The Law of "Karma" or Cause And Effect

Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind…
what we sow is what we reap.

And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.

Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom …our thoughts, our words, and deeds are the threads of the net which we throw around ourselves.
                                                            -Swami Vivekanada

The third spiritual law of success in the Law of success is the Law of Karma. "Karma" is the both action and the consequence of that action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind. There is nothing unfamiliar about the Law of Karma. Everyone has heard the expression, "what you sow is what you reap." Obviously, if we want to create happiness in our lives, we must learn to sow the seeds of happiness. Therefore, karma implies the action of conscious choice making.

You and I are essentially infinite choice makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices. Some of these choices are made consciously, while others are made unconsciously. But the best way to understand and maximize the use of karmic law is to become consciously aware of the choices we make in every moment.

Whether you like it or not, everything that is happening at this moment is a result of the choices you've made in the past. Unfortunately, a lot of us make choices unconsciously, and therefore we don't think they are choices – and yet, they are.

If I were to insult you, you would most likely make the choice of being offended. If I were to pay you a compliment, you would most likely make the choice of being pleased or flattered. But think about it: it's still a choice.

I could offend you and I could insult you, and you could make the choice the choice of not being offended. I could pay you a compliment and you could make the choice of not letting that flatter you either.

In other words, most of us – even though we are infinite choice makers – have become bundles of conditioned reflexes that are constantly being triggered by people and circumstances into predictable outcomes of behavior. These conditioned reflexes are like Pavlovian conditioning. Pavlov is famous for demonstrating that if you give a dog starts to salivate when you just ring the bell, because it has associated one stimulus with the other.

Most of us, as a result of conditioning, have repetitious and predictable responses to the stimuli in our environment. Our reactions seem to be automatically triggered by the people and circumstances, and we forget that these are still choices that we are making in every moment of our existence. We are simply making these choices unconsciously.

If you step back for a moment and witness the choices you are making as you make those choices, then in just this act of witnessing, you take the whole process from the conscious realm into the conscious realm. This procedure of conscious choice making and witness is very empowering.

When you make any choice – any choice at all – you can ask yourself two things: first of all, "what are the consequences of this choice that I'm making?" In your heart you will immediately know what these are. Secondly, "Will this choice that I'm making now bring happiness to me and to those around me?" if the answer is yes, then go ahead with that choice. If the answer is no, if that choice brings distress either to you or to those around you, then don't make that choice. It's as simple as that.

There is only one choice, out of the infinity of choices available in every second, that will create happiness for you as well as for those around you. And when you make that one choice, it will result in a form of behavior that is called spontaneous right action. Spontaneous right action is the right action at the right moment. It's the right response to every situation as it happens. It's the action that nourishes you and everyone else who is influenced by that action.

There is a very interesting mechanism that the universe has to help you make spontaneously correct choices. The mechanism has to do with sensations in your body. Your body experiences two kinds of sensations: one is the sensation of comfort, the other is a sensation of discomfort. At the moment you consciously make a choice, pay attention to your body and ask your body, "If I make this choice, what happens?" If your body sends a message of discomfort, then it's not the appropriate choice.

For some people the message of comfort and discomfort is in the area of the solar plexus, but for the most people it's in the area of the heart and ask your heart what to do. Then wait for the response in the form of a sensation. It may be the faintest level of feeling – but it's there, in your body.

Only the heart knows the correct answer. Most people think the heart is mushy and sentimental. But it's not. The heart is intuitive; it's holistic, it's contextual, it's relational. It doesn't have a win-lose orientation. It taps into the cosmic computer – the field of pure potentiality, pure knowledge, and infinite organizing power – and takes everything into account. At times it may not even seem rational, but the heart has a computing ability that is far more precise than anything within the limits of rational thought.

You can use the law of karma to create money and affluence, and the flow of all good things to you, any time you want. But first, you must become consciously aware that your future is generated by your choices you making in every moment of your life. If you do this on a regular basis, then you are making full use of the law of karma. The more you bring your choices into level of your conscious awareness, the more you will make those choices which are spontaneously correct – both for you and those around you.

What about past karma and how it is influencing you now? There are three things you can about past karma. One is to pay your karmic debts. Most people choose to do that – unconsciously, of course. This may be a choice you make, also. Sometimes there's a lot of suffering involved in the payment of those debts, but the Law of Karma says no debt in the universe, and everything is a constant "to and fro" exchange of energy.

The second thing you can do is to transmute or transform your karma to a more desirable experience. This is very interesting process in which you ask yourself, as you're paying your karmic debt, "What can I learn from this experience? Why is this happening and what is the message that the universe is giving to me? How can I make this experience useful to my fellow human beings?"

By doing this, you look for the seed of opportunity and then tie that seed of opportunity with your dharma, with your purpose in life, which we'll talk about I the Seventh Spiritual Law of Success. This allows you to transmute the karma to a new expression.

For example, if you break your leg while playing sports, you might ask, "What can I learn from this experience? What is the message that the universe is giving me?" perhaps the message is that you need to slow down and be more careful or attentive to your body the next time. And if your Dharma is to teach others what you know you know, then by asking, "How can I make this experience useful to my fellow human beings?" you may decide to share what you learned by writing a book about playing sports safely. Or you may design a special shoe or leg support that prevents the kind of injury you experienced.

This way, while paying your Karmic debt, you will have also converted the adversity into a benefit that may bring you wealth and fulfillment. This is the transmutation of your karma into a positive experience. You haven't really gotten rid of your karma, but you are able to take a karmic episode and create a new positive karma out of it.

The third way to deal with karma is to transcend it. To transcend karma is to become independent of it. The way to transcend karma is to keep experiencing the gap, the self, the Spirit. It's like washing a dirty piece of cloth in a stream of water. Every time you wash it again and again, and each time it gets a little cleaner. You wash or transcend the seeds of your karma by going into the gap and coming out again. This, of course, is done through the practice of meditation.

All actions are karmic episodes. Drinking a cup of coffee is a karmic episode. That action generates memory, and memory has the ability or the potentiality to generate desire. And desire generates action again. The operational software of your soul is karma, memory and desire. Your soul is a bundle of consciousness that has the seeds of karma, memory, and desire. By becoming conscious of these seeds of manifestation, you become a conscious generator of reality. By becoming a conscious choice maker, you begin to generate actions that are evolutionary for you and for those that are around you. And that's all you need to do.

As long as karma is evolutionary – for both the Self and everyone affected by the Self – then the fruit of Karma will be happiness and success.