Today I want to try and answer the question what is karma? You find me in a state of contemplation, deeply reflecting on my journey as a personal development blogger. I was asked ‘do I believe I’ve made a difference?” It was then said, I know you share your passions for everything within the realms of personal development, but “do you genuinely believe you’ve changed one single life?”
Now I know the answer to these questions, but feel that someone’s private thoughts and gratitude to me is for my personal appreciation not something that should be utilised to bang my own drums. I look at other life coaching sites and see their testimonials, and ask myself is how we have been of service to others more important than what we can do for a specific individual with their own personal criteria. I believe not.
Where this entire discussion has taken my thinking is to consider the word ‘karma.’ Now what is karma?
Please don’t expect either a philosophical or religious explanation at this point. Others can do that far better than I. Like with everything in life I look at things from my perspective, and how I believe they affect many others.
Karma is defined as the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in… as well as being destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.
It refers to the results of a person’s actions as well as the actions themselves. We have all heard the expression ‘cause and effect’ and this is pretty much, in laymen terms, what karma can be described as. What happens to a person, happens because they caused it with their actions. It makes a person responsible for their own life, and how they treat other people.
Other common expressions that come to mind are “what goes around comes around” or “as you sow, so shall you reap.”
Depending on one’s actions, one will reap the fruits of those actions, either good or bad depending on the nature of the actions performed. Karma, put simply, is the cumulative positive or negative result from your thoughts, actions, and reality creating as that result affects your present reality.
Everything we say and do determines what’s going to happen to us in the future. Whether we act honestly, dishonestly, help or hurt others, it all gets recorded and manifests as a karmic reaction. That’s why life should be beautiful and what we do should always be beautiful, elevating our soul and those of those we touch.
I see Karma close in nature to the law of attraction, a natural law that contributed in a large way to changing my life. The phrase “like attracts like” sums up the law of attraction. Our minds are like magnets that attract whatever we give our continued attention to. Everything that comes into our lives is attracted by the thoughts and images we hold in our minds. Our thoughts influence our lives, so whatever we think about most will eventually manifest.
As long as karma is both for you and for those around you then the fruit of karma will be happiness and success. Do good onto yourself and on to others. It does at points sound like I’m preaching a sermon, but I assure you I’m not, but maybe subjects like this really show us there is a strong inner power running through us whatever it is we want to call it.
Since our evolution is endless, and we are forever growing, we’ll never stop moving through experiences and gleaning wisdom from them, but realise karma and the law of cause and effect is always at work in your life. Make your words, thoughts, deeds enriching and inspiring for you and those who you influence and it really will then work for you in such a beneficial way.
I am privileged that others trust me with their lives. They allow my words, my thoughts, my advise to move them, inspire them, raise them to action. Through sharing my passions, using my knowledge, using my training I serve others and know the karma we often share spreads further than even we can measure.
Life can be so special when you are sensitive to the meaning of how impacting what you do can be. I want to say again “do good by others … life will be brilliant!”
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Thanks Larry for the post.
It seems a bit unfortunate to me that the law of attraction has become so misunderstood. I see questions on the net like how can I use the law of attraction to grow a better garden or can I use the law of attraction to get my dog to stop scratching (not really).
Your explanation of how karma parallels the law of attraction just makes sense. And just as good karma is gained and lost over time, the law of attraction also takes time.
I believe the law of attraction and karma can be compared with cause and effect. Or even the physical law that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is not magic but truly science.
Thank you Dick for your Comment. I firmly believe in the Law of Attraction, and know what an influence it has had on my life. What i am in complete agreement with you on is how it has become so misunderstood, and much of this is down to how many have taken this wonderful principle but used it as a tacty sales and marketing ploy. It’s like The Secret, a book i loved, yet so many people have used this as a method to make money by offering the earth but in truth giving very little. People must understand as a universal law it not only makes sense, it works for us.