The law of karma is one of the main concepts in Eastern religious and philosophical teachings. What does this concept mean and how exactly does karma affect our lives? Guide Online figured out what karma is, how to determine it by date of birth, whether it can be bad and how to clean it.
Karma in simple words
Put simply, karma is the basic law of the universe. According to this law, everything a person does is reflected in his fate.
According to the law of karma, the present and the future are the result of decisions made in the past. Good deeds have a positive effect on karma and make people happy, while bad deeds spoil karma and destroy life.
At the same time, there is a completely different point of view. Famous Indian philosophers and sages believe that karma does not exist.
If you consider yourself a body, the law of karma affects you. You even try to benefit from it. If you realize yourself as your True Self, the law of karma will have no effect on you," - a quote from the book "Nothing is Everything. Last Talks", Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Moreover, even within Buddhism, there is no single clear idea of how karma works. Some schools of thought believe that only actions affect fate, while others believe that thoughts and intentions do as well. Some currents believe that good actions always bring good results, regardless of what they were motivated by, while others deny this. And there are even those who honestly admit that they have no idea how exactly this or that act of yours will affect your fate, because the law of karma is something much more complicated than a simple "action - reward" system. In short, everything is complicated.
As for modern Christians, they naturally deny classical karma. Because there are no "past" and "future" lives, and the punishment for sin or the reward for righteousness is distributed only after death.
How does the law of karma work?
The law of karma can be described as the law of higher justice. To some extent, it echoes the Christian postulate "everyone will receive according to his merits." If you help people, do not deceive or offend anyone, fate will surely reward you. If you harm others, there will be punishment.
For a visual demonstration of how the law of karma works, the following examples can be given:
Actions speak louder than words. Even if you have good intentions and you tell everyone about it, but you don't put those intentions into practice, that doesn't make you a good person. It is necessary not only to think positively, but also to do good.
Everything matters. Even those actions that seem small to us now can have a big impact on our lives in the long run. People who follow the law of karma understand the importance of each of their actions.
Without acknowledging your past, you cannot create a future. To move forward and change circumstances for the better, you need to consider your past actions. The law of karma requires a person to be able to forgive himself for past sins, while simultaneously avoiding their repetition in the future.
It is necessary to live in the present. The past is in the past, and you can't change it. But if you focus on the present, you can build your future correctly. At the same time, you should enjoy every moment, because we live here and now.
You should treat life positively. People who see everything in dark colors destroy their karma. Life is given to us in order to bring joy to this world. You need to be able to see the light even in the smallest things, no matter how the external circumstances are.
The world should be perceived as it is. Life cannot be fair or unfair. It is mostly as we perceive it. There are also many events that we cannot influence in any way, so we should just accept them.
Patience is the key to victory. The law of karma teaches that no matter how bad the circumstances are, you can never give up. Sometimes you just have to wait - and everything will change for the better.
The only problem is that in both Buddhism and Hinduism, the concept of "bad deeds" is somewhat different from what we consider "generally accepted and universal." It sometimes reaches the point of absurdity. There is such a religious trend in Hinduism - Jainism. It is interesting in that it reduces the postulate of "do no harm" to an absolute. In general, you cannot harm anyone, not even insects, otherwise you will spoil your karma. That's why Jains walk around in masks that cover their mouths and noses, which predicted the fashion of covid for more than a thousand years, and they sweep the road in front of them with brooms. Well, they follow strict vegetarianism, of course. And the fact that in Hinduism the killing of sacred cows, and in some places even sacred rats and monkeys, spoils karma much more than killing a person - there is nothing to say.
Moreover, in the East, they are not even completely sure - whether karma works by itself, as a natural, albeit very complex, cause-and-effect relationship, or it is "weighed" by some deity after death (and often during life) , which already decides on the future fate of the soul.
But the most interesting thing is that the first Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who explained the concept of karma to the masses, taught his close disciples something completely different. He taught them not how to improve karma, but how to get rid of it completely. After all, this is the only way to break the circle of Samsara. Therefore, classical Buddhist monks, who know about karma better than anyone, do not particularly burden themselves with doing good deeds.
What does bad karma mean?
Bad karma is the burden of sins and bad deeds carried by the immortal soul of a person. With each reincarnation in a new body, this burden increases, which becomes the cause of worsening karma.
Signs of bad karma can be mental and physical illnesses, poverty, problems in relations with parents, as well as accidents that haunt a person throughout his life.
And the most unpleasant thing: your bad karma may turn out to be not only yours. The fact is that in some currents of Buddhism, the existence of "ancestral karma" is recognized. That is, all the cargo that the representatives of one family managed to accumulate is added to the karma of each newborn child, as if it had not enough problems of its own. And some go even further, talking about the existence of "people's karma".
How to find out your karmic debt?
Karmic debt is all that negativity that "follows" us from past lives and prevents us from being happy, achieving our goals, and leads to failure in any endeavors.
You can find out your karmic debt using a simple mathematical calculation. To do this, you need to add up all the digits of your date of birth and bring them to a single value.
For example, October 18, 1975. We sum up all the numbers 1+8+1+1+9+7+5, we get 32, then 3+2=5. This is your original life code.
If you got 1, 4, 5 or 7, then you most likely need to work off karma and pay for past sins.
However, it is worth considering that this method is an attempt to tie classical Western numerology to Eastern religious and philosophical ideas. Therefore, the effectiveness of determining karma by date of birth... is not very high.
How much better is direct communication with tymushchy gurus, who work no worse than most modern psychologists. It's just that psychologists are looking for the roots of your problems only in this life, and gurus are looking for the roots of your problems in previous lives as well. But yes, working with a psychologist also helps to get rid of a number of "fresh" karmic problems and move from accumulating negativity to gradually improving the situation.
How to understand that karma has not been worked out?
The following signs may indicate the presence of carmine debt:
You regularly face the same problems (not happy in relationships, not getting along with business, hard to find a job), and your actions to solve these problems are almost ineffective.
You serve other people and are afraid to offend them. If you constantly try to please everyone, help solve some problems, or show concern, this indicates that your karma is "unworked".
You are in a "toxic" relationship . Despite active searches, it is difficult for you to find a person suitable for a normal relationship. Instead, you are constantly "lucky" to come across abusers.
You suffer from loneliness. Due to bad karma, it is difficult for a person to find like-minded people, he does not get along well with others, he has few friends and acquaintances.
Is it possible to clear karma?
Every person can clean up his karma on his own. To do this, you need to follow these tips:
Be positive. If you tell yourself that everything is fine and set yourself up for a positive result, it will be so. If you constantly complain about life and whine - you should not expect anything good from life. After all, thoughts are material.
Do not accumulate resentment. Try to forgive all people who have offended you. This act is on their conscience, not yours. And you were not always insulted on purpose - maybe the person was emotional and regretted it.
Do good deeds. It is not necessary to change the world for the better - start small. Help a neighbor's grandmother deliver groceries, give a homeless person lunch, give a ride to a fellow traveler, etc. At the same time, do good from the heart without expecting a reward.
And yes, we did not use the word "cleanse" for nothing, because it is impossible to completely get rid of the burden accumulated in past lives. In any case, he is and in any case will influence your fate. The only question is whether you can somehow compensate for this impact.
Conclusion
Karma is not a simple action-reward system. No one guarantees you that your good deeds will somehow improve your current life. The next one is most likely, but not current. However, there are benefits to trying to "improve karma". At least psychological. You will be surprised, but most of the advice of the very first Buddha about improving karma for ordinary people is very similar to the recommendations of modern psychologists about the benefits of "positive thinking". So, calmly work on earning your "pluses in karma", dear fellow citizens, it will benefit you!
