Kia Ora,
This thread on "Karma" https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,97671.msg717282.html#msg717282 sadly passed away back in May 2011 :( ... But thanks to the universal law of cause condition and effect, karmic rebirth has occurred :)...
A little bit of "Karma" background : "Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म; IPA: [ˈkarmə] ( listen); Pali: kamma) means action, work or deed; it also refers to the principle of causality where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual. Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering. Karma is closely associated with the idea of rebirth in some schools of Asian religions. In these schools, karma in the present affects one's future in the current life, as well as the nature and quality of future lives - or, one's saṃsāra."
"Many Western cultures have notions similar to karma, as demonstrated in the phrase what goes around comes around. Christian expressions similar to karma include reap what one sows (Galatians 6:7) and live by the sword, die by the sword (Matthew 26:52). Wicca teaches the Rule of Three, which states that whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times. In Hinduism, God plays a role and is seen as a dispenser of its version of karma. The non-interventionist view is that of Jainism and Buddhism, the latter originally a non-theist religion. Generally, Western popular culture portrays karma as more of a supernatural mystical force than a perspective on causality. This is more similar to Hinduism's concept of karma than Buddhism's "
"In Spiritism, karma is known as "the law of cause and effect", and plays a central role in determining how one's life should be lived. Spirits are encouraged to choose how (and when) to suffer retribution for the wrong they did in previous lives. How we know of this without remembering we had the choice is ambiguous. Disabilities, physical or mental impairment or even an unlucky life are due to the choices a spirit makes before reincarnating (that is, before being born to a new life).
What sets Spiritism apart from the more traditional religious views is that it understands karma as a condition inherent to the spirit, whether incarnated or not: the consequences of the crimes committed by the spirit last beyond the physical life and cause him (moral) pain in the afterlife. The choice of a life of hardships is, therefore, a way to rid oneself of the pain caused by moral guilt and to perfect qualities that are necessary for the spirit to progress to a higher form.
Because Spiritism always accepted the plurality of inhabited worlds, its concept of karma became considerably complex.[citation needed] There are worlds that are "primitive" (in the sense that they are home to spirits newly born and still very low on intellect and morals) and a succession of more and more advanced worlds to where spirits move as they are elevated. A spirit may choose to be born on a world inferior to his own as a penance or as a mission."
"The idea of karma was popularized in the Western world through the work of the Theosophical Society. In this conception, karma was a precursor to the Neopagan law of return or Threefold Law, the idea that the beneficial or harmful effects one has on the world will return to oneself. Colloquially this may be summed up as 'what goes around comes around.'
The Theosophist I. K. Taimni wrote, "Karma is nothing but the Law of Cause and Effect operating in the realm of human life and bringing about adjustments between an individual and other individuals whom he has affected by his thoughts, emotions and actions." Theosophy also teaches that when humans reincarnate they come back as humans only, not as animals or other organisms"
"Jung once opined on unresolved emotions and the synchronicity of karma;
'When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.'
Popular methods for negating cognitive dissonance include meditation, metacognition, counselling, psychoanalysis, etc., whose aim is to enhance emotional self-awareness and thus avoid negative karma. This results in better emotional hygiene and reduced karmic impacts. Permanent neuronal changes within the amygdala and left prefrontal cortex of the human brain attributed to long-term meditation and metacognition techniques have been proven scientifically. This process of emotional maturation aspires to a goal of Individuation or self-actualisation. Such peak experience are hypothetically devoid of any karma (nirvana)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma
So...is your life full of karmic events (for this to happen that must happen) or do things just happen by chance(the luck of the draw) ?
Do you believe in a form of karma ? (for example "Reward & Punishment" dished out by a supernatural being-or the universe is just balancing out things or is it something else ?)
Could it be past karmic activities that created your trans condition ?
Or do you think the whole idea of karma is a load of made up mumbo jumbo nonsensical crap ? (ie, the carrot and the stick means of making people "tow(or toe) the line")...
Metta Zenda :)
I'm pretty agnostic about things. I mean, you don't know for sure because you can't know for sure, and making it all up via interpolation just to appease one's inherent curiosities about the nature of things is something I find irrational. When one group of people is constantly at odds with another, simply over a religious disagreement (which is usually code for wielding power over the masses), it does nothing more than reinforce my agnostic leanings. To declare there is no supreme/superior being or beings also takes as much of a leap of faith to delcare there is/are. It seems to me that mankind is not meant to be aware of the true inner workings of the universe, and I find comfort in letting the great mystery stand unsolved. Conversely, one can perceive the existence of this world and the suffering it creates, which certainly lends credence to tenets of Paganism and Buddhism.
I don't have a clue why I got dealt the hand I did. I'm guessing my mom had a difficult pregnancy and was given DES by a doctor who didn't know better. Or I was a misogynistic, homophobic abusive douchebag in a past life... Wasting my time pondering this is a futile waste of time that I could have spent writing music or baking cookies.
There are a couple of things I've witnessed that make me wonder about karma, though.
A few years ago, a good friend of mine was killing himself with cocaine. He had just inherited a small fortune and through a sketchy acquaintance, knew a real douchebag of a coke dealer who would apparently cut it increasingly with small amounts of methamphetamine. As my friend deteriorated mentally after staying up for days on end, the meth levels in the blow went up and up, sending him into a deep psychosis. After we staged an intervention and made him crash and dry out for a few days, he decided he needed to relapse and went for another 8 ball. Little did he know that while he was sleeping it off, the coke dealer had decided to go for a late night joy ride on a motorcycle without a helmet and was killed instantly when he hit a tree.
In college I had a roommate that was a football player on steroids and a wanna-be "gangsta". One day he took someone's money for drugs that were never received. All that day he bragged about how easy it was and how bad-ass he was for rolling this guy, and in his moment of d-bag pride, opened the front door and exhaled a bong hit. At that exact moment, two Sheriff's deputies were walking through the apartment complex. They saw him, confiscated the weed, made him destroy the bong and gave him a ticket for possession. The total damages? The exact amount he stole, almost to the penny.
My take, if there is a such thing as bad karma, then drugs are it.