Identity~

Interesting questions, and the painting symbolizes them.

I agree with Claudia.

Lovely, soft and kindly introspection. The underlying sense of acceptance made it seem like your poem is resting on a pillow.

wonderful thoughts and reflections. I love the picture you have with it as well!

Beautiful poem and picture.
Anna del C.
Author of "The Silent Warrior Trilogy"
http://www.annadelc.com

VERY well done, Geeta!

Lovely!

thanks for sharing

In the last line I have to ask a question
What is the difference?
Or in other words...can you define the difference?

Hi Jan,

Karma is a Sanskrit word, which means action or act.In Indian religion, it's understood that our actions, good or bad takes us to our past, present and future lives.One is responsible for making his/her life due to laws of karma.Fate, destiny and Karma as action, so there's a difference between leaving everything to the fate or making the future through actions.

One more interesting thing that Hindu palmist reads lines of the left hand, known as fate lines but the right hand from which we do all work, is called as a Karma hand.

Hey Buzzy.

Joseph Campbell and Margaret Mead both engaged the topic of cultures mis-understanding across lines. It's almost as if some people wear blinders and can't see anything not within their own culture.

I applaud your attempt to explain the concept of karma.

Let me muse away about fate for a moment. In Ancient Greece, they didn't have a set of rules but rather one principle: To thy self be true. Here, we can get a cultural misunderstanding. To someone in the west, it means to be the individual you are. To the Ancient Greeks, it meant to know who you are and not exceed your nature. We see story after story on point, Icarus and his wax wings, for example.

My favorite story about fate and how we can't escape it is Oedipus. The king's told that his son will group up to slay him and bed his mother. The king, to avoid fate, orders the baby killed. Since they didn't have abortion back then, once born, the baby was given to the herdsman to lay out in the forest and die -- exposure that's called. If they have a river, like in the Moses story, the baby's set to drift.

The herdsman takes pity on the baby and takes him to the neighboring kingdom, to be adopted by the king and queen. The baby grows up and is told by a prophet he's destined to murder his father and bed his mother. Not knowing he's adopted, to avoid his fate, he fleas the kingdom.

In his travels, he comes upon a royal hunting parting and a fight breaks out -- you guessed it: he kills his father without knowing it.

It's a great story.


The western idea of karma is odd, Buzzy, more a system of reward and punishment. I think it could be a Christianized concept here in the west.

Interesting questions you pose, Buzz. And I like how you explained to Jan the difference between Karma and fate. I imagine having your left hand read gave you much pleasure...for did it not tell you, why you are the person you are?

As a youth I decided not to make decisions based upon the flip of a coin; I would not let chance or fate make my decisions unless there was logical reason to do so. For example, "If the bridge is up then I'll do this first and that second, but if the bridge is not up, then it will be more efficient to do that first".

Wonderful. Brilliant. (secretly I thought the two had never parted on Kumbh mela....)

straw girl’s unnatural muse

Very nice

I really enjoyed this one....
a wonderful poem of questions and life

Very interesting musings

Great poem, Buzzy! Thanks for sharing.

Great match of words and picture.

Buzzy, I find peace in your words and your art.

Karl, that's really intriguing and striking.I wanted to read the whole plot so read it on Wikipedia and sure you gave it a Unique texture defining fate and Karma.

understood the concept what was evolved and which was different from rest of the thinkers.Karma is a part of the world view of many people throughout the world.Like you said,a notion of virtues, rewarded and sins take to the Karma,popularly known'what goes around comes around.'

Thanks for the wonderful story, Karl.

Hi Bob, it's said that soul chooses its own parents and spiritual Karma, reincarnation.There are interesting episodes in Hinduism, specially in the epic, Mahabharata.

Brava!John...

I must confess that till last year, I was doing the same what you didn't, flipping the coin and deciding the things but now I kept that coin in my box, to remind myself what was not destined and where I blindly followed the fate.

I like the bridge, looks inspiring to me and will remember.

Wonderfully written!

Ya,Poddar...got it...:)

Thanks, Subroto.

Hi David, you're constantly inspiring me.Thanks!

Thanks my friends, Nana, Marianne, Jennifer,Bridget, Kay .

Yes, Marianne k..Your thoughts are very close to this notion,Thanks.

Thanks, Claudia, Teresa and Lisa.

Hi Anna, Spartan, John and Larry

and thanks Jan, you gave this poem a great and constructive debate.Thanks for your contribution.

An intriguing insight into a different culture and interpretation of Karma. Wonderful comments too.

Thanks,Marge.How're you?

Thanks to William who suggested a word in this poem and glad that I understood the importance of suggestions;)

Wonderful, insightful poem-I really like it!!

Buzzy B...I loved it, and even better, your name, geeta!! :)

Thanks, Mari.

Hi, Penni...thank you so much for joining me...Geets is special, my mom's name.I wanna keep her name alive and want people to know me with her name.

Geeta is also our sacred Hindu book and a big part of Karma is discussed in it.It's available in English too...

Could you, we, be both? I think so!

Intriguing write, my friend.

Hi Sweetie! Thanks so much for all of your kind and wonderful comments.

I wondered about your name change. How beautiful that you are keeping your mother's name alive this way!

Thanks for explaining the things of your culture, we love to learn more about each other.
It would be a sad world if we didn't try to understand each others ways.
I had always been curious about the red dot on the forehead, I think you explained it once.

Your article was very interesting.

Featured in the Triple Name Club.

Notable in Gather Writing Essentials, Wednesday

Lovely poem B --- the picture is beautiful too!

Hey Buzzy.

Oedipus the King is a great story. Of course, I disagree with Freud's take on it, which is to be expected.

A word on Christianity. One of the things that has made Christianity so popular worldwide is it's ability to blend and adapt to other cultures, religions and traditions. At last count, which was about four years ago, there were 2300 different forms of Christianity worldwide, some we'd not recognize as Christianity.

I often joke that it's the different Christianities fighting each other over who's got the Truth is what keeps them from uniting, hunting down people like me and burning me in the village square.

We the people take a concept and make it our own. Look at Christmas, for example. The concept of placing lights around the doors and windows likely comes down to us from Zoroasterism, where, in the dead of winter, we needed to put lights up to keep the evil from entering our homes. Evil hates the light.

Anyway, karma.

Karma's a lot like Christianity, in that people have added there own meaning, making it uniquely their own.

One episode of the Simpsons, the kwik-E-mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon wronged Homer. Apu went to Homer's house and knocked on the door.

"I thought I'd come and balance a little Karma," Apu said.
"Karma is dealt out by the universe, not the individual," Homer said, closing the door.

In my Randy's Diary: the shadows, the protagonist argues she's as much a part of the universe as anything else, therefore an instrument of Karma.

We -- meaning people -- all ascribe 'power' to the universe. How we choose to see this 'power' is going to determine how we view karma.

For example, we might see this 'power' as a Sky Fairy watching over His creation, casting rules for life down from the mountain. If we don't follow His rules, there's some sort of punishment. Therefore, good karma would be God's favor. Bad karma would be falling out of God's favor.

We could, on the other hand, see the 'power' as less malevolent, merely existing. If we abide by Nature, our going is easy -- rewarded. If we live contrary to Nature, our going is difficult. Imagine walking hip-deep in a stream, going with or against the current.

Even closer to home, like Mattie the witch in my The Angle says: "You do, you get." Amy, the protagonist in the story added: "You do good, you get good."

Often people want to add some sort of magical thinking to this, as if the universe deals out the reward and punishment. Simply put: we generally get back what we put out. If I'm nice to you, generally, you're going to be nice to me. If I help you, generally, you're going to be inclined to help me.

As the great sage, Fritz the Cat said in the movie of the same name back in the early 70's:

"The lovin' you get is equal to the lovin' you give."

I do go on, don't I?

Wonderful, introspective writing, Buzzy!
I really enjoyed this, thank you so much!

Hi Karl,

Yesterday while reading the story I was stuck,where Oedipius married his mother.When I started reading Freud, it became more complex for me but somewhere it was a technical hotch-potch for me. The heavy words describing the illness and drawing conclusions, with the reasons were totally bouncing out of my head;) but one thing , it's all about identity.

Talking about religions ,I agree with you, Karl...where I find the same in my religion too.We people fit ourselves in the time and then narrow down the things according to our comforts, enjoyment or pleasures.Everywhere the traditional views are confronting with modern science.


Apu Nahasapeemapetilon views for Homer's one line was absolutely right.


instrument of Karma sounds useful and more effective in understanding what we see and how.Chain of 'deed' or 'act', broadly named, the universal effect of 'cause' and 'effect', 'action' and 'reaction' returns unexpectedly in an individual's later lives.

Science itself comes with another argument for karma. In physics. like every other Western science, there is a direct causal relationship between action and reaction.

Talking of 'Buddhism', Buddha said it rightly
"I am the owner of my karma .
I inherit my karma.
I am born of my karma.
I am related to my karma.
I live supported by my karma.
Whatever karma I create, whether good or evil, that I shall inherit."


Karl, Your explanation of karma that I know is: 'you get what you give'. In other words; whatever you do intentionally to others, a similar thing will happen to yourself in the future fits well to describe the original meaning of Karma and the mechanisms of karma can be intellectually understood to some extent, but never completely "seen".


and Bible says the same thing
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A person reaps what he sows.

The 'Golden Rule' of Confucianism makes a similar statement:

Tzu-kung asked, "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?"
Confucius answered, "Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."'


Believing in Karma makes life easier.We get to decorate this quote, when we were in school.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

That time It was mere difficult sentences but today it leads to 'Karma'. Sure, I have to harvest the results of my actions.

Karma works when due to our intentions,because it gives the right direction to the mind, telling virtuous and non-virtuous.


Your wonderful thoughts coming straight to my page is your fabulous mental action.

Fritz the Cat!!!! "The lovin' you get is equal to the lovin' you give."

Don't you see this formula getting unpopular these days.Okay, my non-virtuous mental action is ON...

;)


Thanks for the magnetic debate.I love talking on these topics and you helped me in reading new people.

Brilliant, my dear friend! ;-)

Love and hugs - S.

Beautiful poem and wonderful thread - I love each of these comments and will let them soak in - I believe I see Karma as you do and maybe you are one of my teachers. My mind opens more and more everyday...blessings Buzzy - and I always remember Geeta, her energy is with you always. Salud

Wonderful

this was good

How did I miss this??

To my mind, fate, karma, both are true. We can control some things, others are beyond us.

I like the way you framed the poem with questions, asking us to think!

Very nice. I'm enjoying catching up on your writing and your painting again.