Yo Karma... What Up Dawg!?

The Question: Is karma a real thing, and if so how do you alter your own personal karma?

No one can know for sure what can't be known for sure... I however do not believe in Karma in a religious sense.... I definitely believe in the principles of cause and effect, however because I don't have any evidence, nor gut feelings that I have lived previous lives, I do not believe that my actions in them would impact the probability of better or worse things happening to me in this one... Again, no one can know anything for sure... I just like to play the odds...

Here is my problem with Karma... It is a principle of balance that has faults in the equation... For example... Let's just say there is a new born baby laying down in its crib... the parents are asleep in the room next door... and a snake makes its way into the baby's room, and up into the crib (and yes sadly shit like this happens)... The baby has done everything in its power to survive... breathing, crying for help, flailing its little arms... yet it's to no avail... So what do you end up with... A happy snake, 2 anguished parents, and a dead baby... Now you could say one or both of those parents had it coming for something they did in this life or a past one; or the snake did an exemplary job of infiltrating the house and deserved his prize... (thus the parents will have some good karma coming to them in this life or a future one)... but what of the karma of the baby... He wasn't alive long enough to deserve this brutal fate, nor does he have the ability to formulate memories to which this deed could compensate for bad karma from a previous life... So where would justice and fairness come into play here? Was that baby born only to punish the parents? Is human life that meaningless? No, it's nothing personal... Just a random series of events that are dictated by cause and effect... not of a supernatural world, but of a real physical world that is driven by reactionary responses of the total environment and parts beyond... The web of cause and effect is so vast and limitless that it appear to be supernatural... but its not... (in my opinion)

Nature is brutal, unfair, and has been around playing judge and jury waaayyyy before the dawn of mankind... Are we to believe that cosmically karma came to exist because humans came to exist? Is a species who was improbably granted self awareness on a boon dock backwater planet that will fade out of existence as soon as our sun explodes worthy of special cosmic rules and loopholes? Are we to believe that karma existed as soon as conscious choice came to exist...? Or is karma just a good way of keeping people in check and stopping them from being even bigger assholes than they already have a tendency to be? (because whether we want to admit it or not... we are still beasts... we are just told that we are not supposed to enjoy it) I don't believe in the concept of being a good person for the concept of reward... (I actually don't believe in the concept of "good" or "bad" people at all but that explanation is gonna have to be for a different blog) Either way, if you are going to do a good deed, do it to make the world a better place for everyone, not just for yourself...

So how do you adjust your own personal karma? Don't be an asshole... Do good deeds for the sake of doing good deeds, and learn to be at peace with yourself regardless of the outcome... When people kick you in the nuts... get up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward... Take whatever steps you have to take to not be jaded and horrible like the majority of people... It won't guarantee anything, but on the principle of cause and effect, it definitely won't hurt your chances...

~Keepa Pu Daxta
Laundry Thief