On Karma

I want to revisit an important spiritual subject I’ve talked about regularly here, because I feel like this subject gets twisted and misconstrued a lot.  I want to talk about karma.

What is karma?

Well let’s use my situation as an example.  Right now I’m sitting on the sofa, writing, basking in the glow of a good workout at the gym and a nice long walk at the beach.  I just had a nice late lunch and I’m enjoying a beer as I relax and enjoy this afternoon and share my thoughts with you.

I could go on – job, family, everything else in my life.  This is my karma.

Karma isn’t just bad things happening to you.  It’s good things too.  It’s everything.  Because karma is the “effect” of the Law of Cause and Effect.  Every thought, every word, every belief, every action, these create energy in the universe and there is a direct effect to each of these. Collectively they directly create the effect that is our life situation.

People who are hurtful or damaging in their thoughts, words and/or actions receive hurt and damage in their own life and often in future lifetimes.  You can’t fool karma – you may be able to fool your friends into thinking you’re a nice person, or your evil is justified, but karma doesn’t care.  What you create is what you receive, and there is no other way.

You say well, some people are so nice and they don’t deserve the bad things happening to them.  But, first, you don’t know.  Maybe they had you fooled.  Maybe their thoughts are filled with hateful thoughts.  Maybe their karma is carrying over from prior lifetimes.  And maybe that “bad thing” you’re observing isn’t actually “bad,” maybe the universe is trying to push your friend in a direction they refuse to go and then there is suffering – but your friend brought this upon themselves by refusing to change.

And what about those “bad people” whose lives seem to be happy and they never get their comeuppance?  Many explanations, but it all boils down to the fact that you really don’t know and need to refrain from making assumptions and jumping to conclusions.

Most often we know.  I’ve seen more than a few people who have been unfair to me and others and I’ve seen them get a strong dose of karmic realignment.  And in almost every case, they didn’t get the message and more “bad karma” followed. 

“Bad karma” is not “bad luck.”  Tipping or not tipping the barista is not going to change your karma in any significant way by itself.  If your intention in tipping was to assuage your guilt over something you’re doing that you know is wrong, you’re probably making your karma worse and would be better off stiffing the barista and gaining clarity on what is driving parts of you to behave in ways you know are wrong than blurring things with false generosity.

I believe most people receiving good or bad karma knew deep down it was coming.  They may outwardly be “surprised” by their change in circumstance, but in their heart they knew it was coming.

Karma includes the universe’s various ways of communicating with us – some subtle, some harsh – in order to get us to change.  A lot of human suffering is people attached to their routine, or their story, or their right-ness and as such unable or unwilling to heed the instructions when they’re being told to change.

The worst response to karma is to act as a victim.  Nobody is a victim.  I realize what I just said here is jarring and will challenge the beliefs of many people, but it’s absolutely true.  There are no victims in this world.  However wronged you think you have been, you are not a victim.  And it’s even possible what you think was wrong was not what you thought it was.

This is where I’ve ended up in negative cycles.  Someone did something wrong to me and I’d engage in hurtful thinking and actions.  Then I’d wonder why bad stuff kept happening to me.  It took me learning the truth about karma to finally let that stuff go.  And when I did, I noticed something interesting – people trying to do bad things to me ended up having much worse things happen to them, thanks to their karma. 

Acting like a victim or seeking revenge will only bring a person more negative karma.  The way out is understanding and acceptance, and taking control of one’s thoughts, words and actions.  Once you accept that you are the sole creator of your life, your thoughts naturally shift toward “what do I want to create? More shit, or something good?”  You stop holding onto the illusion of victimhood or the fantasy or revenge and place more and more intention on good thoughts, good words, good actions.  And “magically,” karma starts improving.  But of course it’s not magic.  It’s a law of the universe.