Karma, karma everywhere and all the ethics did shrink.
Karma, karma everywhere but not one seems to think.
Karma is a term and concept that has been around for millennia as it derives from Hinduism and later Buddhism. Within the “West,” in this case the USA, it dates back to circa the 1960s AD. Around this time Eastern philosophy and theology along with psychedelics resulted in one of the most disastrous periods of the USA’s history.
The combination of watered down (a key concept) Eastern mysticism and psychedelics brought about the destruction of the traditional family and marriage. This lead to the sexual devolution which brought about unprecedented spread of sexually transmitted diseases, broken homes, abortion at will and an overall rejection of ethics.
This, in combination with watered down, vague and Westernized-Eastern philosophy/theology produced a band-aid spirituality according to which you could “do what thou wilt,” then contemplate your naval in a lotus position and tell yourself that you are a “good person” (whatever that means; see here) and a “spiritual” person (whatever that means) regardless of the human wreckage you have left in your wake.
Narrowing ourselves to the concept of karma it was most recently popularized within our pop-occulture by the TV show “My Name is Earl.” The show is literally premised upon the concept of karma which the show defines, quite in keeping with the Western/USA watered down definition as “Do good things, and good things will happen” and, of course, the reverse is true.
It is tragic that within the USA’s culture, the great thinking of the ages upon issue of morality and ethics have been reduced to “That’s not okay.” Thus, a concept such as karma has come to be peppered in TV shows, movies, books, etc.
In a recent airing of the TV show “What would you do?” they emphasized that faced with what should have been an ethical issue very many people referenced karma.
The dilemma was to place an actor at a bar alongside an unsuspecting person. The actor would steal a wallet in full view of the unsuspecting personage and proceed to remove the money. The typical reply of the unsuspecting was to say words to the effect of that, “That’s bad karma.” Yes, that’s all folks! But, what’s wrong with that?
Well, firstly, note that the show’s title actually give it away as it is called “What would you do?” This is not the title of the episode but the show in its entirety. Rather than “What would Jesus do?” it is left to the individual: what would you do?
Well, what the individual did was dissuade stealing, sure, but why? That is the key issue.
Note that no one said, “You should not do that because it is inherently wrong, bad, evil” or, God (not) forbid, “a sin.” Rather, the message is “You should not do that because if you do something bad will happen to you.”
In other words, watered down karma is ultimately selfish. It is not that you should withhold because it is unethical but because you do not want something bad happening to you in turn.
Watered down karma is a mere concept that is detached from its roots. Its roots are that of Hinduism and later Buddhism. Succinctly stated; karma’s roots are a concept of seeking nirvana which is not gained by ridding oneself of bad karma and only gathering up a bunch of good karma. Rather, the point is to be rid of all karma all together.
The issue links in to reincarnation as you would have to return to Earth, in various forms (human and otherwise) in order to work off all karma. Thus, someone who does good deeds to gather good karma would still have to return to Earth to work it off.
The ultimate answer is to become utterly unmoved by and all things: good, evil, compassion and violence. By removing oneself from all one remains neutral. Buddhism came about when Siddhartha Gautama rejected certain Hindu concepts, such as the caste system, and kept others, such as reincarnation and karma.
Notice that in the very many varieties of illustrations/statues of the Buddha have something in common; they tend to show the Buddha with eyes at half-mast. They are not quite opened and not quite closed but right in between. This is a symbolic representation of detachment; not attached to one extreme or the other but remaining neutral. Ultimately, the goal is to, get this, desiring to rid one’s self from desire.
Thus, in abandoning the ultimate source of ethics, YHVH, we have accepted the ultimate selfishness; watered down karma.
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To see how the ultimate source of ethics is YHVH see video here.
To see how there is as difference between morality and ethics see videos here and articles here.