Karma Living | What is Karma?

The existence of karma has always been there before humans were here, and will be there even after we are gone. Karma is intrinsic to existence itself, rather than being some external force or divine judge sitting somewhere beyond the clouds, rewarding the virtuous and punishing the wicked. This understanding liberates us from the primitive notion of cosmic surveillance and places the responsibility squarely where it belongs, in our own hands. Karma means action, and this simple definition contains profound wisdom that most people overlook in their search for mystical explanations.

Every action we take has its consequences, and every consequence affects our consciousness in ways both obvious and subtle. These consequences are not postponed to some imaginary heaven or hell that awaits us after death, but are experienced right here on this very planet, in this life, in this present moment. The businessman who cheats his customers doesn't wait for divine retribution; he experiences the corrosion of his own integrity, the stress of maintaining lies, and the eventual collapse of trust that forms the foundation of any sustainable enterprise. The mother who constantly criticizes her children doesn't need to wait for cosmic justice; she witnesses the gradual withdrawal of love from their eyes and the erosion of the very relationship she claims to cherish.

It is our conscious or unconscious karma that can create a heaven or hell on this planet itself, and it is entirely up to us whether we want to create this world as a place of suffering or joy. This depends fundamentally on the level of consciousness we live in, because consciousness determines the quality of our actions, and the quality of our actions determines the quality of our experience. When we operate from higher levels of awareness, our actions naturally become more harmonious, more considerate, more aligned with the deeper rhythms of existence. When we act from unconscious compulsion, driven by unexamined fears and desires, we create chaos not only for ourselves but for everyone around us.

The consequences we face in life are a result of both our own actions and other people's actions, creating the complex web of interconnectedness that makes human existence both challenging and beautiful. This complexity is why simple moral formulas often fail to capture the nuanced reality of how karma actually operates.

Actions themselves are consequences of our thoughts, since every deliberate action is a product of conscious or unconscious thinking and deeply ingrained tendencies that have been shaped by countless experiences. Thoughts and tendencies represent a deeper karma because thoughts are also subtle actions of the mind, creating energetic patterns that eventually manifest in the physical world through our behaviors and choices.

Most people wait passively for life to teach them through consequences, but this approach is inefficient and often painful. Every consequence we go through in life can certainly be taken as feedback to improve ourselves, but this will inevitably be a long process since it depends on the specific activities we involve ourselves in and the opportunities that exist around us. Not everyone has the luxury of learning from unique consequences, because many people cannot afford to live a dynamic, long life.

It is far more effective to observe our own mind and read its ways than to wait for the unconscious mind to take action and then wait for the consequence to teach us the lesson. This approach represents the most practical way to deal with karma since the feedback is instant, allowing us to course-correct before our unconscious patterns create irreversible damage. When we develop the capacity to watch our thoughts as they arise, to notice our emotional reactions before they crystallize into words and actions, we gain access to a level of self-awareness that can save us enormous amounts of time, resources, and life energy, which we all cherish.

The mindless and unconscious actions we take not only impact us directly but ripple outward to our surroundings, affecting other people and burdening their minds and karma. This creates a cascading effect where individual unconsciousness contributes to collective unconsciousness, causing the collective karma to become increasingly mindless and destructive. This phenomenon has a compounding effect in shaping society and human lives, creating the conditions for widespread suffering, environmental destruction, and social breakdown. Wars don't start because of political disagreements; they start because masses of people have lost the capacity to think clearly and act consciously, instead reacting from unconscious conditioning and primitive survival instincts.

Growing in consciousness through constant observation of your own karma frees you from these destructive cycles and opens up possibilities that most people never even imagine exist. The most effective way to recognize and transform our karma is to observe our minds and become more aware of the subtle mechanisms that drive our behavior, since this is where all our psychological conditionings lie dormant, waiting to be triggered by the right circumstances. Psychological conditionings are nothing but karma in its most subtle form, patterns of thinking and reacting that were established through past experiences and now operate automatically, below the threshold of conscious awareness.

These psychological conditionings are built through our upbringing, family dynamics, school experiences, societal pressures, corporate culture, social media influences, and countless other environmental factors that shape our perception of reality from the moment we are born. Most people spend their entire lives unconsciously acting out these conditionings, mistaking them for their authentic personality and never questioning whether their thoughts and reactions actually belong to them or are simply inherited programs running on autopilot.

As we grow in awareness and consciousness, not letting the outside world influence us blindly but developing the patience and resilience to swallow the bitterness of confronting the ugliness in our own minds and in the unconscious world around us, we can become part of a silent revolution. This revolution doesn't require protests or political movements; it happens one individual at a time, as people wake up to their own unconscious patterns and choose to live more consciously. Even a small number of people who live in higher consciousness can bring an upliftment in collective karma and contribute to the betterment of society in ways that are often invisible but profoundly transformative.

It is said that one rotten fish spoils the whole pond, which is true considering that the other fish in the pond do not live in awareness and therefore cannot protect themselves from contamination. However, just as one unconscious mind can spoil the collective atmosphere, one awakened mind can bring light to the whole community, creating ripples of clarity and sanity that gradually inspire everyone within their sphere of contact. This is not mere wishful thinking; it is an observable phenomenon that can be witnessed wherever truly conscious individuals choose to live and work.

To be a light ourselves means achieving the level of consciousness where every activity of our mind is under our vision and is not happening out of unconscious habits, tendencies, and compulsions that we inherited from our conditioning. To be a light also requires total involvement in every aspect of our lives so that our actions don't leave any residue to pollute our minds with regret, guilt, or unfinished psychological business. When we live in constant gentle awareness of the noises and sounds of our minds, the internal commentary, the emotional reactions, the automatic judgments, we raise our consciousness every moment and gradually free ourselves from the clutches and chaos of the collective unconscious karma of society.

By being free from our own karma, by being free from our own mind, this mind which is and was the consequence of a collective unconscious society, we become a true individual for the first time in our lives. Perhaps, only a person who is free from society's unconscious conditioning can truly transform society, because they are no longer part of the problem. Meanwhile, others keep on reacting and perpetuating the cycle of unconscious collective karma, creating wars, environmental negligence, divided societies, and fragmented family lives, all while believing they are acting rationally and morally.

By understanding karma as a function of feedback from nature for self-improvement rather than seeing it as fate or destiny, we approach life with genuine responsibility and accountability instead of playing blame games and adopting victimhood as our primary identity. This understanding transforms our entire relationship with existence because we stop seeing ourselves as powerless recipients of random events and start recognizing ourselves as conscious participants in the creation of our own experience. Karma should not be taken as a reward or punishment dispensed by some cosmic authority, but as an opportunity to empower our lives and bring transformation within ourselves and within society.

This perspective turns every challenge into a teacher, every difficulty into a doorway, every problem into a possibility for growth. When we truly understand that karma is simply the universe's way of providing us with exactly the feedback we need to evolve, we stop resisting our circumstances, our mind and start learning from them. We stop trying to escape the consequences of our actions, we stop indulging in mindless activity, and start choosing our actions more consciously. We stop waiting for the world to change and start changing ourselves, knowing that this is the only transformation that is truly within our power and the only transformation that can create lasting change in the world around us.

Grow in Self-awareness