“Oh, she’s such a nice person. Karma’s a bitch!” Said, no one … ever. It just doesn’t make sense.
Rarely, do we hear karma mentioned after a kind act. “Karma’s a saint!” Sounds weird, doesn’t it. But, we’re quick to call her(?) the “B” word. We’re so focused on the negative, ready to cheer the universe on in vengeance.
But as karma goes, it’s neither good nor bad. It’s not for us and not against us; it just is.
In ancient Sanskrit, Karma simply means, action. Given that, we are karmic beings and there are three aspects of our being that create Karma: Thinking, speaking, and acting. The accumulation of these three things is karma.
Karma is action and action is energy. The good and bad is in the action itself and that becomes the positive or negative energy that goes out into the universe. And, as it’s been said, no debt in the universe goes unpaid. It comes back. This is Karma.
“Oh, so is this what they mean when for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction?” Mmm, no. That’s Newton’s third law of motion, but I see where your head’s at.
While Karma is action it’s not a transaction. Doing good as payment towards a positive outcome is not really how it works. I know; you just can’t buy good juju anymore. Am I right?
The philosophy that we get what we give is true, but not in the way we might think. It’s more of an investment from our soul to the betterment of not just ourselves, but the world. It’s not an exchange of goods and services.
What about “instant Karma”, like when someone loots a store, runs out into the street, and gets hit by a bus. That’s when all the villagers rejoice, cheering “Karma’s a bitch!”
Is that instant karma? Well, the thing is … karma is always instant. It’s just that sometimes, it takes a while. If you believe in the linear concept of time, that is. “Wait; what?”
Hey, I’m no yogi.
Our thoughts, words, and actions (karma) go out into the universe. If we give effort, value, time, advice, responsiveness, authenticity, honesty, love, humor, attention, thanks, work, care, empathy, diligence, and so on and we try to improve ourselves through study, practice, training, and research to be a valuable source to others, then that is good karma; so to speak.
But, reality can suck and we are only human. I’ve seen Buddhist monks lose their spiritual shit. Some crap happened to us, someone wronged us, disrespect, tragedy, death, aggression, sickness, vandalism, thievery, or we smash our toe on the damn coffee table. No one is immune, it’s just that some of us shake it off more quickly than others. Some hang on to it and live in a negative state of anger, hate, worry, fear, and sadness, because without it, they feel they’ll have nothing. Not true, by the way. If they don’t let go, it will continue in perpetuity. I’ve seen it and its very sad. But if they do let go, karma will respond in kind and life can be pretty good, considering.
She’s not the “B” word; she just is. Our relationship with Karma, is up to us.
Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash
I Am No Yogi 