Empower Yourself with Karma [Article]

You Control Your Karma

If you understand karma correctly, it is incredibly empowering. 

Many people think of karma all wrong—as though it is some inescapable fate thrust upon us that we are powerless against. It is the complete opposite. Karma is the epitome of agency.

Karma is a law. This means that it is non-discriminatory, not morally based, and does not make a mistake. If we understand how this law works, then we can use it in a beneficial way. Karma is as real of a law as physical cause and effect. The only difference is that the physical law is functioning at the material level and the karmic law is cause and effect functioning at the immaterial level of the mind. This makes it far more subtle. 

Physically, it is clear that if you give something the right conditions, say, a plant, it will grow predictably. The same is true with karma. Every action produces a predictable result, except the result can be stretched out far more in time. It may take lifetimes to ripen. 

The law of karma states that what you give, you receive. This is exactly the opposite of the functioning of the physical world. When you give something to someone physically, you no longer have it. But on the mental level, what you give out is exactly what will come back to you….eventually. 

Regardless of how long it takes, it remains true that every action—including all thoughts and deeds—produces a result. 

So how is this empowering? In every moment, you are creating karma. Karma is not just something from the past. It is being created in every second. So the question is, what kind of karma are the actions you are taking right now creating? You have 100% agency to choose your thoughts and actions. If you choose positive thoughts and actions, you are setting positive karma in motion. 

Karma Creates Imprints 

Of course, things do become a bit more complicated. It is not so easy to always choose positive actions. It is within your power, for sure, but it requires energy and awareness. This is because when karma manifests, it is experienced as an imprint. 

When you behaved in a certain way in the past you created an energetic stamp or pattern, and that pattern affects the energetic flow. The river of energy-consciousness is no longer free and unobstructed. Rather, a boulder is in the way, diverting the energy in a particular direction. Therefore, you find you are pulled in that direction, have a predisposition to react a certain way, a tendency to be triggered by that thing. 

Much of our behavior is unconsciousness. We are just running programs, following the tides of the karmic imprints that we laid out for ourselves in the past. In this way, we keep reinforcing our karma. More of the same leads to more of the same. 

To come out of this trance we need to become truly present and mindful in the present moment. In the powerful present moment we have a choice. We can choose to become conscious and question our habitual reactions. We can choose to act differently. 

And then, once you have created new habits of action, then you have turned this self-reinforcing principle to work in your favor. Positive actions bring positive results and positive results bring more positive action. 

Karma is Created Through Action

Karma means action. Karma is not something that happens to us. It is something we create through our actions. Ultimately, only you chose your actions. No one can choose them for you. So, what do you choose? 

As my teacher Tulku Lobsang says. “Today’s mind affects tomorrow’s mind.” How will your mind be today? What karma will you choose to create? 

It’s up to you.