

I have learned that many people seem like they operate on altruism, but in reality only act in their own interest. I used to misunderstand this and assumed altruism where there is none. Faking is a huge culture and many people never knew there's a difference between the real thing and faking. They fool themselves and others.

 

It might be that people who made it far in society did so because they played by the rules, and that might have made them incapable of helping those who didn't play by those rules.

 

There's so much saddening 'behind the curtains' stuff going on, I cannot capture that in a few brief remarks.

(I just felt like rambling a bit, because I'm in an especially bad mood lately.)

[Aetherous]

One can view that word from any philosophical angle they like, but there is a context; e.g. a limited timeframe in which something does, in fact, not change.

 

True. I also meant to say, but didn't, that we're all completely capable of altering the course of our destiny. So not only are all things changeable (in time, as you point out), but also our karma is absolutely not ever fixed in stone. It's simply a different choice you make in a moment that alters it. Cause and effect. We are not robots...we can alter things, and create causes. This is, in fact, spiritual cultivation, when what's being altered are our thoughts, actions, etc...if actually practiced well, it completely changes our karma/fate/destiny.

 

Are there hopeless cases? Only in the eye of the beholder, but not in reality.

[Michael Sternbach]

What is karma? Some people think it's punishment for our (forgotten!) deeds in past lives, but this is a misunderstanding. It's true that we weren't born as blank pages but with a certain physical and psychological structure which reflects our past lives and what we (from the soul's perspective) came here for to achieve. Thus we will be inclined to think and feel a certain way, therefore attract certain things to ourselves. Can the way we think and feel be altered, as to attract what we truly wish? Yes, any time - even though for many it's not an easy task, practically speaking. It has got to do with developing wisdom - and love. So that is what karma is there for to teach us in the first place.

[Nikolai1]

Karma/fate/ determinism are not real, just an intellectual angle on cause and effect in human lives.

 

The complementary angle is freedom of the will.

 

Too see both as erroneous views is the liberation. To believe in karma is to be bound by karma. Believing makes it real. Believing it blocks you from seeing things from the angle of freedom, which makes karma even more real.