Dear Sister,
Thanking you for your contribution, which was both honest and well thought out.
You raised an interesting point when you said that your belief in astrology could either act for or against you.
When a good thing can be taken too seriously, or too much to heart?
That is something which I never to be honest considered when I planned this posting, but it does highlight the fact that the same belief can have a positive, neutral or negative influence on the person's mental state, depending upon the way that the belief is applied to everyday life.
I will therefore edit my original posting, to include this possibility.
Thanks for that!
The belief that "What goes around comes around" makes me do more good, and avoid the negative behavior or seek remedies for already performed negative deeds.
Yes that is a very common and practical way of stating what is in reality a very complex Law of Karma (universal balancing of effects with their associated causes, over multiple, and successive lifetimes). If this belief works positively in your life to make you want to do more good, avoid negative behaviour or seek remedies for already performed negative deeds, then all power to you.
But it does pose the question as to why we cannot choose to do the same things, without necessarily also believing in life after death and reincarnation. Can for example a person who does not believe in any of this (an atheist) still act morally? Obviously you and I are not atheists, but can you be an atheist and not believe in God or the supernatural, but still treat people as you yourself would like to be treated (the so called Golden Rule), without believing that Karma which requires reincarnation exists?
I once had my chart prepared by a professional Western astrologer who taught others, and the results and predictions were later proved to be uncannily and uncomfortably accurate. For some I did not get immediate feedback as the event took years before it happened as predicted. So while I have little experience or knowledge or interest myself in learning more about Western or Eastern astrology or giving astrology readings, I have great respect for those people who do some or all of those things.
However I cannot say the same thing about the daily horoscopes which can be found in magazines and newspapers, or online. I see them as a form of usually harmless entertainment, but too general and too vague to be of any real practical use in helping me to cope with my life's challenges.
Yes, I would like to not take astrological predictions too seriously -- however, they have a soothing and promising aspect to which many of us are addicted and thus am unable to give it up.
That is very honest. Many people are either unwilling or able to give up their negative beliefs for a similar reason. They serve another purpose, which makes us hold onto them when it when it could be healthier not to.
I would also like to before closing this posting pose the following question
for anyone to answer.
Can a belief in Karma ever have negative consequences for the individual, or be used negatively with the intention to influence other people in a negative manner?
Thanks again for being the first contributor to my thread.
Namaste,
Brian
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