Karma and the Way We See Things

A friend of mine posted on facebook that someone who used to harrass and assault him when he was in highschool was killed, and he was unsure how he should feel about it. A lot of comments to his post attribute the death to karma, and I feel that's putting a biased human slant on a universal effect.

Karma does not judge. It does not take revenge. Karma is cause and effect, period. There is no malice involved. A lot of people think that karma is another word for divine judgement, but it is not meant to be. We like to think that the universe is going to right all the wrongs done to us, but that's simply not the way of things. We like to think we will be rewarded for the good we do, but that's also not the way of things. We, as flawed humans, cannot see things from all angles.

I told my friend that we can't hold people in judgement for things done to us when we were all young and stupid. None of us are above that. That person may have had people who loved and cared for him. Would they "deserve" to go through this loss because of a mistake made many years ago? No. Of course not.

It is us who need to let go. We need to put aside the trivial grievances of the past, or how else will those wounds heal? We need to think on a wider scale and not lay down judgement upon a person based on one instant in their lives.

The decision to rejoice in this death is my friend's. I hope he takes something from what I have said to him, no matter how hard it may be to hear. I personally don't feel happy, or sad ragarding this. I just feel that a life too close to my own age was wasted.