People think that Karma means something like, “What comes around, goes around.” Meaning, if you do bad things, then bad things will happen to you, in a cause and effect manner, like punishment. Punishment is a human concept, not a spiritual one though, and Karma is a spiritual concept.
The literal meaning of punishment is adding or subtracting something to get something else to stop. It does not work on humans well. It might be able to control a human for a time, but does not affect lasting change. Experiential learning, on the other hand, is exactly how humans learn. When something happens that touches our minds, our hearts, and/or our souls we learn, we grow, and we make an effort to change. While there is a potential that punishment can have a spiritual effect on someone, it is very unlikely to do so. Having an experiences that touch you though, that is a spiritual effect with lasting effects and the most potential for change.
There is a causality to Karma, but in a spiritual sense, not a human sense. Karma’s causality is from a divine energy of spirit and is a gift to us. If we do something that is hurtful to ourselves or another person, we will be given an opportunity to learn about that at a future date. We will be given an opportunity to develop a skill to avoid being hurtful in that way again. If we do wonderful and supportive things for others and ourselves, we will also be given opportunities to continue to practice those skills and gain more connections and positive experiences to reinforce our abilities.
Things are not so much good or bad. Our purpose is to be connected, find our way back to one another and form spiritual bonds. When we do something that separates us, we will be given opportunities to repair the bonds, grow the connections, or learn something new that will lead us to be better at staying connected in the future. Think about how when something bad happens to you. You have the greatest opportunity to ask for help. Do you? When your life is going smoothly, and you do not need anything and are happy, do you have someone to share that with? Both are opportunities to find ways to connect. The choice is up to you. Will you take the opportunity?
So much of what we see in our lives feels like it is bad and happening just to punish us for something we may or may not even know we did. It is not like that. Punishment for the sake of punishment is not helpful for learning. It’s just hurtful. Having an experience, that might also be painful, and also brings you closer to something you need to know, isn’t punishment. It is there for you, to educate, uplift, draw you close, find your voice, practice patience, practice compassion, learn about love, learn about unconditional love, etc. You have chosen this life and the kinds of things you will experience within it. Now all you have to do is figure out what each thing is for.
I keep asking myself, “How many times will I have to experience this pain, or how long will I have to experiences this pain?” The answer I always receive is the same, “Until I am grateful for it, and have gotten from it what it was placed there to give me.” The longer it takes me to figure out what the pain is there to give me, the longer it will persist. The more I do not learn a lesson from something that happens, the more likely it will be that it will keep happening. I also say to myself, “Let’s learn it right this time, so we don’t have to do that again.”
Karma is not about punishing you. It is about bringing you gifts to enhance your experiences of life and provide you with opportunities to fulfill your purpose. Your current actions will determine what future experiences you need to have to enhance your life and to fulfill your purpose. You also get to choose how to see and use each experience as it happens For you.
Mantra for the day: I embrace the Karma in my life that brings me opportunities to learn and fulfill my purpose and passion. I choose to see each experience as the gift that Karma will always be, FOR me.
Namaste, I cherish the connection we build together through Karmic relationships.