News and Events From October 3rd

[David Morris]

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:
> Karma is a Hindu word for the law of cause and effect. Has nothing to do with justice. For themes of justice, look to the Jewish God. for the defensibility of the law of cause and effect, see Graves.

Mostly a semantic distinction from my POV.  A "Law" of cause & effect
implies a form/system of justice, or at least a "balancing" of actions
with later effects.  And these karmic effects are "counter" or
corrective.  Otherwise the effects could push continuously in a bad
direction, and balance would be lost forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma

Karma is not punishment or retribution but simply an extended
expression or consequence of natural acts. Karma means "deed" or "act"
and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect,
action and reaction that governs all life. The effects experienced are
also able to be mitigated by actions and are not necessarily fated.
That is to say, a particular action now is not binding to some
particular, pre-determined future experience or reaction; it is not a
simple, one-to-one correspondence of reward or punishment.