Quora: Does karma exist for a narcissist?

Karma, unless you are a practicing believer in Eastern spirituality, is poorly understood as a concept by Western thinkers. It is a word many people use but do not actually understand very well. (Sort of like the way a lot of people use ‘narcissist,’ come to think of it. LOL!)

The way most people seem to understand ‘karma’ is something like 'cause and effect'—if you do or say terrible things, then terrible things will eventually happen to you as a result of your own behavior and words. And, yes, that *does* happen to narcissists. It happens to everyone. When you behave abusively, selfishly, with no regard for the feelings or well-being of others or with no regard for laws, ethics, and morals, eventually you lose friends, lose positions of trust, lose jobs, and may even see punishment such as tickets, fines, legal action, jail time or prison. Normal people understand that their own behavior is what brings about such consequences. Break the law, get caught, pay fine or serve time. Break someone’s heart, they will leave you. Lie to your friend, they will not be your friend anymore. Behave abusively to coworkers or customers, you will get fired.

Narcissists are damaged, sick people. They do not have the cognitive or emotional capability to reflect on their own behavior in this way. They are literally incapable of understanding this process of cause and effect, or ‘karma’….when bad things happen to them as a result of their own behavior, their ego cannot accept that they did something to bring about these consequences. Their self protective instinct demands that another person be blamed and punished for it. They just can’t get it. Their self concept is too fragile and too damaged to accept that they may not be perfect in every possible way.

So, yes, you will see narcissists get bitten on the butt again and again by ‘karma.’ They make the same mistakes over and over again, they go from friend to friend, lover to lover, job to job, group to group, destroying trust and making themselves and others miserable everywhere they go but they just can’t learn and grow from this repeated experience. Go to any old folks home in the nation and you’ll meet aged narcissists with lists and catalogues of old grudges and stories of how their misery is everyone’s fault but their own. They get no visitors, they have no friends, and no one will mourn them when they are gone. But do they understand that their unhappiness is their own fault? no. They don’t and they never will.

 

 

Karma in Hinduism - Wikipedia

Karma is a concept of Hinduism which describes a system in which beneficial effects are derived from past beneficial actions and harmful effects from past harmful actions, creating a system of actions and reactions throughout a soul's ( jivatman's ) reincarnated lives, [1] forming a cycle of rebirth. The causality is said to apply not only to the material world but also to our thoughts, words, actions, and actions that others do under our instructions. [2] For example, if we do a good thing, something good happens to us, and the same applies if we do a bad thing. It is said in the Puranas that the lord of karma is the planet Saturn , Shani . [3] According to Vedanta thought (which is the most influential school of Hindu theology ), [4] the effects of karma are controlled by God ( Isvara ). [5] [6] There are three different types of karma: prarabdha , sanchita , and kriyamana or agami . [7] Prarabdha karma is experienced through the present body and is only a part of sanchita karma which is the sum of one's past karmas, whereas agami karma is the result of current decisions and actions. [8] Origins [ edit ] The earliest appearance of the word "karma" is found in the Rigveda . The term karma also appears significantly in the Veda. According to Brahmanas , "as his wife man is born to the world he has made" [ This quote needs a citation ] and one is placed in a balance in the other world for an estimate of one's good and evil deed. It also declares that as a man is 'constituted' by his desires, he is born in the other world concerning these. [9] Scholars have generally agreed that the earliest formulation of the Karma doctrine occurs in the Brhadaranyaka , which is the earliest of the Upanishads. The doctrine occurs here in the context of a discussion of the fate of the individual after death. [10] The doctrine of transmigration of the soul, with respect to fateful retribution for acts committed, appears in the Rig Veda (Mandala 1, Sukta 24, Mantra 2), [11] with words like "saha na mahye aaditaye punar-daath pitharam drisheyam matharam cha" (You must also know that one God to be giver of rebirth, non else can do this work. It is he who gives birth to emancipated persons also through parents at the end of MahaKalpa. [ citation needed ] ) Rebirth is also mentioned in the Rig Veda mandala 10 Sukta 56, in Shukla Yajur Veda Mandala 3, Mantras 53, 54. We call the spirit hither with a hero-celebrating strain, Yea, with the Fathers’ holy hymns (53) The spirit comes to us again for wisdom, energy, and life, That we may long behold the Sun (54) [12] The belief in rebirth is, suggests Radhakrishnan, evident in the Brāhmaṇas , where words like punar-mrtyu (re-death), punar-asu (coming to life again) and punarajati (rebirth) are used to denote it. [13] Radhakrishnan acknowledges that other scholars interpret certain punar-mrtyu verses of Rigveda to be discussing "repeated deaths"; however, he suggests that it might also be re-interpreted to imply rebirth, as in "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Hinduism

 

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