Mendrika ve ny «mino ny karma»?

He went to work for a company that spit on the environment or exploits human weaknesses — «spoiled karma.» Made a repost of a call for help — catch the «pros to karma.» Jokes aside, but the idea of ​​universal reward from the philosophy of Buddhism and Hinduism also captures those who do not believe in the accompanying spiritual baggage — reincarnation, samsara and nirvana.

On the one hand, karma in the everyday sense is something on which we are dependent. It forbids acting against the interests of others, even if no one knows about it. On the other hand, it promises happiness — provided that we ourselves are ready to give something unselfishly. But this is all guesswork. How justified are they?

I give so that you give

The physical world obeys the law of causality, and we easily find its manifestations in everyday life. We swam with a sore throat in icy water — in the morning the temperature rose. You went in for sports for six months — the body became toned, you began to sleep better and do more. Even without knowing in detail how the metabolism works, we can guess: investing in your health is useful, but spitting on it is at least stupid.

The same laws, according to some, operate in the world of human relations. Ayurvedic specialist Deepak Chopra is convinced of this. In The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, he derives the «law of karma» from another, the «law of giving.» In order to receive something, we must first give. Attention, energy, love are all investments that will pay off. Let not immediately, not always in the form that the imagination draws, but it will happen.

In turn, insincerity, selfishness and manipulation create a vicious circle: we attract people who also seek to assert themselves at our expense, to use and cheat us.

Chopra advises to consciously approach each of your decisions, to ask yourself: is this what I really want? Do I have an afterthought? If we are not satisfied with life — perhaps because we ourselves deceived ourselves and unconsciously rejected opportunities, did not believe in our strength and turned away from happiness.

IF THERE IS NO MEANING, IT SHOULD BE INVENTED

The problem is that the real causes and consequences of many events are obscured from us by a wall of informational noise. If, after a successful interview, we were refused, there could be a thousand reasons for this. Our candidacy suited the potential leader, but the higher authorities did not like it. Or maybe the interview did not go so well, but we convinced ourselves otherwise, because we really wanted it. What played the main role, we do not know.

The world around us is mostly out of our control. We can only guess how things will turn out. For example, we like to take coffee in the morning in the same kiosk. Yesterday he was in place, today too — we expect that tomorrow on the way to work we will be able to treat ourselves to a fragrant drink. But the owner can close the outlet or move it to another location. And if it rains that day, we can decide that the universe has taken up arms against us, and start looking for reasons in ourselves.

We have a special neural network operating in our brain, which the neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga calls the interpreter. His favorite pastime is to connect the incoming data into a coherent story, from which some conclusion about the world would follow. We inherited this network from our ancestors, for whom it was more important to act than to analyze. Bushes swaying in the wind or a predator hiding there — the second version was more valuable for survival. Even in the case of a «false alarm», it is better to run away and climb a tree than to be eaten.

Faminaniana manatanteraka tena

Why does the interpreter fail, start feeding us stories that we weren’t hired, because on the way we didn’t give up our seat in the metro to an old woman, didn’t give it to a beggar, refused a request to an unfamiliar friend?

Psychologist Rob Brotherton, in his book Distrustful Minds, showed that the tendency to chain together different phenomena that randomly follow each other is associated with a proportionality error: “When the result of an event is important, fateful and difficult to understand, we tend to consider that its cause must be important, fateful, and difficult to understand.»

If you were unlucky with the weather on the weekend, this is a punishment for not agreeing to help your parents in the country, but deciding to spend time on yourself. Of course, the millions of people who also suffered from this must have sinned in some way. Otherwise, punishing them together with us, the universe behaves like a pig.

Psychologists Michael Lupfer and Elisabeth Layman have shown that belief in fate, karma, and the providence of God or gods is the result of a deep existential fear. We cannot control events, the consequences of which will change our lives, but we do not want to feel like a toy in the hands of unknown forces.

Therefore, we imagine that the source of all our troubles, but also victories, is ourselves. And the stronger our anxiety, the deeper the uncertainty that the world is arranged rationally and understandably, the more actively we tend to look for signs.

Useful self-deception

Is it worth trying to dissuade those who believe in the connection of unrelated phenomena? Is faith in fate so senseless and ineffective, which punishes greed, malice and envy, and rewards generosity and kindness?

Faith in the final reward gives strength to many people. This is where the placebo effect comes into play: even if a drug doesn’t work on its own, it encourages the body to mobilize resources. If karma does not exist, it would be worth inventing it.

According to organizational psychologist Adam Grant, the very existence of society is possible because we believe in the cycle of good and evil. Without our selfless actions, which, in fact, mean an exchange with the universe, society would not have survived.

In psychological games on the distribution of the common good, it is pro-social (beneficial to others) behavior that ensures success. If everyone pulls the blanket over themselves, the collective “pie” quickly melts, be it profits, natural resources, or abstract values ​​like trust.

Karma may not exist as an embodied justice that brings balance to the universe, but belief in it does not harm anyone, provided that we perceive it as a moral and ethical law: «I do good, because this makes the world a better place.»