Reflections on the Nature of Karma

So this evening I was speaking with Julie as she was taking me home, and we got to talking about past lives and nasty things we've done in the past to people we know and love in our present. Naturally that moved the conversation into the discussion of karmic debt, and how such wrongs are repaid. Me being me, I had to follow that rabbit trail as far as I could.

So it seems to me that suffering is the lowest form of reparation one can make. The idea in karma is that when you wrong someone, you are wronged in turn, in this life or the next. This strikes me as rather an inefficient goad. First of all, in order for a punishment to be truly effective, the recipient must know what they are being punished FOR. Unless you are into exploring your past lives (an activity which is entertaining and often enlightening, but in no way necessary to self-growth), you will like as not have no idea why you have such a bum deal in this one. Also, if you murder someone in a past life, and they turn around and murder you, this does not redress the wrong. It perpetuates a cycle of pain between the two until one or the other chooses to end it by NOT participating.

Supposing then that karma is not so much a rule imposed upon us to govern us and teach us to act rightly, but a rule we cleave to on a subtle level? It is common throughout any culture I can think of (and if you know of one not like this then please enlighten me) that a criminal is punished and made to suffer in some fashion, as if this will redress the wrong they have done. But it does not. Someone else's pain cannot and will not alleviate my own, though in some vengeful mood I may believe it does. But such blood-thirst does me harm as well, and in extreme cases may make me no better than the one who wronged me. What, then, is the purpose of suffering?

It is, of course, the very lowest form of rule. The wrong-doer supposedly does not repeat the offense because they are afraid to suffer the punishment. Likewise an individual who contemplates a crime may turn away from it because they fear the discomfort the consequences may bring them. Suffering, then, is a bludgeon. Which in turn makes the idea of suffering injury or disease, poverty or death in this life for the sins of the past absolutely ludicrous. You are not doing the right thing because of punishment, you are attempting to avoid doing the wrong thing -- something entirely different. You do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, as a friend of mine likes to quote. People who are acting for the good are doing so because they choose to regardless of the short-term personal consequences. It may be for the sake of reward, certainly, but to do so in order to avoid pain is a forced action relying on the instinct to preserve one's self, not a true decision to act in a positive fashion.

Where, then, does that leave the concept of a Cosmic Law of Karma? I am not inclined to say it does not appear to exist, because I have felt its effects both good and bad, and have seen it in action on numerous occasions. Yet, I believe our concept of it is faulty, or at least over-simplified. Karma is not a hard and fast rule. I put forth the idea that karma is merely a manifest aspect of the Law of Attraction. Master San Gee Tam says "What you practice, you become." So if you practice doing evil by doing selfish, negative things or even by interacting with your environment with such a mindset, you become an evil-doer. The Law of Attraction states that we draw to us that with which we resonate -- that which we are, and think about, and do. Therefore the thief will suffer loss, even if that is not readily apparent. For what we do each moment affects the state of our soul, our total being and its health in ways both minute and major. Even if the result is not readily apparent, we carry the resonance over into our next life, again and again and again.Even if the result is not readily apparent, we carry the resonance over into our next life, again and again and again. Even if you do not believe in the idea of past lives, or karma, or the Law of Attraction, you can still see how the perspective you develop through negative or positive action -- your own personal common sense, as it were -- may warp and distort how you experience the world around you and what you choose to surround yourself with.

So even if someone has done terrible terrible things in the past, their karma lies in their own hands. Perhaps suffering will be inflicted upon them, and some may pause to consider it and come to the realization that their own infliction of suffering on others was wrong. Therefore they may set out to correct their ways. However, mere suffering itself will not redress the wrong. It is only when we decide to act out of kindness and compassion and wisdom regardless of the apparent immediate consequences to ourselves that we begin to rise above the cycle of pain and truly render up payment for whatever sins we may have committed.

Therefore the act of suffering is largely useless, for we may at any time decide to begin acting rightly. To continue suffering after this point serves no purpose. Pain may be an excellent teacher, but he is a teacher of the last extreme. So when I find myself to be experiencing discomfort I must ask myself the cause. And having identified the source, I must then discern what positive action I might take instead. If I then feel I do not want to follow through with this right action, I must then identify the resistance.

Because otherwise I am choosing to suffer, and no one is responsible for that but me.