Yin and the yang?

[Calhoun07]

Do you believe that if you do something bad, something bad will automatically happen to you? This is actually something that bothered me for quite sometime, mainly because I don't see things that way. If something bad happens, I file it in the "life sucks" folder and move on. But one time I was at work and I pulled a joke on a fellow co-worker. While I was doing this, I had a pizza in the over in the break room and was going to go back up there to eat it in about 15 minutes. Completely unrelated to my pizza and the joke played, while I was waiting for the pizza to finish cooking, I got called to run a register (this was in the days I worked at a grocery store.) I got delayed and was unable to get back up stairs to the break room til after I was supposed to take the pizza out. Somebody actually told me, and believed it, that the prank I played resulted in my pizza buring, that I had done something bad so something bad happened to me. It wasn't like I got called on the register because I was goofing off. Like I said, the prank and me being called to the register were not related at all. It just got really busy before I went on break, and that was beyond anybody's control. I disagreed with him, but he kept on going on about it.

I just cannot imagine that people live in this kind of fear that if they do something bad, something bad will happen to them, as if powers beyond our control are out there waiting to "get" us and teach us lessons. I have done good things for people and still had the crappiest things happen to me. So where is the yin and yang therory at work there? Why didn't something good happen to me when I did good things? But it seems people like to focus on the negative side of this theory, and I guess that bothers me. It's a very negative and detrimental theory.

[DR. BELCH]

It's akin to the "if you wish something bad on someone it'll come back to you X-fold" theory in witchcraft and pyramid power. If you write that you want someone to get a massive case of the Hershey squirts, say, and pray to the Wiccan deity(ies)/put it under the pyramid...they get the malady, but you'll later suffer it X times worse. Ever see The Craft?
I'll question God, but I never like to openly taunt/defy Him, so I don't wish ill on my enemies. And I believe in pyramids, ever since I experimented with one during sixth grade and discovered a jar of peanuts tastes better if it sits under one for a week. So I don't fool with those either.
It's sort of like if a dog goes outside and piddles, fine, it doesn't really get anything. If it hoses down the carpet with urine, it gets spanked. Its reward is subtle--the innate avoidance of punishment. If you expect an overt reward, that's not altruistic...and if you demand it, you get punished.

[Calhoun07]

One of the constant truths I have learned in my life that I do believe is unshakeable and unchangeable is that how you judge others so you shall be judged. I have expereinced that time and time again when I get foolish and decide I can judge others. It always comes back against me in the same way I judged the other person.

[hello_lola]

If you do and think negative things, you contribute to the total number of bad vibes floating around in the world, therefore increasing your chances of one of those bad little vibes finding you and frigging-up your day. It's not a tit-for-tat kind of deal. And Calhoun, will you please tell me what is wrong with my avatar? You've got me all paranoid.

[Failure]

I believe loosely in the whole karma deal. Not in that every good and bad action is reciprocated, but more like what lola said, it's more of a buildup. But the problem is, there's a lot of good and bad people who don't get what they deserve and never really do.

I'd blame your joke thing on bad luck more than anything. Jokes/pranks are good things.

[Jedigreedo]

Calhoun, more than anything, I would say it's a bad choice of food at work. :D If ya wanted pizza, should've gotten some pizza-related thing and microwaved it. :cool:

[Calhoun07]

People I work with at the bank tried to make me feel guilty when I went to McDonald's the other day and my order came up to $4.67. I handed the girl $5.00...and got back $5.33 in change. Normally, I would say something, but for some reason, at that moment in time, I could have cared less, and thanked them and put the money in my pocket.

So who's yin and yang is affected there? Will something bad happen to me because I took the money? Maybe that cashier did something bad and that was her yin and yang getting back at her? Maybe something GOOD was happening to me because I once came up short $10.00 when I took one of the new tens as a twenty and the guy I gave the change too didn't tell me either? Maybe none of them are related and it was just a chance thing?

And, hello_lola, relax, I was just joshin' ya.

[Momijii]

Yin and the yang?
The eternal equal Librium of life, there must always be the balance for without it would be like opening Pandora's Box.

[Calhoun07]

But does that mean for every bad thing somebody does, something bad happens to them?

Of course, there are those who believe that bad things always happen in triplicate. That is something else I have never seen be true consistenly. Rarely true for me, in fact.

I think its more superstition than anything else, if you ask me.

[hello_lola]

Originally posted by Calhoun07


I just cannot imagine that people live in this kind of fear that if they do something bad, something bad will happen to them, as if powers beyond our control are out there waiting to "get" us and teach us lessons. I have done good things for people and still had the crappiest things happen to me. So where is the yin and yang therory at work there? Why didn't something good happen to me when I did good things? But it seems people like to focus on the negative side of this theory, and I guess that bothers me. It's a very negative and detrimental theory.

I kind of agree with you; people should do good because good needs to be done, and not out of fear. I'm not going to say I'm good and the bad things that have happened to me are unfair, because I have put out more than my share of evil karma; but the person I always think of is my mom. She is a total saint, and yet she's had a crummy life. However, I think that even if people are good because thay are afraid of the consequences, it's still better than if they act like jerks.

[Calhoun07]

I'd rather do things because of the golden rule: do unto others as you would have done unto yourself. If you do that, you don't have to worry about consequences. And if a yin and yang theory is what keeps some people in line, then I feel they are missing something.

[Failure]

Originally posted by Calhoun07
I'd rather do things because of the golden rule: do unto others as you would have done unto yourself. If you do that, you don't have to worry about consequences. And if a yin and yang theory is what keeps some people in line, then I feel they are missing something.

Whether it's the golden rule or the karma rule, I think if it helps keep people in line, respecting others and etc. it doesnt really matter what rule they follow. All of it's really just semantics basically.