I like to think of karma like I think of gravity. It’s a force of nature. An undeniable and ever present law that cannot be manipulated. If you let go the Apple it falls to the ground. You can only choose not to let go. You cannot choose for it to float away. It’s a law of nature. Reliable. Consistent. Karma is like this. You can control what kind of karma you accumulate but not the outcome.
Karma cannot float away. Good karma begets good experiences and bad karma begets difficult experiences. Life is all about experiences.
The thing about each karmic experience is that they offer an opportunity for more of the same and also an opportunity for gaining the opposite. When you have good karma you have an equally good experience. Which also brings an opportunity to take that positive experience and gloat, brag or be stingy with it. Which could cause some negative karmic debt. Yes. I also think of it like credits and debts. One you receive as gifts – fun! And one you pay back- necessary but not as fun.
So, also it goes that when paying back a negative karmic debt one has the opportunity to learn a life lesson and there-in accumulate a positive karmic credit.
Karmic debts and credits can be balanced in this lifetime but usually some carry over into other lifetimes. Karma is incurred and held on a soul level. It’s a higher self thing. Not on the level of a current incarnated personality. Bummer I know, especially when you see people being awful. An immediate equal and opposite response would be so welcomed. Sometimes it happens. But not always.
Some say incarnating as a cockroach – loathed by all people, is a karmic debt balance for a lifetime lived accumulating much negative debt. Perhaps someone like Hitler will spend many lifetimes as a cockroach, constantly in fear of being exterminated. This is necessary for his soul to balance his karmic debt. And Mother Theresa, she likely has a store house of plenty. A blessed life full of abundance awaits her in her next incarnation, I imagine. What she does with her karmic riches in that next life will help unfold her soul’s journey just as the life of a cockroach will unfold the soul of one who once terrorized the world.
I notice that children receive their karmic opposite more quickly than grown ups. My child behaves ridiculously – I know right away to watch out because a fall off her bike or a trip on her jump rope are looming. It’s true. Notice. Every time. Childhood diseases are also ways that the philosopher Rudolf Steiner believed the young could work off lingering past life karmic debt. I wish I knew exactly how much a good case of chicken pox was worth. My mother said I had it twice- the first case was very mild.
With grown ups I think it can be much more complicated. As our lives move out of childhood we leave the simplicity of right and wrong and venture into relationships, tangled webs and a complex mix of intentions and outcomes that are not just our own but involve others.
Gary Zukav talks about intention in, The Seat of the Soul. And Oprah also picks up on this important awareness in her message in the forward of the 25 year re-release of his book. When we participate in an intention (knowingly or not) we participate in the outcome – karmically. I am more careful than ever about where I participate. Donating money to a charity can be a good thing. But if the outcome is to de-fraud or mis spend charitable funds. That is a karmic alliance that every participant shares. Researching clients, causes, projects and organizations is important before getting entangled in the karma of those people and organizations. Frequently saying, “no” to requests and offers is actually one of the things most successful people do. I believe it helps keep their karmic house in order. And I also believe it keeps their energetic flow in balance, but I digress. That’s a whole other blog.
It’s never too late to put in an effort to balance your karmic debt. The more you can do now – the less chance you’ll need to live a cockroach life in the future.
