I think, like many you might have a incorrect understand the concept of Karma.

Most people equate the word with idea of justice. Karma is not justice, which is a man-made concept that does not exist in nature. Karma is not a looming punishment or form of retribution. It is not meant to scare or threaten you with bad consequences for your ill-intended actions. Neither does it reward you with a winning lottery ticket a week after you helped an old lady cross the road. There is no such thing as “Instant Karma”.

The Buddha explained karma as “this arises, that becomes.”  Alan Watts translates Karma as “The interdependent origination of all the forms and phases of life.”

Some explain Karma as being a kind of cause and affect or translate it the word to mean action. Kicking a stone and breaking your toe is a kind of karma. The broken toe is not a punishment but a consequence of the flow life that is not personal. It gets more complicated as karma relates to the life, death, life cycle, the cycles of life, Life AS IT IS…

With regards to reincarnation (which from one perspective occurs within every breath you take) Ones ‘Karma’ shapes what a person is capable of seeing  and experiencing… being reborn into.

“Karma” shapes a person level of awareness. We tend to see what we expect to see or more often what we fear to see. We can’t easily change/influence what we can’t see… so we repeat = suffering…  Which is where all the various Buddhist practices come in.  To end the cycle of karma, we need to ‘awake’ and become conscious, so that we might ‘see’ (experience) life as it is. Fully entering into the flow of life, detached yet engaged… joyful suffering… which is a very difficult paradox to hold.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Peter.