DO....DO unto others as you want done to you.

does not mean you will be treated right, just means you will treat people right.
and therefore your conscience will be clear.

I still think treat people the way they deserve to be treated... you have to earn things in life... they aren't just given. Everyone starts off the same place with me... where they end up depends on them.... if someone ends up on my bad side it is because they have done something to get there. Not everyone is deserving of respect and kindness so giving it to them is like rewarding bad behavior.

If someone is a bitch to me and I am a bicth back to them I don't feel a bit bad about it... actually it is more the times someone is rude to me and I am just not in the mood to deal with it and just ignore it that I am later bothered that I allowed them to get away with such a thing and I feel guilty.

Let the bad and stupid people be that way. it only hurts them.

people cannot hurt us unless we allow them to hurt us.

take the high road, and let Karma deal with the idiots. (and she will)

I don't believe in karma... if there was such thing bad people would suffer and good people wouldn't. Life is just random and chaotic. In a perfect world things would be fair but nothing is fair... if you want a wrong righted or justice or someone to be punished you have to make sure it happens and even then you don't always get it... it is something you have to make happen... it isn't something the universe just gives you... if it was the world would be a much better place. People have this idealistic view of the world... they think things like how you are or being right matter... what happens to you doesn't reflect who you are or what you deserve... being right doesn't mean anything if you can't prove it and convince the majority you are right. I understand why people believe what they do, I really do... it is hard to accept that we have no real control over things and how little everything matters.

I'm saying....Karma IS real. I have witnessed the bad ones suffer as a result of their piss poor treatment of others.

rest assured. what goes around, comes around. YOU (or I) cannot deal the punishment....but Karma WILL.

if you (or whoever) treat people poorly...it will come back to you.

if karma is real then I guess everyone that is suffering now deserves it for some past behavior and anyone that is happy or has good in their life is deserving of that good?if that is the case then either we should all be happy and if we aren't we all must be horrible people that have done something to bring this upon ourselves (which I don't agree with)

Not sure how to explain it to those who doubt.

It is the Rede I live by.

"what ye send forth, comes back to thee" "so ever mind the law of three"

(what you send out comes back three-fold)

A good deterrent to treating people badly. I have seen it happen.

I think it is a hurtful idea... I mean would you go to a cancer ward of a hospital and ask people what they have done to bring this upon themselves? or go to africa and talk to some small child with aids that has no parents or food or home and tell them to try and be a better person so karma will make their life better? When you think that the universe punishes people for bad things and rewards good things then you are saying people get what the deserve.... now if you think bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people then you don't really believe in karma but in luck or randomness... you can't have it both ways... either people that suffer deserve it or there is no karma.

well, we have gotten off track of the OP's original idea. (apologies to the OP)

I believe in the golden rule, and the Wiccan rede.

send out crap, and you get crap back.

treat others as you want to be treated is a pretty good way to live, in my opinion.
It is not an infallible idea, sometimes SHIT happens to good people, and sometimes those undeserving get (seeming) rewards.

so then if both bad and good things can happen to both good and bad people when something good or bad happens how do you know which is supposed to be karma and which is just shit happening?

oh, and sometimes the crappy shit that happens to those who have hurt us --- we never know about...we just have to believe right will prevail.

We don't always get the satisfaction of WITNESSING the crap that comes to those who treat people badly. We just know it does at some point. Let the assholes be assholes, it is not our place to do the punishing.

darkened star, you are arguing on a post that was meant to be positive and uplifting.
part of doing unto others is not just being kind, but being honest, as i would want someone to cut the shit and be straight with me.

you seem hell bent on seeing the negative in every single thing, and you will get what you want, believe me. i try to see the positive, and i am generally treated very well by others in life. yes, the odd a-hole is inevitable, but they don't often bother with me. they'll come right at you though, because dark feeds on dark.

I think the person that is wronged is the best person to decide and dish out the punishment because only they know how much they have been hurt and they are the most deserving the satisfaction of dishing out justice.

Say someone tortures and kills someone close to you.. do you think strangers should decide that persons punishment or do you think you have earned the right to say what should happen to them? or do you think no one should decide that who are we to judge and just leave their punishment up to karma? if there is karma we don't even need prisons or a legal system...

ps...i am an athiest, by the way.
i don't do this because god told me to, i do it because it is a better quality of life than worrying about taking knives to a gunfight, y'know what i mean?

prisons and the legal system ARE Karma. (or part of it)