Karma

In this dissertation, we will discuss the subject of karma.

There are many ways of looking at this, and many different ways of stating it. Some say, “What goes around, comes around.” While this may be true, it is an oversimplification. Personally, I tend to think of karma as a sort of cosmic balance scales, that by cosmic law must balance. They may be out of balance for a very long time, but in time they WILL come into balance. And even that view does not completely describe just how karma works. Actually, karma is a universal spiritual law.

When most people hear the word “karma,” they normally think of bad stuff. But there are different types of karma, both bad and good. And to complicate matters even more, karma is weighted. Many Pagans speak of the Three Fold Law (whatever you put out comes back three times) or the Nine Fold Law (whatever you put out comes back nine times). These would be examples of weighted karma, and neither of them is strictly true. Let me explain this. Let us take the example of a young soul. They get mad at someone and take a swing at them and give them a black eye. OK, they have just earned some bad karma. The scales tip. And something equivalent to what they did will happen to them and the scales will come back into balance. The karma is satisfied. That is a one times return. So the Three Fold Law did not apply, and even less the Nine Fold Law. But now lets take another example with a really old soul. The same scenario, they get mad at someone and give them a black eye. The scales really tip this time, because that old soul should have known better. So to make the scales balance, they may end up getting mugged and having the living de-doodle beat out of them and end up in the hospital to recover from their injuries. And that may well be far more than nine times the injuries done originally.

Karma does not occur simply because of acts of physical violence. Practically everything that you do has some sort of karmic results. Sometimes they are so minor as to be unnoticeable, or they may be very major. It depends upon your actions, their results, the age or evolutionary level of your soul AND your intent. Lets look at a few examples:

Lets say that you are in a grocery store and you see a variety of apple that you have never seen before. They look good, but you don’t know if you will like them or not. So you decide to sample one. Now it does not matter if you buy more apples as a result of that sample or not. The fact is that you have stolen an apple, and earned some bad karma as a result. And it will be paid off.

Even the same or similar action by the same person may have different karmic results. Let us say that there is a person that makes $500,000 a year. This person goes to a dealer and buys a brand new top of the line Cadillac. On the way home with his new car, he stops at a connivance store to pick up something. Unwisely, he leaves the windows open and leaves the keys in the ignition. Not very smart in today’s world. Someone else saw them get out of their car and noticed that the windows were left open. He goes over and sees the keys in the ignition, so he gets in and drives off, stealing the car. Certainly, he has earned some bad karma. But lets take that same thief. He sees an 8 year old Chevy with the windows open and the keys in the ignition. This car belongs to a family that is operating at poverty level. They have just spent almost all of their week’s income for groceries for that week, the couple and their 4 children. The groceries are in the trunk, so the thief can’t see them, but it would not matter to him anyway. He steals the car. Now in which case do you think that the thief will earn the most bad karma? For stealing a $50,000 car, or for stealing a $2,000 car? Certainly, he has hurt the owner of that new Cadillac, but that probably is not that person’s only car, and he can afford to buy another. But, and this is a big but, when he stole that older Chevy, he stole that family’s only transportation and may have made it impossible for them to get to work. And he also stole the food that would have fed that family of six at the same time. So by stealing that older car, he caused much more harm than he did by stealing the new car and his karma will be greater.

Lets say that Susan really likes Joe and would like for him to become hers. But Joe and Betty seem to be a thing, and are even thinking of marriage. Susan is sure that if she could break them up, then she could have Joe. So she gets the word to Joe’s friends that Betty is a kleptomaniac, and occasionally engages in prostitution. She also gets word to Betty’s friends that Joe is involved with drugs and has a police record. Her lies manage to find their way to Joe and Betty and the couple break up. So even though there was no violence involved, Susan’s lies have really harmed two people. She has earned some major karma.

Bad karma may be earned not only through our actions that directly effect other people, but also by actions toward animals or even the environment. And a person who leads a life of crime may very well incur enough bad karma that it will take them several lifetimes to pay it off. And the sad thing is that because they do not remember consciously what they did in previous lifetimes, they may have no idea why life is treating them so rotten.

So far, we have spoken only of bad karma. But karma may also be of a good variety. When we do something good through compassion or love, that will also tip the scales, in the opposite direction. And that good can either rebound to us by having something good happen to us, or can help to pay off the bad karma that we may have accumulated. And I know that there are some who will read these words and think, “Oh boy, I am going to go out and do some good and get me some good karma.” Sorry Jack, it doesn’t work that way. Doing good simply to earn good karma will not earn good karma. Good karma is earned when good is done through a sincere desire to do good, or through an act of compassion or love. So your motivation is important here. And since I have mentioned motivation, I need to mention that motivation also plays a part in bad karma. If you really want to harm someone else, but refrain from doing so to keep from gaining bad karma, that will not stop you from getting the bad karma although it will lessen the karma that you would receive if you had actually committed the act. So even your thoughts can generate karma, both good and bad. If you do good reluctantly, that will gain some good karma, but it will be much less than what you would have received had you done the same good willingly.

Once I read of a woman who was driving home one day with her children. She passed a family that was hitch hiking, a man and woman and two young children. She went on home and had dinner with her family. Now this woman was not wealthy herself, her dinner had consisted of dried beans and rice. But she had prepared an ample amount. After she had eaten, she got to thinking of that hitch hiking family. She therefore went looking for them intending to feed them. Unfortunately, she was unable to find them. However, her intentions alone generated good karma for her. And as she recounted the story, she was saddened that she had not thought of feeding them earlier, when she first saw them.

So karma may be thought of as a teacher, it teaches the soul right from wrong, good from bad. By returning to the soul the same type of things that the soul has sent out, the soul learns that there are consequences for its actions.

As was stated earlier, motivation can also have a direct bearing on karma. Sometimes, you may do something that under normal circumstances would gain bad karma, but because of the motivation will gain good karma instead. Let us look at a dramatic example. There is a sniper on a rooftop shooting and killing people. Obviously, he is gaining bad karma. But you find yourself in a position to stop his slaughter. But the only way that you can do it is by shooting him. In this case, you would gain bad karma if you only stood by and watched him, but by shooting him and stopping his slaughter, you will not gain bad karma because your intent is the greater good.

Karma is not restricted to people. A group can have a group karma. And that karma may be either good or bad. The individuals who make up that group contribute to the overall group karma. That group may be as small as a group of four ladies that meet once a week to play bridge or a group as large as a city, a nation or even the planet Earth.

The town or city that you live in has karma. And it may be either good or bad. This karma is generated by the actions of the city in general as well as the actions of the individuals that live there. Lets take some examples that can generate karma for that city. Assume that a city has heard of another city, town, village or even country that has had something really bad happen. So as an act of compassion, they send aid in the form of food, medical supplies, money, actual physical labor, whatever. That city will earn good karma for that act. Lets look at another community. The politicians in this city are corrupt, and the citizens of the city know it, but continue to elect them. That city will earn bad karma. Some small rural communities learned that they could make an income by turning their town into a speed trap for motorists from other areas that did not know about them. Or take the small village that has a single traffic light. The village’s police officer sits at that traffic light where he can control it. He makes certain that the light will be red for any driver who does not live in that community. And it will stay red until the driver gives up and runs the red light, whereupon he is then given a traffic ticket. These last two examples incidentally are not made up, they happen.

Just as communities can earn karma, so can nations. Saddam Hussein earned karma when he invaded Kuwait, but so did Iraq. And the planet Earth also has karma.

There is one more aspect of karma that I feel that we need to deal with and that is karmic obligations. This is something that normally takes place over lifetimes. That is that you perform some action in one lifetime and develop karma that must be paid in another lifetime. Suppose that you do something that has a really deleterious effect on another. And you are unable to pay off that karmic debt in this lifetime. Still, you are obligated to that other person. In your next lifetime, or the lifetime after that, you will find yourself in the position of paying off that karmic debt. And very likely not knowing why.