Since you asked ... I agree with what Thomas said above ... "So the differences are irreconcilable." This is also one of the reasons I rarely post here. Our paradigms are so very far apart that it's like birds squawking at dogs, and dogs barking back. Not much actually gets through.
Eastern 'ideas' about karma have a prerequisite to them ... an absolute belief in it. So they're not just 'ideas' at all, but a fundamental underlying principle that affects our entire way of life. So it's all karma. It's karma we're having this discussion. Earth's affect on us, the people we meet, within all that is the principle of karma. Just as all movement in the universe is subject to gravity, all thoughts, mind, consciousness, etc. is subject to karma.
Although Namaste Jesus will disagree with me, his 'eastern' view is pretty western in my view. It's a common theme, where one paradigm is used in applying thoughts to another. So he's a westerner thinking about eastern things. That subconscious mind is thoroughly western, in my opinion. So we often hit an impasse, which is fine.
But when that impasse is there for you all the time, and not just with any one individual, then it's difficult to enter any discussion. For example, on the discussion of cleansing houses on another thread, Hindus simple wouldn't have the audacity to try it. We hire priests ... trained experts who actually know what they're doing. The forces in a house need to have established boundaries ... good ones get to stay, 'others' are politely asked to stay outside the lines. Then, in order to keep it that way, constant diligence is required. Only dharma, (a code of ethics, vegetarianism, no smoking, no booze, etc) goes on inside that boundary. All other activity is outside and the devout Hindu will immediately take a bath and purify himself upon re-entering that sanctuary.
As for karma ... well, it just is what it is ... a natural law, within the universal dharma, a manifested by God, as is anava, and other bondages. The soul is released from earthly cycles only when all karmas (effects on the individual caused by the principle) are resolved.
All this is not intellectual at all, but an intuitive understanding. Hindus operate more in the intuitive mind than in the intellectual realm.
Aum Shanthi
