This is a topic I find most interesting.
If someone hurts us physically / emotionally it creates karma supposedly.
If we try to hurt this person back the karma keeps on repeating maybe even into the next life until we break the cycle. I'm guessing bad things that happen to us might be a result of misdeeds from past lives or this lifetime so should we just suck it up ?
If someone hurts me and I hurt them back is it 'their' karma ? - Will I then receive karma for hurting them back thus the cycle continues ?? Or does it serve these people right ?
Karma is something I very much find fascinating but not sure if I've fully understood it properly.
Any insights ??
You pose interesting questions and I have often wondered about this...since to administer what we deem to be justice can feel a lot like playing god.
Karma isn't specifically about the example you give but refers to the consequences reaped from our actions and intent generally. It is cause and effect. Intent is as important, if not more so, than what we do.
If someone hurts us physically/emotionally then how we react may well be their karma. However, it would be an act of compassion and wisdom to understand why they are doing this and take this on board before such knee-jerk retaliatory reactions. Wanting to hurt them back because they hurt us is a tit-for-tat situation. Apart from making us no better than that person it will also have consequences somewhere down the line. So intent is all.
It would be more beneficial if we can appeal to someone's conscience re. what they did to us but their ability to learn from their action is up to them. We can only highlight how the situation has affected us but it may well be that they are not ready yet to improve their own karma. We are all at various stages of development.
It's worth remembering that 'Karma' is a specific belief that belongs to a specific religion. Once it is adopted as a belief system by those outside the original religion, it gets changed (generally to make the people believing in it more comfortable).
Therefore, in deciding to believe in it, it can work however makes you happiest.
I think to hurt someone deliberately because they hurt you is wrong. It is all about intention. If I am meant to be the vehicle of karmic justice, it will happen without any intent on my part.
I think to hurt someone deliberately because they hurt you is wrong.
It also suggests a very simplistic view of what motivates behaviour.