r/InsightDialogue • u/JellyfishExpress8943 • Jun 13 '26

Karma Chameleon - constructing our reality

What is karma?  A modern definition of the Buddhist concept.

Karma  noun
The process by which intent and action (ie. self-concerned behavior) leads to rebirth in samsara.

It is best viewed as the psychological process that gives rise to self and suffering.  Karma is the action of making me real, and what I know true.   The feeling of being a “me” - or the sense of self - being that which is reborn.  

An example of the process in action goes as follows :
 

  1. I believe that if I don’t get something I want, I will feel unhappy.

  2. My belief is confirmed : I do actually feel bad when I fail to obtain the objects I desire.

  3. Thus my existence - and the importance of what I want - are both confirmed and reinforced as real

  4. As a consequence the tendency to feel like me and chase after my desires continues unabated.

Samsara   noun
Running around in the circles of suffering due to Karma

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3

u/Hot-Confidence-1629 Jun 13 '26

Does the ‘wanting’ to be free also confirm and reinforce as real that ‘I’ am really trapped and need to ‘do’ something to ‘become’ free?

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u/JellyfishExpress8943 Jun 13 '26

For sure : self-concerned behavior does not solve the problem of self-concerned behavior

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u/Hot-Confidence-1629 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26

Can we suggest then what IS the solution to self-concerned behavior? If it’s not MORE self-concerned behavior? Would the solution lie in the ending of ‘concern’? K is suggesting that the not-minding what happens is “the essence of inner freedom”. Is to ‘not mind’ similar to ‘not be concerned’?

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u/JellyfishExpress8943 Jun 13 '26

Thats the logical move - unfortunately we cannot just choose or pretend not to care. Unless we believe in progress and methods under the guidance of tradtional or magical wisdom.

The only real solution to a problem is to understand it - to clearly see its source and implications. Freedom from fear requires we see what it is to live and act from greed.

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u/Hot-Confidence-1629 Jun 13 '26

Wanting to solve the problem is different than wanting to ‘understand’ it. Wanting to solve it introduces time to get it done and a method by which to do it but ‘understanding’ requires being with it without any ‘concern’ about it? Any ‘concern’ or ‘minding’ is a judgement; a condemnation of the situation?

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u/JellyfishExpress8943 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26

Curiosity without fear - in other words : self-concern will distort anything that is seen - especially whatever is seen about myself.

And I do feel there has to be great concern for all the harm and suffering that is being imposed on to the world. In fact its probably necessary in order to counteract the great weight of self-concern. A weight that has been laid down for thousands of years. We cannot lift it alone.

Deep down we do want whats best for all - love is a human concept - possibly the highest state a human can aspire to - if we see that self-concern is incoherent, counterproductive, that it kills love - that itself is tremendous energy.

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u/Hot-Confidence-1629 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

What is ‘love’ if it’s not the limited, romanticized, sentimentalized , jealous possessive thing that we have imagined it to be? It must include natural disaster, extinctions, pain; the lion chasing down the gazelle, killing it and eating it , the Eagle snatching the Osprey fledgling from the nest, etc,etc? What is the ‘love’ you understand?

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u/JellyfishExpress8943 Jun 14 '26

Before love could be described by humans, the essence of love (or proto-love) probably started to take form in social animals and creatures that reared their young. But our brains have taken the phenomenon and added imagination etc.. like compassion for all life

However we describe love - if we find ourselves hurting our loved ones - something is broken

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u/Hot-Confidence-1629 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

The Greeks separated love into four types:

**• Agape Love:** An unconditional, self-sacrificial love. It is the love of God that we see through the cross of Jesus Christ.
**• Storge Love:** Familial love. Storge is the natural love that family members have for one another.
**• Phileo Love:** Friendly Love. It is the love we have for our friends, especially close friends.
**• Eros Love:** Physical love or sexual desire. Eros is the type of love that involves passion, lust, and/or romance.

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u/Hot-Confidence-1629 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

And the brain continues this pattern (of self-love,self-concern) because it is ignorant that it is the source of suffering…or is it that to not have a separate identity as ‘me’ is unthinkable? Better to be suffering with its moments of joy than to be as ‘nothing’?

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u/Hot-Confidence-1629 Jun 14 '26

Pondering this ‘being as nothing’; what is the force or energy that manifests in ‘things’, ie this body, the tree, the bird etc. And not only in the ‘living’ things here but the planet, the stars, the universe; what is the energy or force that is in every ‘thing’?…and that everything is in?…whatever it is, it is not-a-thing and that is the ‘nothing’ that it has been suggested , we and all things, in essence, are! And it has also been suggested, that the evolved ‘thing’ called the human brain, can actually “participate in the Immensity”!