The Magic Pudding wrote:Earlier I dismissed a karma as crap, I see this wasn't very tactful, particularly when Buddhists are posting, sorry notself & KebertX.
This is the WordWeb definition(Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine their fate in this life and the next incarnation
No problem. I follow the teachings of Gotama (the Buddha) as a philosophy not as a religion. The teachings on morality, concentration and wisdom cannot be topped by any other philosophy. Unfortunately, almost immediately after his death and against his direct instructions, superstition, amulets, ritual and hierarchy began to creep in. As it moves West, some of this is removed for a brief time but as a group, Westerners are just a superstitious as Asians so back it comes again.
Hinduism is not a religion but a group of religious traditions that are grouped under one umbrella. Some of these groups consider karma to be the equivalent of fate that must be lived through. Other groups are closer to the Buddhist belief that karma is action that is in control of the doer. There is a sutta in the cannon about a killer for hire who followed the teachings and in spite of decades of murder, overcame this bad karma and became awake (enlightened). There is no equivalent story, as far as I know, in Hinduism.
Another story is from the Buddha himself who compares bad karma to salt and good karma to pure water. If one puts salt in a cup of water the water is ruined. If one puts the same amount of salt in a lake, the water stays drinkable. The assassin diluted his bad karma with the purity of action that was so great as to eliminate the effects of the bad action (on future action and on the mind.)