Karma - Natural Law - Right Action
Lately the theme karma has been popping up in my life. This night I got an "Aha Erlebnis".
So Karma or Natural Law is basically the law of Causality.
Many claim that Karma is some sort of balance sheet you build up with positive and negative action for your next life when you reincarnate. However this seems very much more build on superstition than on reality.
But to stay in a religious theme, it does mean "What you reap, is what you sow".
I have had the impression that many people do not seem to understand that when they commit certain actions, there will be according consequences.
- For example spending (all) your money on something and then being mad (mostly at the world and not themselves) that they don't have money for something else.
- Being rude and being surprised that other people don't like you.
I see it as a road, you can't take the road to Berlin and expect to end up in Paris.
Now what was my Aha Erlebnis? The Eightfold Path of the Buddha is a guide to being more consistent in your actions.
As stated by the Buddha "Life is suffering, but the Eightfold Path is the way out of suffering".
What is suffering? Not getting what you want, and getting what you don't want. What don't you want? Bad consequences, so stop taken bad actions.
You could stop wanting things and to some extend you can keep your expectations low, but in the long end not very practical.
I do realize that some people don't seem to see what bad actions are, that is why, it is not only "right action" that is necessary, but also the "right view" to see what bad actions are.
So summarized:
There are some precursors to behavior, namely analysing the situation (right view) right meaning "just right" not to much, not little.
Start with the "right intention" and use the "right action", meaning the actions that lead to the desired results. And therefore getting "good Karma" or "Following the path of Natural Law", "The Eightfold Path".
Here is a nice video by Cahlen explaining Natural Law.
Morality and Natural Law