NotCrazyLikeYou ,

Really good points, this is why with whatever I personally believe about Karma, I don't believe it is a reward system. I think that's more of a western thing. I believe in energy very much so, and to me karma deals with energy, balancing out positive, neutral and negative energy, or exchanging energy. When you look at in terms of positive, neutral, and negative, it says nothing of "good" or "evil". I see it as an exchange of energy that always seeks to restore balance.

Animals are interesting, do they carry karma? Obviously I don't know. Buddhism and Hinduism believe that animals are apart of rebirth or reincarnation, karma is attached to your soul. I am not sure to the extent that they support the idea of human being reincarnated to animal. And I am not sure, if a soul is just a soul without designation of human or animal, plant ect. Pretty sure Buddhists believe that the energy is reborn into another, not the soul.. anyways.. I don't see why it is out of the question, especially if you do not think of karma as reward for good or evil, but see it as energy.

I can certainly understand and respect your view point.

How much awareness do animals really have? If karma is energy based action, then could animals not also carry karma? Also I don't believe a rock falling needs balancing, but I do believe the universe does, because the sum of total energy in the universe is always the same.

Shay, awesome! Thank you so much for the book info, and I already looked into Fred Alan Wolf last night, I was pretty excited to have something new and interesting to read. much appreciated!