An ancient interpretation of karma is simply what a human does; it is a bland, bulletpoint record of a human’s life.
Frank goes to work on the bus.
Frank makes a coffee.
Frank creates a boring powerpoint presentation.
Noticing a lack of judgement and condemnation in these lists, modern humans misinterpret karma to be a lifelong record of every good and bad thing done by each human. Every act is analysed and categorised as good, bad or neutral.
Frank goes to work on the bus.
Fulfilling duty to family and society. (Good)
Fumbling for change and delaying other passengers. (Bad)
Going to hated job instead of pursuing his dream of playing slap bass. (Bad)
1 good, 2 bad. Verdict: Bad.
Frank makes a coffee.
Skipping breakfast and drinking only coffee to lose weight. (Good)
Losing weight just to look good. (Bad)
Using fairtrade coffee. (Good)
Believing “fairtrade” means anything. (Bad)
2 good, 2 bad. Verdict: Bad, benefit of the doubt is never given.
Frank creates a boring powerpoint presentation.
Believing that his presentation won’t be boring. (Bad)
Propagation of capitalist hegemony. (Bad)
Propagation of capitalist hegemony. (Good)
1 good, 2 bad. Verdict: Bad.
At the end of a human’s life, its good, bad and neutral acts are tallied and the human is judged to be good, bad or neutral. Here are some real life examples.
Abraham Lincoln. His good work of freeing slaves and reuniting the United States easily got him over the line, especially considering his assassination stopped him throwing it all away later in life. Verdict: Good.
Jack the Ripper. A series of grisly murders couldn’t counteract Jack’s daily habit of drinking fairtrade coffee at a time when fairtrade meant something. Verdict: Good.
Frank. While his loyalty to family and society was admirable, it was these things that stopped him pursuing his dream of playing slap bass. Verdict: Bad.
A reasonable human expects that when they die their judgement will be heard, lessons will be learned, and that will be that. But the existence of the eternal soul, which temporarily occupies each human body, means that karma persists. When the soul moves on, the closing karmic balance of the old body becomes the opening balance of the new body. A human born with good karma is rewarded with advantages that make life easier.
High metabolism.
Rich, loving parents.
An established position in the capitalist hegemony.
A human born with bad karma receives disadvantages.
Low metabolism.
Poor, loving parents.
An established position in the capitalist hegemony.
For a human with a large karmic debt, the poorest parents and lowest metabolism are not enough punishment. In these extreme cases the karmic debtor is disadvantaged by being reborn as a lesser being, such as an animal or insect.
Take Frank, for example. His boring presentations caused him to be reborn as a cat. As a cat, he continued to drink fairtrade coffee knowing full well it is an empty marketing catchcry. So he was reborn a goldfish that never made time to pursue its dream of playing slap bass. As final punishment, he was reborn as a cockroach.
