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Thoughts on Karma

What goes around comes around. You get what you pay for. Treat others the way you want to be treated. These are all aspects of cause and effect. You do something and something else happens. In religious terms, this is known as Karma. Karma is built into the fabric of Hindu theology and was morphed in Buddhism when they split. With Karma, they say there are spiritual forces, fates, gods and tricksters who make things happen in response to your actions. Therefore if I live a good life, Hinduism teaches, my karmic residue will will pull me toward a upper class, good set of parents when I am reincarnated. If I am evil in life, my karmic residue will pull me toward being born a beetle in the next life.

In Christianity, this is Called the law of reciprocity. Luke 6:38 tells us that if we give, it will be given to us. Reciprocity in action. It is easy, however, to take verses like this in the Bible and form a property theology where a person’s relationship with God becomes based on nothing but financial gain.


However, this idea of Karma, reciprocity or whatever you want to call it has been around since the dawn of people. Phrases like what goes around, comes around, is in our vernacular. Hindus would call that Karma. We all know it, but do we do anything about it? Dale Carnegie in his landmark book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” makes the case that you teach people how to treat you and you attract people based on your behavior. Another way of saying it is this: You will attract better people with honey than with vinegar. Be nice to people and people will usually be nice to you.

I am not sure how spiritual this truth is. I am not sure there are fates roaming the world making things happen based on my behavior. I tend to think that God set up the universe with cause and effect at every level, even at the level of attitude and behavior. So if I hit a golf ball with a club it will move.   I can also show that if I am nice and cordial and friendly to people, more often than not people will be nice and cordial and friendly to me. If I am aloof and stand offish and mean, I will have few friends, but if I am nice and generous and gregarious, I might have a few more friends.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed and I can be the nicest and friendliest person in town, and people can still be mean to me and use me and abuse me. That is just life in a fallen world. But generally speaking, if I give of myself, I will attract giving people. If I am nice, I will attract nice people. If I am good, I will attract good people. This has been known for millennia, it is in most every religious book and it is taught in churches, temples, synagogues, business schools and homes.



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