bkti-pit wrote:I do believe in the Law of Karma but do not agree with the simplistic views that are often put forward: if you are wealthy in this life it is a good karma from a previous birth, if you get your but kicked it is because you kicked someone's but in the past. I think it is a bit more complex and nuanced than that.
I think that what you say is true. It is more sophisticated. The touchstone that any action performed with the influence of vice is harmful and that any action performed with the influence of virtue is good can be very useful for the person who wishes to progress. Until virtue is well established tinges of vice exist in the karmic seeds that we sow, constant attention to ones thought creation, it being the basis of attitudes and action also seems to help. As for everything that happens to us being karma from the past it just cannot be so because everyone is continually sowing fresh karmic seeds.
Whilst God is a person in the BK world the devil is not though forces of darkness do exist. The cloak of invisibility that seems to envelop Brahmins seems to be an automatic aspect of an umbrella of protection, the proximity to God bit requires individual effort.
I cannot see the seeds of karma nor can I see karma itself. I can see what could be karmic effects and I can see first hand what I understand to be the sowing of karma as I do it, I can also see what seems to be karma free. That methods exist for the removal of negative karma indicate the prescence of someone(s) who can see more than me, perhaps every nuance of karma is known or visible to them. The possibility of the existence of karma explains much. Some things are imponderables.