Voice of the Spirit

 Karma – “To Do”

To begin with, I would like to clarify some of the misconceptions regarding karma and to help define what karma is.  Simply stated, the word karma actually comes from a Sanskrit root that means “to do.” This refers to the consequences of our actions from past lives and this lifetime, too.  Also, karma can mean “comeback.” All we have done before comes back to us, as in what we have done prior which acts like a boomerang in our lives.  In the Bible it is stated, “Whatsoever you sow, ye shall reap.”  The Bible also indicates, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”  These are statements that also define karma.  It’s common to hear people say the phrases “What goes around, comes around” and “Whatever you do, it comes back to you,” which both speak of karma.

Dharma – “To Be”

Sometimes people confuse karma with dharma.  The word Dharma actually comes from a Sanskrit root that means “to be.”  Dharma deals with the spiritual lessons you need to learn now to spiritually grow and evolve, but dharma is not tied into your actions from former lifetimes as it does with karma.  Dharma indicates the sum total of who you are and your entire being.  Since dharma deals with lessons, not consequences, we have done nothing from our past that creates our current dharma.

Here is an example of dharma:  If you were at the point in your spiritual evolution that you needed to learn the lesson of consideration, (as in being considerate of others) that lesson would come to bear in your life.  Circumstances would be set up for this dharmic lesson to be learned.  It is not based on your prior actions or choices, but simply based on what you need to learn at this time.

To differentiate between karma and dharma, here are some good points to remember:  Karma is what we owe, while dharma is about evolvement.  Karma is about consequence while dharma is about what we need to learn at this time.  Karma is more highly charged while dharma just “is,” and represents where we’re at now from a spiritual point of view. 

In understanding karma, I would like to further explain what karma is and how we create both good and bad karma.  It is easy to think of karma like a cosmic balance sheet.  For every good act you do, score one in the plus column while for every bad act you do, score one in the minus column.  It doesn’t matter whether you get caught or anyone sees what you have done, as whatever you do indeed comes back to you.

Creating Negative Karma

When anyone harms another, they create negative karma.  As mentioned above, karma is much more highly charged than dharma.  Why?  Because negative karma is created by the emotions that one feels when they have been hurt by another person’s harmful actions toward them.  Since these emotions are intense, negative karma is created.

Probably the worst of all negative karmic acts is murder.  With killing another, that person’s chance to grow and offer their unique singular contribution to this world is ended – forever.  Since each of us can only offer our particular gifts to the world, (no one else can take our place in this world) we are each a single, irreplaceable link in the cosmic chain of the supreme master plan.  When someone is taken out, their link is removed which weakens the universal chain.  Whatever that person was here to contribute is gone.  Besides it affecting the entity who was murdered, potentially for an incalculable amount of time, (as it may scar them for multiple lifetimes in the future) it dramatically wounds everyone who is connected to this individual: Friends, family and loved ones, a spouse, children and co workers.

Suicide also creates negative karma.  Think of it this way:  The person committing suicide may think that this is their life and they can do whatever they want with it.  However, I would say that this person has received the gift of a God given life and it is not theirs to take away; it is just the life they happen to be living in.  It would be like someone offering you the gift of staying in their home – that offer doesn’t include the option of destroying the home.  As in murder, suicide is final and adversely affects anyone connected to the person who has chosen to end their life.

Rape, child molestation, physically attacking another, robbery and drunk driving car accidents are all examples of what creates negative karma.  For egregious negative karma creating acts, it can literally take lifetimes for the negative karma to be resolved.  Think of the example of dropping a pebble into the water.  The ripples keep continuing.  With intense negative karma, it is like dropping a million pebbles into the water and trying to gage how far the ripple affect will reach.

However, most of us don’t do the things that are mentioned immediately above.  For most of us who create negative karma, it is often veiled in acts that are socially acceptable or at least tolerated.  If a person at work gossiped about a co-worker and ruined that person’s reputation, a possibility for a promotion and their overall career, that act would create negative karma.  This type of thing is quite common though and not something that would cause outrage in society, as someone molesting a child would, although both acts create negative karma. 

Taking away a persons ability to make a choice creates negative karma.  That old phrase of “The pathway to hell is paved with good intentions” rings so true here.  Let’s use this example:  John was dating Judy and through a misunderstanding, they broke up.  John ran into Judy’s friend Sue a week later.  John asked Sue to please give Judy a message from him.  However, Sue was attracted to John herself, so she decided to not pass on the message from John, hoping that John would become interested in her if he never heard back from Judy.  Here, Sue took away both Judy and John’s choice and therefore, created negative karma.

There are certainly other examples that can be illustrated of how we create negative karma: Manipulating others and stealing to name a few, but the point to always remember is that we create negative karma when we harm or hurt others.

The Consequences of Negative Karma

As negative karmic acts have already been indicated above, one might ask, “How is the degree of consequence for our negative karmic actions determined?  Is it always the same?  Does it vary and if so, why and how?”

In addition to the bad act we have perpetrated on another, it has to also be considered just how much we understand regarding the nature and consequences of our actions.  We hold children to a lesser degree of responsibility than adults, because children don’t know any better.  If a three year old was playing with matches and burned the house down, we would look at that act completely differently than if an adult set a house on fire purposefully and in clear conscience.  Not only do we hold the child and the adult to very different standards legally, the same also holds true karmically. 

Certainly, as adults we understand the repercussions of our actions far more than children do.  In addition, our adult level of spiritual understanding must be taken into consideration, as the more we know spiritually, the higher of a standard we are held to karmically.  Once you know better, you cannot pretend that you don’t understand or pretend to be ignorant as to “get away with it.”  This can also be an example of how dharma and karma work together.  If your dharma is such that your soul has already learned a lesson and you create negative karma anyway, the karmic repercussion will be far greater.

Let’s use our above mentioned gossiping example:  The repercussions are different for someone who would be gossiping about another and not thinking anything bad would come from it, versus someone who planned it out with complete malicious intent to deliberately harm that person’s reputation.  Of course, both acts create karma, but the repercussions would be greater for someone doing it knowingly.

It is sometimes confusing to people who falsely think that negative karma will immediately come back to someone who has wronged them.  In many people’s minds, they feel that if a person wronged them on January 1, 2008, that within days, weeks, or at the latest months, the person who has wronged them should have an equal consequence coming back on them. 

However, there is no strict set of rules as to how long it takes and exactly how karma comes back. Each situation is looked at specifically by the higher forces of the universe that govern and regulate karma (the lords of karma).  All things are taken into consideration: The person’s level of spiritual understanding who created the negative karma as well as any possible past life ties between the entities in question.  Besides that, a person may pay a karmic penalty in a completely separate area of their life different from where the original negative karma was created.  Let’s say that if Joe cheats on Mary, lies to her and destroys her life, he may pay the penalty through reaping health problems down the road and not necessarily through someone else who cheats on him in the future in the way he did to Mary.  Not only can it take years or even decades for a negative karmic consequence to come to bear, it can actually take lifetimes before it is resolved.

Recognizing and Resolving Negative Karma

With negative karma, we know that is based on consequences from former actions.  So how can we recognize it for what it is and resolve bad karma? 

There is a concept that states “If you’re compelled to run toward something or run away from something, there is probably karma involved.”  Karmic situations are complex and not easily diagnosed or perceived.  Since it is hard for most people to perceive karmic situations, (especially if they’re in the middle of it) it may take a great spiritual master to be able to look at the situation at hand from a point of overview to add clarity.  Also, different people enter our lives at various points to bring these karmic situations to bear.  Usually, these situations have an intensity attached to them.  However, what we want from the outcome is not always what we’re here to learn or teach. 

Most people tend to think about how people have hurt them versus focusing on how they have hurt others.  I think that it is important to realize that when someone hurts you, they may not be creating new karma; they may be the vehicle for a karmic debt that you owe.  It is important to note that you cannot tell strictly which it is by how you feel about a situation emotionally.

Also, if a negative situation arises, this may be an opportunity to resolve karma from the past – maybe things got violent or ended in murder in a past life and the two parties have agreed to come together to try to resolve it this time without violence.  Sometimes, people come back together and wind up making more karma in the process!

Often, we have to go through the journey, like following a plot line in a movie we’re seeing for the first time.  We may not know where the story is heading, yet we need to make the journey.  Sometimes, we don’t realize the lessons we are here to learn or teach when we’re in the story.  However, we must try to do the right thing, as to not create additional negative karma. 

We should always “deal with it,” make amends, and bring things to a resolution.  Since negative karmic situations are highly emotionally charged, we must be very careful of our emotions and not build our actions from an emotionally charged point of view.  With these feelings, we are capable of making bad decisions and adding on even more negative karma if our actions are solely or in part based on our emotions.

Family relationships, romantic partners and any people who serve an important role in our lives are probably karmic relationships.  With these often-complex interactions, we must try and step back from our emotions, call upon divine guidance and do what is spiritually correct, especially because there is always limited time in a given incarnation to fix things.  It is not as if we have eternity in this particular incarnation to get it right.  Certainly we don’t want to drag negative karma into future lifetimes if at all possible.  Resolving negative karma may not always be what you or the others involved desire, but when our actions are right, negative karma becomes lessened or resolved.

Buddhism teaches that the goal is to severe all karmic ties, as to not keep reincarnating into the physical dimension of illusion we are currently in.

Negative emotions are just like handcuffs that bind us to all we have anger, resentment or hatred toward.  Work toward coming to peace with anyone you have bad blood with and absolutely work on forgiving them!  Even if you can’t come to peace directly with them, work on achieving peace and forgiveness from within yourself regarding the person or persons where negativity exists.  Remember, peace and forgiveness lessens and heals negative emotions, which helps to resolve bad karma.

Since hate also creates karma, we must work diligently on forgiving anyone or anything we have ever hated.  All hatred must be cleansed out of our systems, thoroughly and permanently.  By forgiving anyone and anything, we have resolved negative karma and are less likely to create new additional bad karma as we reach a higher level of vibration and spiritual understanding.  The Dali Lama says that to think of murdering someone is actually the same thing as murdering that person.  In the Bible, this concept is applied with the question being posed, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Here, “keeper” means “keeper in thought,” as in the thoughts we think of others.  Therefore, we should always hold everyone in loving thoughts.

Here is a good rule of thumb: Always be loving to yourself and loving to the other person or persons involved.  By living by the code of love, you won’t go wrong.  Make the sincere effort to handle all situations in your life with complete love of both yourself as well as all others involved.  This will take work, as our ego, defense mechanisms, emotions and smaller selves try to get involved and create negativity as opposed to seeing things resolved for the greater good.  Again, remember that by building all of your thoughts, intentions, actions and choices toward others solidly on the foundation of love, negative karma gets resolved!

Creating Good Karma

By performing positive acts toward others, we do indeed create good karma.  Even if no one sees it, it does come back to you.  Perform acts of kindness and goodness toward others regularly, without asking for anything in return.

Creating good karma now will be reaped later.  It is always good to know that you’re setting up your future consequences in a positive way.  Being generous, helpful, supportive and loving all creates good karma.  Remember, God will utilize you in positive ways if you’re open to it, so it won’t be as if you have to look all around you (like looking for a needle in a haystack) to know what to do.  Be willing to offer loving acts to others and those who can benefit from your loving acts will appear on your pathway!  Also, be honest, always loving, and wish everyone only good, especially those who have hurt you!  I love the phrase, “To give is to receive!  By giving lovingly to others, you will receive good karma in the future!

A Story

I would like to share a story with you that I heard a few years ago.  It came to me at a time when I had been seriously devastated by the actions of another and was working daily on forgiveness, which I did achieve.  This story, to me, illustrates quite profoundly and graphically the effects of our choices and the karma those actions create.

A man deliberately said something bad about his Rabbi that was completely false and therefore, ruined the Rabbis’ reputation.  He then felt bad for what he had done and consulted his Rabbi as to what he should do to “make it right.” The Rabbi told him to come back the next day with a feather pillow.  When the man came back with the pillow, the Rabbi took the pillow outside, cut it open and let all the feathers fly out of the pillow. The wind carried the feathers all over the place.  The Rabbi told the man, “Each feather represents someone to whom you told the lie, or someone who heard about the lie from someone you told.  The only way for you to undo what you have done is to collect each feather and put it back in the pillow.” The man was very sincere in his desire to repent, so he immediately went about trying to collect the feathers.  But the next day he returned to the Rabbi with only a half filled pillow case and told the Rabbi that it was impossible to collect all the feathers.  The Rabbi said, “Exactly. You can never fully remedy an attack on someone’s reputation.”

In Closing

As illustrated by the story of the Rabbi, negative karma is quite hard to resolve.  Most of us like to think of quick fixes, like going to confession to absolve us of our sins.  However, the repercussions for negative karma echo on, for years, decades, even lifetimes.  It is sobering to realize how far reaching our choices and consequences for such actions are and how complex it can be.

With that in mind, we work toward watching what we do and yes, we need to be afraid of our own boomerangs.  Remember that “The fear of the Lord (Karmic law)” is the beginning of wisdom.  With that fear, we are careful to only do all that is good and what is right by others and with that as our commitment, we not only stop creating negative karma, we resolve existing bad karma from before, and create good karma with all that is loving toward everyone.

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