Karma is friendlier than it sounds

The popularized concept of karma is that it’s cosmic payback for doing something wrong. But really, it’s only setting causes in motion and experiencing their effects.

So how can we identify karma in our daily lives? Here’s a fail-proof test: If something happens, it’s karmic, because everything that happens to us is the natural fulfillment of a cause that we set in motion earlier.

Karma isn’t something we have with other people. They’re only providing a backdrop so that we can experience what we’ve set in motion. Their causes and results are dovetailing with ours, but our experience is about us and doesn’t depend on them.

The fact that something is happening in my life right now means that it has a cause that originated with me in the past. Now how should I relate to it?

Karma isn’t personal. It isn’t punishment for refusing to change our behavior. It’s simply the inevitable results of our choices. And we always have the option to either continue on with what we’ve been experiencing or to set other causes in motion, with different results.