De-Bitching Karma

“Karma's a bitch.”

This sums up the way most people seem to understand and talk about karma.

For starters I find it kind of funny because based on this definition of karma, the potential bad karma incurred by making such a statement is completely lost on the person saying it.

Karma is not some divine form of reward and punishment that gives us an excuse to judge the behavior of others based on their current circumstances. We shouldn't go around with the idea that we know what's "good karma" or "bad karma". One man could be a paraplegic living on public assistance without a friend or family member around him. Another man could also be a paraplegic but also a millionaire with a nice supportive family around him. Yet both of them are still paraplegics.

The Buddha essentially described karma as action and result, or cause and effect. We have intentions and thoughts that evolve into behavioral patterns and actions. We are then left with a particular kind of experience that is the result of our previous intentions, behavior patterns, and actions. That’s all.

He even said that not everything we experience can be explained by karma, that there are other factors involved that are more physical/chemical/situational in nature. So it's pointless to attribute every single little thing that happens on a given day to how “good” or “bad” we were in some past moment.

So often we think that if someone does something we find hurtful or offensive, we can take comfort in the fact that “they’ll get there's.” Inherent in that kind of thinking is an underlying desire to see someone else suffer because we felt hurt by them in some way. Cultivating within ourselves a desire to see others suffer causes ourselves to suffer more, and by extension we cause more suffering for others.

Everything that happens around us is a reflection of our mind at that moment. So if we feel upset or angered or joyful or bored or content or offended, that experience is the result of whatever we’d been cultivating other consciously or not, starting with our mind. And those thoughts we harbor that generate feelings are like seeds we are planting for future outcomes, whether we realize this or not. The things that go on around us aren’t to blame or thank for our current experience: we are.

How we keep our mind at all times is crucial. We need to be aware of what kinds of thoughts we nurture with our time and attention. Noticing what kinds of thoughts we tend to entertain is the best way to gauge what our karma will or won’t be at some future date.

From the Dhammapada:

1. All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.

2. All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

Use Your Karma Before it uses You

People often whine about "their bad karma"; usually those things they're faced with in life that they perceive as challenges or obstacles. I'm not altogether sure how to make sense of reincarnation or how choices made in the past could end up impacting the future. And it gets pretty dicey when we try to discern the reasons why some people are suffering while others appear to have an easy life. The chain of events that form our lives as they are today are very complex and mysterious so it’s best not to get too caught up in the prequel and instead simply deal with this movie we find ourselves in.

We all have to cope with circumstances that are less than ideal—that just comes with being alive. It doesn’t matter how we got to where we are today because all we have is right now. What matters most is what we do with our present situation.

To borrow the often used analogy, don't stand around questioning where the arrow in your chest came from, just pull it out.

Paying someone to tell you who or what you were in a past life is ludicrous and a waste of time. If you believed you've lived before and want some insight into your past incarnation, then simply look at your life as it is right now. That will tip you off to all of the decisions you made before. Everything comes from something. If you plant an orange seed, you get an orange tree. Just figure it out without attaching to the endless list of possible reasons and stories and explanations.

What we don't realize is that what might look and feel and smell like bad karma could really be our saving grace. The things that suck about our lives are the things that leave us the most room for growth. They can be our tool for awakening so we can better help ourselves and other people.

When we see our karma as nothing but punishment for past deeds, we're more likely to be complacent and fall into self-pity mode. Using use our life situation as an excuse rather than as an impetus to give to the world in some way means that our karma is using us.

So instead of getting wrapped up in how you may have arrived at your own particular version of misery, and why things seem to suck as much as they do, you can take what you have in this life, both the good and the bad, and make use of it.

Use your present situation in life to help other people no matter what it is. At the very least you can pray on your pain in the hopes that no one else has to feel it as you do. Or at the most you can find some way to help alleviate it in someone else.

So instead of letting your karma get the best of you, use it to full advantage and transform it into your own unique means of saving all beings everywhere.

Or for starters, help just one person.