Today I want to write a bit about karma and what it means to me.

I think that many people misunderstand the concept of karma.  I use to think karma was something akin to a cosmic order of things, or the notion that if I did something bad the universe might be out to get me one day....when I least expected it.  On the other hand, if I did something good, I might get lucky and hit the lottery, find my soulmate, or become famous.  Bascially, I thought karma was a metaphysical "what goes around comes around".

Nowadays followers of "The Secret" would have you believe that all you have to do is think positive thoughts and fortune will smile favorably upon you.  Do you want to win the lottery?  Now all you have to do is believe that you will strike it rich, and you will!!!!

I am not here to cast stones, and I am even openminded to the idea that anything is possible.  But, in my life, the only thing that has had any lasting effect is the actions that I've taken, the habits that I've changed.

So what does this have to do with karma? 

Well, despite its trancendental underpinnings I believe karma to be simple cause and effect.  It is the concept that every single second affects the second after it.  When applied to my life, it means that the thoughts that I entertain affect the personality that I have.  It means the choices I make affect the person I will become and the life I will have.  It means that my future is being created and altered in profound ways through the seemingly insignificant events of the present.

When I think about the concept of karma I always get a mental image of an object traveling in space, like if Neil Armstrong had taken a Rawlings baseball up to the moon and chucked it out into the void.  That ball's momentum, left unchecked, would send it on a straight path.  However, if it bumped into some tiny stardust particles along the way, changing its trajectory ever so slightly (by 1/10000000 of a degree), in time the ball would have changed course by millions of miles.

In the end, the people who do bad things may have a kick-in-the-butt coming, but I believe it comes in the form of their own concience, the state of their lives, or other consequences of their actions.  People who believe they will succeed may infact be more prone to succeed, but it will be because of the actions they took to get there.

But then again, this is just my belief (and I don't claim to be right).  I'd certainly be interested to hear what other people think.