Karma - The Truth About What It Is
By Marti Angel, MA

I’ve always thought that Karma was an evil curse and something that we were all destined to have no matter how hard we tried to change it. And essentially, that is what it is. As I began my career as a yoga instructor and a meditation coach, I realized that I needed to get a handle on what karma is and what it entails. This became especially important to me during a very difficult and trying time in my life. I suddenly found myself in a created situation that directly involved me, but was done without my direct input.

I wanted to know what contributing factors were causing such karma. What, besides my thoughts were playing a part in all of this? What was this debt I was paying for and how did it get so convoluted and painful? How did I end up with it? So, I began researching the subject in hopes of finding answers to all my questions. Immediately, I realized that many folks know what Karma is but don’t quite capture the true essence of it. I wanted an explanation that could be understood by everyone, even a child. What I was looking for was the “child version” of karma. Here is what I found:

Within my research I found that karma is a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do. This tells me that Karma is everything that I have done in this lifetime or past lifetimes. I could have brought some debt with me into this lifetime some karmic debt that needed to be repaid. It also means that all my current actions will turn into karma when they become my past. This includes my future actions and the effect that they will have when they become my past.

Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward; karma simply deals with what is. The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy it brings to others. So what does Karma really mean? Is my Karma exclusively causing my current reality or is there a mix of someone else’s Karma mixing with mine? As I began to think about it and with further research I took to reading and rereading the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjili.

Then I realized that there are many types of karma that interact with each other in unison creating our current situations. The primary Karma creating current events in our life is personal karma. Karma that you are creating and that you have brought with you from past lifetimes. There is situational karma, the karma attached to situations happening to you right now due to the interaction of the karma of the people involved. There is universal karma, karma that is out of our direct control and that comes as a direct result of the universe. Even the planet Earth has its own karma.

All of these karmas seem to mesh together to create your current reality. Then there is “free will” that gets put into the mix and makes things even more complicated. So it makes sense then to know that this is not an evil curse but a mix of wills, if you please, that jumbles all together to create our world and reality as we are living in this moment. With all of this knowledge I wondered how I could affect my karma to insure that I get the most positive results. I realized that there is one thing that I can do to insure that I create the best of all worlds for myself. “ Do unto others as I would have them do unto me”. Sacred words to live by.