Beliefs

Let me just say that I neither believe nor disbelieve in anything. I think some ideas make better sense than others. I try not to judge things too much. I accept that intuition is often beset by our own desires. It seems to me that most people wrap their experiences around their beliefs instead of the other way around (which makes more sense to me). Like my boss who after hearing lengthy stories from me and a coworker about our experiences with what most folks generally describe as ghosts... He sat back for a minute and then said "Well I dont really believe in that sort of thing." and then he got up and left without saying anything more. I guess he just assumed that we were hallucinating or just idiots, or perhaps making it up.
It seems as though in the last few decades as the West intermingles more with the East that folks are quick to pick up on ideas they like such as Karma. I've met countless people that just accept it as a fact of life. Its sort of like the new Hell in many circles. Its that force which makes us feel better about all the bad people in the world who get ahead in life by being evil. "Well its ok karma (hell) will get them in the end." And then we sleep better. But I've known far to many people who live in fear because of their notions of karma. This works the same way ideas of Hell work, keeping people in line with what they consider to be good and in perpetual state of worry about the retribution that the Cosmos will invoke upon them for all their "bad" deeds. Now I certainly think its not a terrible thing to have ideas in our culture that perpetuate love of our fellow living beings. But in all my life I've never seen a single bit of evidence to make me think that Karma actually exists as a force of reality. I guess people generally pick it up from folks whos wisdom they trust. Most of the people I know who buy into it do so because their psychic told them it was so, or because they think that the Buddah said it was so. As I understand it, the idea of karma evolved from ancient religions in India. Allegedly Sidartha (the Buddah), bought into this as well. But Sidartha never really wrote any texts that have been found. So all we really have there is hearsay from people who claimed to have known an enlightened dude thousands of years ago. For me its a flimsy foundation for lifes paradigms. Personally I'd be more inclined to rely on personal experiences as well as those of people that I know and trust. In my own experiences I've certainly seen the golden rule at work. If you do nice things for people (and they know that it was you who did it ) then they'll be more inclined to do nice things for you later, and vice versa. Somebody once said that karma is "Justice without the satisfaction". I'd like to believe in karma, ...but I don't.
I really do like to keep an open mind, as I said in my opening. Maybe some day I'll believe in karma. Maybe some day I'll believe in the Easter Bunny.
Maybe next time I'll attack "the Secret" and peoples notions of "manifesting" reality.