All About Karma

We've all heard the saying "karma is a bitch." People often talk about karma in the sense of someone bad "getting what's coming to them." But there's more to it than that. Karma means every action you take is a cause that results in an effect that comes from that action. Karma is not an inherently negative force. In fact, it is neutral, something that just exists as a structural element of everyone’s life.

Nature obeys universal laws. Natural laws don't discriminate--they are impartial. Just like gravity is a law of nature, life follows the law of karma. Actions lead to reactions. Your actions have corresponding effects on your future.

Literally translating to "deed" or "action," karma makes it clear that all actions have their consequences. Sometimes, this happens very quickly, and you can see the immediate effect of your thoughts and actions. Sometimes, though, this happens for years or even lifetimes in the future. Karma has no deadline.

And action doesn't just mean your physical acts. Action encompasses your thoughts and intentions. Your current world is the result of thoughts, words, and actions of your past. 

According to Psychic Paulina, a good way to understand karma is as a cycle, a wheel, an ever-turning and changing system of balance, checks, and counterbalances. “As inescapable as karma is, it’s not really something to avoid or fear, but rather something to adhere to and adjust with. A really nice way to understand karma is to look at it as a school for life. Karma fully expects us to graduate from this life school and move on up into higher realms of Heaven where there is more vibrancy and resonance, and more freedom from the physicality of simply living. As such, karma sets up lessons and courses for us to follow and adhere to. We simply pass the quizzes and tests, we turn in our homework, we attend the lectures, or we fail. It’s our choice. It’s our option to live as we please. However, in the system of karma, we will reap the side-effects of our choices, both life-affirming or life-diminishing.” 

The idea of choice is key to karma because everything you’re currently experiencing is a direct result of a choice you made previously. Past choices manifest in present circumstances. You experience the results in the environment around you, your relationship to your body, and how you understand relationships with others. Indeed, sometimes the present is surprising, and it’s not automatically clear how you chose the result. Karma helps you understand this.

The consequences of your karma can take two forms. Phalas, or results, are the visible or invisible effect that usually happens immediately or in your current life. Samskaras, however, are totally invisible. They are produced inside of you. The karma affects your happiness or unhappiness in your current life and future ones.

Additionally, there are three types of karma in Yoga and Vedanta teachings. You experience prarabdha karma during your present life. Sancita karma is the reserve of karma that has not come to fruition yet. Finally, Agami karma is the karma you create in your present life that will come to fruition in a future life.

What does this mean for your existence? It functions through the repeated process of rebirth. Actions, whether they're good or bad, create impressions or habits in your mind. This leads to more action and more karma. The subtle or energy body holds the seeds of karma, while the physical body is the site where karma is experienced. Painful situations in the present are the direct result of bad actions in the past, though the link might not be clear to the naked eye.

Over the course of a lifetime or lifetimes, we make mistakes. We break a trust, tell a lie, or treat someone badly, and the karmic debits start to accrue. It may be helpful to think about karma as a bank account. Good deeds are credits, bad deeds are debits. There are times when our karmic balance tips to the negative, and so we accumulate some karmic debt. Often this debt represents a lesson we need to learn but haven't quite identified in order to make appropriate reparations. When we are unaware of the debt, we may carry it with us to the next lifetime.  

While we don't always know the karmic debt we are up against, we can keep our karmic balance positive through actions which are kind, honest, and pure in their intention. Keep filling your karmic account with good deeds, and you'll earn it back in positive karma, with interest.

Karma is life’s beautiful way of balancing our soul’s growth and allowing us to understand the other point of view. Compassion is built upon empathy and we can only empathize with someone or something when we understand what they are going through. It may come about in this lifetime or in one of our next lives. 

We only fear what we don’t understand, and this fear causes us more suffering than it does the person or thing we are judging. When we can understand why someone has done or is doing something, we can make decisions based on compassion – not judgment. Remember judgment is fear-based and comes from our ego self, whereas compassion is love based and comes from our soul. The spiritual meaning of karma allows us the opportunity to view ourselves and others through the eyes of forgiveness and compassion. This does not mean we allow ourselves or others to continue in destructive, abusive, or evil ways but instead have the self-power to change our behavior or walk away from those who abuse us.

Psychic Paulina explains that when we will not see or accept life lessons, karma will turn up the experience. “Karma will cycle back around again and again until we WILL allow the lessons to become part of our wisdom and understanding. We will reap what we sow. In this way, the lesson itself IS THE MEDICINE. This point cannot be emphasized enough. The lesson, the pain, the grieving, the hurt, the broken heart, the sadness…This is your prescription. The lesson and all the emotion, the confusion, the chaos…This is the medicine. The same is correct for the feelings of joy and happiness, of support and of goodness in our lives. It’s not so much good or bad, it’s just experience and we are free to choose how to respond to that experience.” 

She continues, “Karma is not here to punish us. We all are souls made from an all-compassionate, powerful energy of love in its purest form. Although some souls separate from this during their lifetime, eventually they will find their way back to it, even if they are lost souls suffering in self-punishment after leaving this life. Their guides and angels of light are always with them waiting until they themselves realize, that no wrong can ever and will ever not be undone by the power of our truest self – LOVE.”

There is a beautiful quote that “Revenge is like drinking poison and hoping it will harm the other.” This doesn’t happen; it only slowly poisons you on the inside. Your responsibility is the life you are living. This also includes the effect we intentionally bring to others. If that is out of balance, karma will come in to help you see the other side and change the way you treat yourself or others. This goes from harming ourselves and others as well as self-punishment and beliefs that we are not worthy of goodness and love. We are all worthy of love and if it is not learned in this life it will be at our door to learn to embrace in every next life.

“If there is a secret or way to override karma, it has got to be gratitude,” says Psychic Paulina. “When you wish for the pain and suffering to leave you, first take a look at the lesion the feelings have brought you. What have you been able to learn or understand better now that you’ve had this experience? Offer up sincere gratitude for the opportunity to learn, and the situation will fall down and turn to dust.”

Our Advisors have tools and gifts that can aid you in uncovering your karmic debt and guide you to a positive karmic balance. A numerologist can point to karmic lessons you will face in this lifetime based on the numeric vibrations of your name or date of birth. A spiritual psychic trained in the Akashic Records or Book of Life can guide you in meditation to a view to the karmic credits and debits of past lifetimes. A past life reading can give you insight into how your past life's actions translated into your current situation. Our Advisors are able to make a soul connection that will help you overcome your karma and move forward with grace. Talk to an intuitive Advisor today!

For more information about Overcoming Karmic Debt, check out this infographic.