Karma is one of those things that you hear so much about, but probably know nothing of. Do good things and good things happen to you, right?
Well, it’s not that simple.
The idea of karma isn’t as linear as do good things, and good things happen. If that was how it worked, life would be cruisy. There would be a direct association between the quality of a person, and the quality of their life, which isn’t necessarily true.
Karma is a whole lot more complicated than that, and a more intelligent system than any of us can comprehend.
I’ve learned a lot about the karmic cycle through my journey exploring some of the unique spiritual pathways this world has to offer.
First off, welcome to the life program. It’s still in the developing stages, there are still lots of bugs, and weird things happen here, but it’s also a privilege.
Make the best of this life, and all the crazy experiences that karma has handed you to work with. At the end of the day, you’re exactly where you need to be in the grand scheme of things, regardless of how painful, or wonderful it is.
Hopefully, this clears up some ambiguity around the topic which guides you to make better, and more empowered decisions in your life.
What is karma?
Karma (कर्म) is a Sanskrit word that originated in ancient India. It refers to the spiritual cycle of cause and effect. You can look at it as a law of consequence, that all energy circulates and returns in various forms, to teach certain lessons.
Karma is a neutral governing energy that acts as a spiritual educational system. It refers to the universal law of cause and effect, action and consequence, which is tied to your soul’s reincarnation and evolutionary process.
You’re here in this body to learn through your experiences for soul growth. Karma is the orchestrating energy that paves out your soul journey. It’s the reason we experience the lives we have, whether they’re of poverty and injustice, or prosperity, love, and abundance.
The life you’re experiencing right now is the result of karmic energy that you’ve inherited from previous cycles.
Over lifetimes, your soul accrues karmic debt, based on actions, feelings, and thoughts that cause you or others suffering. As such, you also burn off karmic debt by experiencing consequences, learning, and growing through it.
Perhaps you hit a series of difficult events that shook your life up. This series of events was based on your karma. You were supposed to experience this and grow in some aspect through it.
How does karmic energy work?
Think of your karma as a seed.
Depending on the energy you water that seed with, it produces the fruit that sustains you.
The fruit of karma is called Vipaka, and it comes in the form of wealth, health, relationships, abundance, and prosperity to name a few.
We put labels on karma from our limited understanding, that it’s good or bad because that’s how we perceive it. But energy is energy. It all serves a purpose in the grand scheme of things.
Karma is a prominent concept found in Eastern religion and a cornerstone of both Hinduism and Buddhism. Even though it’s mostly associated with Eastern religion, the same universal law is present in all religions. A phenomenon we understand as omnism.
The teachings of Christianity state that to get to heaven, you need to be a good person. If you harm, you will be punished. You reap the seed you sow.
Karma is the same concept in a different style of wrapping paper.
Speaking of sweeping generalizations, I would argue that most people who have spiritual beliefs believe in karma and the cycle of reincarnation, while many spiritual teachers, shamans, monks, and yogis also hold the same beliefs.
So what does that tell you?
The idea of heaven, bliss, nirvana, paradise, or whatever name this divine state of light is given is tied to the same idea of enlightenment, in which karma is the road to reach it.
What is Saṃsāra?
Saṃsāra is the cycle of rebirth, learning, and growth that all souls go through to reach liberation and enlightenment.
Souls go through cycles of rebirth to learn certain lessons through the experiences of the organism. Your soul is essentially putting a part of itself into this particular container (the organism), where it acts as a sponge for all the juicy lessons it can learn in this physical dimension.
As souls go through Earth school to learn how things work all over again from different angles until they finally get it, Saṃsāra can be seen as an endless loop of lessons and learning until the soul learns how to transcend the cycle and level up to the next chapter of its existence.
When this vicious cycle of reincarnation ends and your soul breaks free from the karmic cycle of rebirth, moksha is achieved.
Karmic entanglement
Karmic entanglement is the process of matching different souls together based on their karmic prints to undergo particular experiences together. Look at it as a soul contract that is orchestrated by your matching karma (like 2 jigsaw pieces connecting).
Let’s say a lesson you need is to learn how to empower yourself because you have a string of lifetimes where you have been taken advantage of. Another soul needs to understand the consequences of an abuse of power.
Perhaps in your lifetime, you get into a relationship with a narcissist. The relationship ends in a nasty way where you redeem yourself and go on the attack. Suddenly the narcissist winds up in jail after having lost someone he loved. You both learned valuable lessons from the karmic experience you had together.
Different types of karma
During my time backpacking South America in 2016/2017, I met a woman in Quito, Ecuador, who spent some time studying yoga in the mountains. We were talking about karmic energy, and how the phenomenon works.
We can break karma down into three distinct energies. Positive karma, negative karma, and neutral karma. Here we’re going to look at these different types of karma and how they work.
Good karma
Good karma is gained by raising your vibration, and acting, behaving, and thinking from the higher self, which serves, helps, and protects other souls.
We gain good karmic energy by intending good things.
Good karma generally manifests in a way that we perceive as desirable, good, or positive.
For example, treating people with love and respect because you know it’s the right thing to do generates good karma.
Vipaka may manifest in the form of good connections, healthy relationships, meeting other people, or feeling supported, because you’re showing the universe that you are responsible, so the fruit of karma provides gifts, rather than painful lessons.
Neutral karma
Most people think that neutral karma means there’s no good or bad energy.
Neutral karma is the best form of karma to have.
You gain neutral karma the same way as positive karma, but without having any intention to do good. You just do it naturally without even thinking about it.
This is the best type of karma as your energetic outlet is the most pure. You’re not trying to be good, or trying to do good things. You’re just doing them because it feels right.
For example, an elderly man who genuinely wants the best for his grandkids, and is always there for them because he loves them, is gaining neutral karma.
The result of this may be reciprocated love and support from the family, while just experiencing that love and generosity is also a reward in itself.
Bad karma
Bad karma is gained by being unconscious of your actions, behaviors, thoughts and decisions, which causes pain, hurt, and suffering to other people.
Bad karma is when you do things that either deliberately, or vicariously harm others.
It’s gained through self-service and a low vibrational outlet, rather than serving others which aligns with a high vibrational outlet.
Someone who screws over other people to get ahead in their business is gaining bad karma which will have consequences, and lower the person’s vibration further.
Otherwise, if you hurt someone, bully them, degrade them, or prevent them from expanding on who they are, this is going to generate negative karma, through the negative energy you’re creating in other people.
How does karma work?
Let’s break it down.
Negative experiences, in whatever form they take, indicate that there is work that needs to be done on a soul level.
You manifest these negative experiences as a way of saying ‘Oh shit, this doesn’t feel right. I know to NOT go down that road because it sucks’.
In this sense, karma is like a compass. When you veer off track and start experiencing things that aren’t aligned with your higher self, karma is that force that redirects you toward your higher purpose, and pain is the medium to do so.
It’s not like Big Daddy karma is punishing you for being bad. It manifests painful experiences related to your wounds and blocks, which incentivizes you to look at the issue, and work on it.
If you have a lot to learn, you’re going to have some pretty tough experiences here.
For example, if you have a wound of betrayal, you’re going to continue having different experiences related to this particular wound, until you learn from this painful pattern, and transcend the deep-rooted cause of these experiences.
These cycles of pain, suffering, injustice, and hurt are karmic. You’re experiencing them for a reason because you have to understand that pain for your evolution.
Part of your reason for being here is to continue experiencing pain related to these wounds until you gain enough knowledge, experience, and wisdom to transcend them.
Karma orchestrates your experiences
Karma is a powerful energy in the same sense that love is an energy. Karmic energy is responsible for balance, equilibrium, and education of the soul.
Energy transmutes, changes, and manifests, but it can’t be destroyed. This means that energy is recycled into itself in different forms and figures, to have different experiences, for the soul to grow and expand.
Everything is rooted in karmic energy, and this determines what you experience, how you experience it, the people you meet, the struggles you have, and what sort of life you’re reincarnated into depending on what your soul needs to learn, and where you are in the cycle of samsara.
When people die, their soul moves on, but the karmic energy is carried with it. Your soul is then projected into another container which is guided by its karmic energy, and tries again in a different way.
Souls will continue repeating the same lessons in different forms, again and again, until they learn how to transcend those problems and evolve to a point where their divine nature is realized, and it no longer needs to be sent to this three-dimensional school yard.
This spiritual educational system is there to help souls reconnect with that dimension of divine love and singularity, which is the source of all existence.
But you’re not just going to jump from being a broken and wounded person with a lot of issues, straight to moksha. The soul needs to work its way towards that state, in which this education is necessary to understand and access it.
So let’s put it this way. If you’re generally a shitty person, you’re veering off the track of growth and conscious expansion. Therefore, due to the karmic balance, sooner or later, one way or another, this negative energy you’re projecting will come back in some form, whether it’s through the consequences of your actions, or difficulties that are going to manifest.
In a way, by being a shitty person you’re already suffering, as happiness is directly associated with a high vibration, and suffering is directly associated with a low vibration.
If you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, let me dive into it a little.
Vibration is the language of karma
Your vibration plays a big role in karma.
The higher your vibration, the more positive energy you experience. This energy comes in the form of anything we consider good or desirable.
A high vibration corresponds with the higher self, positive emotions, productive thoughts, and empowering beliefs. Things like happiness, love, generosity, gratitude, compassion, and all these qualities and traits we like, are associated with a high vibration.
A low vibration is the opposite. It’s associated with misery and suffering, and anything that resonates with it. Limiting belief systems, destructive qualities and characteristics, greed, jealousy, hatred, fear, the list goes on.
Bad people are suffering as their actions, attitudes, and behaviors are manifestations of their misery. In general, ‘good’ people are happy, and attract more positive things because they have a positive energetic outlet, which is tied to good karma.
When people are in high vibrational states, they act in union with it. Therefore someone who is truly in a high–vibrational state, and experiencing genuine happiness, has no desire to hurt, be selfish, or be anywhere near these low-vibrational constructs.
Why?
Because it makes them feel miserable!
Nobody wants a low vibration, but we all need to work our way up from there.
So when someone is a genuinely happy person, they become a better person, which in itself is cause and effect. When you go into a low–vibrational state, you start suffering as a low vibration is associated with negativity.
When someone is experiencing low–vibrational energy such as anger, greed, bitterness, cruelty, and selfishness, you can bet they’re not happy, otherwise they wouldn’t be acting this way.
Karmic energy is there to help people discover alignment with peace and love, by teaching them the errors of their ways.
Being destructive is not sustainable. Somewhere along this soul journey, they’re gonna have some tough lessons which will become louder and louder until they finally get it, and recalibrate.
Just because you see bad people in good positions, doesn’t mean they’re going to stay that way. They will reap the consequences of their actions, in this life or another.
How does karma teach souls?
If you’re experiencing hatred, or maybe resentment toward a former lover who hurt you, who is losing? You are because you’re fostering those negative feelings.
In this case, karma is wisdom that you gain through that particular experience, which tells you to let it go, and perhaps have more compassion.
Maybe it’s not the lesson you were looking for, but in this case, it’s the only way to let go of the pain and evolve your consciousness.
If you have spent your life as a good person but always struggled with money – in which you didn’t overcome this obstacle in this lifetime, perhaps you’re going to be born into poverty next lifetime.
Your slate isn’t wiped clean just because you died. Since you never transcended that poverty and the misery surrounding it, you’re going to be given another chance to try.
On the other hand, since you don’t have issues around generosity and being friendly, perhaps you will have good social relationships, and have no issues in that arena since you don’t need any lessons there.
If you’re in pain and are in a low–vibrational state, you’re going to keep experiencing low–vibrational lessons. The lessons are going to get louder and more difficult which can create a vicious cycle if you aren’t learning from it, or it can force you to take action and make changes in your life.
But let’s say you still never broke out of that cycle.
In your next life, you will have another shot. Maybe this time, you will be born into extreme poverty, where the issue has now become the entire focal point of your life.
The universe is ramping up the pressure, and forcing you into an experience where it gets so bad, that you have to figure out how to get out of this cycle of feeling powerless and completely unsupported by the universe because you have no alternative. The problem is too loud to ignore.
If you live your life the same way, you will be given another chance, and another chance, and another chance to learn what you need to learn. Every time you get another chance, the universe is going to ramp up the pressure, because you’re still not getting it.
Otherwise, imagine you’re coming from a place of insecurity. You might have a long string of partners who treat you crap, because you’re insecure, you don’t value yourself.
Therefore you haven’t learned your lesson yet, so karmic energy orchestrates these sorts of people for you to connect with, as they are essentially teachers.
Karma’s not going to say Aww, you deserve to be treated better, let’s make life easy. Karma is quite a merciless teacher. It will continue orchestrating the same type of experiences, again and again, until you learn from this painful cycle.
If you’re trapped in recurring patterns in this life, they’re probably karmic.