Is there such a thing as good karma?

[Gatsby]

I always thought karma could be good or bad, basically like a bank in which good deeds are like deposits and bad like withdrawals (in simplest terms).

Dictionary.com seems to support this belief:

kar·ma (n.)

1. Hinduism & Buddhism. The total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person’s existence, regarded as determining the person’s destiny.

As does Meridian Webster:

Main Entry: kar·ma

1. the force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence

A friend of mine insists that this is a common western misinterpretation and that there is no such thing as good karma. His contention is that all karma is bad by it’s very nature.

Any Hindus, Buddhists, or religion scholars out there who can set the record straight?

[jayron_32]

I took a World Religion class in college, and the impression I got from it was that karma was those actions which perpetuated the cycle of rebirth and thus preventing the individuals atman from rejoining with the brahman (a condition known as nirvana). Since nirvana is the goal of hinduism, karma is the sum total of those things preventing nirvana, by definition. It was taught in thsi class that the idea of karma as value laden (i.e. karma as something repaid, either good or bad) is a western invention.

[tcburnett]

If you send me all your money and the deed to your house, as well as all of your other worldly possessions, you will be generating good karma. Or I will pray for you, whatever your preference. Failure to do this will increase your karmic risk. Really, I wouldn’t take the chance.

I’ll throw in a free prophecy from a bowl of entrails as well.

[Osakadave]

Karma = Action
Dharma, or “duty” (variously defined depending on if we are talking about Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism), determines if the action is good or bad.

The fundamental thing to remember about the word “karma” is that it means “action” – or “work,” “deed,” “function,” etc. (The root is actually karman – like Brahman – but the “n” drops off when the word is inflected in the nominative and accusative cases and is not commonly used in English.) In some important terms, like karmayoga, the principal teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, “karma” only means “action.”
The most important thing, in a practical and moral sense, about action is whether it is right or wrong, good or bad. The first question about this is to ask what determines whether something is right or wrong. In India, the general answer to this would be dharma, “duty” (the root does not end in n); but what one’s dharma is depends on who one asks.

source: http://www.friesian.com/karma.htm

[Bear_Nenno]

If there is good karma, this would be it:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=32060