Tag Archives: Karma

Karma Points

Text:

Karma Points

Minor Genre:

Superstition; Ritual

Context:

“I believe in karma. Even if someone is justified in stealing or doing horrible stuff, I could never do it because I am superstitious of the idea of karma. Even though I see so much cruelty in how people act, whether that’s on the news or politically or whatever, I still can’t bring myself to do anything horrible on purpose because I believe in it coming back to me in some sense.

“As part of my belief in karma, I believe also in ‘karma points.’ Every time I see a piece of trash I pick it up now. I got used to feeling like it’s bad karma if I lock eyes with a piece of trash on the floor and don’t pick it up and just walk by it. Every time I look at one and register it in my mind as a piece of trash, I have to go grab it and throw it away in the trash can, which gives me a positive karma point. This superstition started in the beginning of 2024. I don’t know exactly why it happened, I just picked up the trash and it transformed into the superstition it is now.”

Analysis:

It is interesting to consider how the larger concept of karma translates into every-day actions in the informant’s life, and what that says about the idea of karma as a whole. If, for example, a person convicted of murder was considered to have a low level of karma, by the informant’s logic, they could work to restore their karma by picking up pieces of trash. This is an extreme example, but it goes to show that superstitious rituals often defy logic; routinely picking up trash would not make a serial killer a “good person,” but it may have a greater positive impact on an average person. The next logical question in such a perspective is then: at what point is someone’s poor karma irredeemable by small actions?

The idea of “karma points” therefore poses interesting philosophical considerations, but it can also be examined in a psychological context. The compulsion for the informant to pick up a piece of trash every time they lock eyes on it may be suggestive of a disorder such as OCD. While the inability to suppress an obsessive urge is a symptom of OCD, it is also a common experience for people who consider themselves superstitious; they will go to great lengths to avoid taking an action that they believe will bring about a negative outcome in their life. Ritualistic superstitious actions “dig the hole deeper” for the person who engages with them; as one gets in the habit of taking a specific set of actions, they assign more emotional significance to it and therefore become less likely to disengage with the superstition.

Why You Can Never Keep Glass on the Floor: Puerto Rican Tale

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tucson, Arizona
Performance Date: 4/15/19
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Is this tale well known in Puerto Rico?

L.O. – “Nah, this is just something which was told to my father, and he told it to me.”

How does the story go?

“So, there was a man in my dad’s like, village, or his small town, and he’d just always leave his dishes on the floor after he finished eating and was watching TV.  And one day he tripped, and the glass cut into his neck, and he died.  *Chuckle*  And that’s why you can’t ever leave your dishes on the floor.  It’s funny, this is definitely something that you just tell your kids, so they’ll behave around the house and such.”

Do you live by those rules now?

“Yes, absolutely.  We have like, actually kept those rules in our house.  Because I used to keep my dishes all over the floor, and my dad would be like, ‘this dude injured his neck and died, don’t do that,’ and so I never do.”

When you see dishes on the floor, do you think about it?

“Yes.  Immediately.”

 

This story served to remind this person why he should never leave dishes on the floor.  For me, though, it was a reminder to always remember your roots.  While that sounds cliche, it makes sense to me.  Again this is a person who is completely independent from his previous life where he grew up.  To think that, although one day he’ll live far away from his father, he’ll always think of that one story which was told to him, is quite sentimental.  They are stories like these which we hold onto the tightest.  You can also imply this story in other walks of life, using it as lessons for your children, and their children.  

Turkish Superstition: the Evil Eye

Nationality: Turkish-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, California
Performance Date: 4/25/19
Primary Language: English
Language: Turkish

evil eye

What is the Evil Eye?

P.N. – “So, the evil eye protects you, your family, your household, from evil.  And this is a myth, and also a glass object.  Every [Turkish] family has an evil eye in their house . . . My family thinks that if you tell somebody something good that’s happened to you, there’s gonna be envy there.  And they’re gonna somehow will nature to get rid of that opportunity for you.  The evil eye is meant to protect you from that.  So we have evil eye’s in different parts; like, for instance, we have one in our car to prevent a car crash.”

“We have an evil eye in front of our house.  You’re supposed to have an evil eye on top of the doorway to prevent bad things from entering.  One day, during the time when I was applying for colleges, it BROKE.  I remember, because my mom thought that that was a good thing.  “It’s done it’s job,” she said.  And so she put a new one up, and I got accepted into USC!”

“Another example was this: I was wearing my first ‘sexy dress’ in high school to this New Years ball.  I had a hair piece, everything. I looked good.  I was showing some cleavage.  My aunt put an evil eye in my jacket, and said it would protect me from the boys.  I still have it there in my pocket.”

What does the Evil Eye mean to you?

“The Evil Eye reminds me of my parents, because I have always considered them to be the most superstitious people.  And I guess when I think about other types of ‘evil eyes’ in other cultures, it feels like it brings me closer to those people as well.  There’s definitely a sense of identity with everything I’ve said here.”

Immediately, this made me think of the Jewish Mezuzah, which is a similar concept to the Turkish Evil Eye.  The Mezuzah, a small piece of parchment scribbled with specific verses from the Torah, is put on a family’s doorway to prevent any bad luck from entering the home.  When I brought up the Mezuzah to this person, she smiled, and informed me that she knew of the Mezuzah already.  The evil eye is definitely something that reflects one’s culture, one’s traditions, and one’s superstitions.  It’s for this reason that I am such a fan of the Mezuzah, as well as the evil eye now; it’s because I, as well as countless other people from a number of different cultures, can relate very strongly to it.  How different can two peoples really be, when they’re unified by so many aspects of life? 

“Nature Organizes Best”

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Ashland, Oregon
Performance Date: 4/23/18
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Context & Analysis

The subject is a good friend of mine who has been going through some difficult times recently; I believe this is a very grounding (and likely comforting phrase) for her to remember. It has a similar tone to ‘Whatever’s meant to be will be’. I also think it is interesting that the phrase is not necessarily religious—and the subject is not religious herself—yet she still mentions spiritual ideas like God in her description of the proverb.

Main Piece

“My parents say this thing in which, it’s like,  “Nature organizes best”, which just means that a god—not necessarily god, I don’t know, in which, like, the way of the universe is working out that everything is supposed to be the way it’s meant to be—kind of like karma almost, but a little more to it than that. Like whatever’s happening in your life in the moment is supposed to happen because nature is organizing for you to learn and to grow and to become the best version of yourself which is something that my parents have always said to me when bad things are happening or when good things are happening. That things aren’t necessarily in your control and that, like, there’s something else out there and it’s not just you and that the world is working in your favor.”

Creative Karma

Nationality: African American
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing, Artist
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2018
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s initials are denoted through the initials BD, while the informant’s responses are marked as WC.

WC: This other theory that my father received from my grandfather, and it’s very simple, I think many people share this same perspective. He believes—because my father is a creative, and my grandfather was a creative and a professor—that when he gets a new or innovative idea, and they speak it into the universe but they do not act on it, it opens the door and someone within a very short time span will act on that idea and receive all the credit for it. Like my dad wrote music. He would write a song and sing it for people and let them hear it, but never actually record the song and put it out there. The he’d hear a song eerily similar on the radio. This theory basically teaches you to act on your ideas and instincts that you have. And honestly I can’t say they’re wrong!

BD: So you would say you believe this theory too?

WC: Yeah, I have evidence in the universe that I’ve thought about things that didn’t in fact begin to manifest, and then it manifested without me.

Analysis:
While this is a bit of a downer belief, it does push those who believe it to execute their ideas. It is interesting how it runs through a family with creative vocations and modes of thought. It is likely they would not have held onto this belief if they had not been in the arts.