Karma is one concept from the East that has made quite a bit of headway into Western culture. It has been defined like this:
- Hinduism & Buddhism The total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.
- Fate; destiny.
3. Informal: A distinctive aura, atmosphere, or feeling: "There's bad karma around the house today." (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/karma)
I find it interesting that there are actually definitions that are different, or not related to “Hinduism & Buddhism,” as if our culture could take a word with such history and revise it however we see fit. Of course, this is what we've done, and unfortunately, it has given rise to much misunderstanding about the function of karma in our lives.
The concept that karma determines the “person's destiny,” as written in the first and second definitions, gives rise to the idea that karma is fatalism or determinism: do good, and good things will happen to you, do bad, and bad things will follow. This is a highly simplistic view of karma and ultimately not very accurate, for as we know, bad things happen to good people, and vice versa. The idea that we do actions and create effects is also a bit of a misunderstanding: when, for example, are you ever going to have the opportunity to start from a blank slate from which your actions will now have effect your future life? Life is constantly effect, one after another. It may be more accurate to say that Karma is actually the “law of effect and cause,” since we will never make a decision independent of effects that have already been put in motion.
Furthermore, since most of us aren't enlightened beings, we have no way of knowing what the karmic result of our action will be. Ever see a tip jar at a coffee shop that said: “Tipping is good karma”? What if the barista takes those tips and buys some heroin, or a knife and stabs somebody? Sorry, you've just created “bad” karma. Your intention was good, though, and that is what is really important. Just don't think your good intentions will lead to good results all the time.
I have found that a good Western word that helps understand karma is “responsibility.” We are responsible, each one of us, for everything that happens in the world. And when I say everything, I do mean everything. It's like the chaos theory example of a butterfly flapping its wings causing a hurricane on the other side of the planet: everything is connected, and since we are so connected, all your actions effect everything else. Now, of course, this inter-relatedness is impossible to fully comprehend, so how could we know the full reach of our actions? We can't. We're not in control. But, we are responsible.
The difference is in the quality of life that we can lead. A life lived as if you were responsible for absolutely everything that happens is a life lived in relationship, a life where what you do really matters. A life that doesn't believe we're responsible for anything is a deeply unsatisfactory life full of an impersonal determinism, cruelly shaping our lives beyond our will, and outside of our agency. Which one do you want to have? Don't get so caught up on what other people's karma is, look at your own. How can you make a difference today if the whole world really does depend on you?
