Disclaimer, the views expressed in this post are my own and in no way whatsoever reflect what any of my teachers past or present believe or taught me (though they have have led to some grey hair or loss of sleep over the years in said people). I also titled the thread in such a way as to give a warning that my views about such things may not necessarily be the popular opinion, nor popular on TTBs .   So anyways... the concepts of karma and hell, I think are ridiculous. I do not mean actual karma, I mean what people have made it into and their views on it. Also I don't mean actual hell, as I have not seen nor experienced such a place, and believe more that hell is our own personal crap in the here and now, and perhaps hereafter. What I mean in this thread is people's views of hell.   OK so, I find it sort of messed up that some folks base their actions on a fear or reward system. For example the only reason they are not robbing other people, lying all the time, being selfish, not harming others, not selling kids into slavery... is because they are afraid of negative karma or hell?! Wow. I wouldn't trust such a person as far as I can throw them personally. What if they for example found out without a doubt that such concepts do not exist? Or what if their beliefs changed?   Dictating one's actions based on what others tell one to do, I find ridiculous. We are told good karma for such and such, and bad karma for other such and such. Heaven for such and such, and hell for such and such. Do people really do good actions just to get some sort of reward, or perhaps less punishment? This seems extremely selfish to me!   OK to recently I actually felt some karma, it was sort of neat, it was an energy of some of mine being released because I did some super awesome go out of my way with no personal benefit to myself thing for someone. Neat. HOWEVER, there's no way in hell I'm going to go doing things for people just so I can eliminate my own karma. Wouldn't that defeat the entire purpose of helping others? I wonder if when someone helps you, but they are doing so just to decrease their own rebirth cycle type of thing, that it feels like an ulterior motive at all? (though realistically I feel it's probably more a bit of both here). Also, the spirits I work with will warn me if something I'm about to do will cause some negative karma for me. I still base my decision on whether it seems/feels right for me to do, whether it fits into my personal ethics, and sometimes whether I just want to do it anyways . For example if helping out a friend, I might not care if it's going to bring about an extra bit of negative karma (though I guess this could also be seen as selfish on my part as it is not a complete stranger).   So how about instead we just treat people decently so they have a better day? Or maybe help others to see them suffer a little less? Or not be an ass, because being a decent person is a better option all around. Why must we get some reward from it, or avoid some punishment for it?   /rant