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Dana asked:

Does karma exist? In other words, is the universe interested in revenge?

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If you are a Buddhist, that is taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, yes karma exists, but
if you are not on the Way, no it doesn't, then you are oblivious to it. You have to be on the path to
perceive karma. That does not mean karma is relative. But absolute or relative karma does not
presuppose something called a "universe" as you suppose. In the Chinese translation of the Heart
Sutra, the character for "space" includes the closest possible and the furthest away imaginable. There
is no end, no boundary. The Chinese character for time covers the first beginning and the last ending.
There is no starting point and no finishing. In short, "the universe" as a thing, let alone a thing "out
there", is empty (kong), your idea of it is empty. Your idea of it is itself karmic. The Buddhist idea is
that everything that exists in any one moment of time, from the nearest to the furthest is sobecause
karma. It is not a result of karma, it is karma.Karma is thisness. Karma is nowness. The old
explanation to westerners of karma in terms of a chronological sequence of cause and effect was
helpful once, perhaps, but now is a distraction.

Matthew Del Nevo
http://www.sicetnon.com