Does Karma Exist?

Karma is a word that has its roots tracing back millennia to the Buddhism and Hinduism religions. It’s also becoming a word that’s being widely used these days as well. I have heard many in recent times using the phrase “karma’a a bitch…” and have often wondered if those people know what they’re really saying when they verbalize those words. Ironically, many of them are doing behaviors themselves that would constitute the concept of bad karma.

So what is karma? Simply put, it’s the law of cause and effect. Or in easier terms, “one reaps what one sows”. I have been delving into understanding this belief much more over the past few years of my life since making the decision to clean my whole life up on every level.

Up until March of 2010, I had functioned in what could be labeled as doing a lot of negative karma daily. I was very selfish and self-centered and went out of my way to get what I wanted at whatever the price, even if it hurt others. My words were often vicious and nasty to those closest around me. I seduced and maintained relationships with married men. I often lied, cheated, and backstabbed to “move ahead” in life. In doing all of this, I took what Christians label as “free will” to the fullest extent possible. But eventually, I grew more and more miserable. In the midst of all that misery, I prayed to God to go through whatever I needed to go through, to rid myself of all the pain I had caused others and myself, so as to heal and never repeat those behaviors ever again. Within a month, my life had become riddled with tremendous pain and has persisted ever since. Many of the healers and practitioners I have seen, as well as the Shaman I currently use as a spiritual teacher, have all said that my pain is the release of all that negative karma, because I essentially had asked for it in prayer.

Given that it seemed like such a big word to me, I chose to understand karma in a much easier way by making it synonymous with the word energy. Good karma became positive energy and bad karma became negative energy where each could be stored in and around my whole being. So during all those extremely selfish years of my life, I believe I took on a lot of negative energy and unfortunately, I wasn’t doing much in the way of putting out the opposite of that with positive energy. What has been even more frustrating is when I think about the idea of reincarnation. Many of those Eastern religions also believe that a soul can be re-birthed again and again, life after life, solely to learn new spiritual lessons and become more enlightened. Having already had a few past life experiences occur about ten years ago, I have accepted truth to this concept as well. Sadly, though that I have had to come to the belief that many of the negative behaviors I was doing in this life, I was also doing in my previous ones as well. Thus, this has led me to believe that my negative energy release process is both of this life and all previous ones.

So far, I really have no hard core proof to the concept of any of this that I am writing about. But frankly, it is something that keeps me going now because there have been no medical or scientific answers to all the pain and suffering I’ve been going through for over three years now. If truly all of what I am going through is the release of all that negative energy I conceived in this life and previous ones as well, I’m totally for it. That’s only because I believe that on the other side of that release process will be a closer relationship with God where I’m not blocked by desires to go out and live in free will and act out more of the “bad karma” I once regularly did.

If anything, I’m trying to put positive energy, or the “good karma”, out into the universe now through most of what I do each day. The main reason why I write articles, such as this, everyday is to send out more love, hope, and spiritual healing into this world. I often speak about my recovery from addictions at places such as hospitals and detox centers to provide that same thing for those still suffering from addictions. I also try to do kind deeds all the time to brighten up other people’s days. But most importantly, I take time everyday to pray, meditate, and recite mantras to assist in my own release process, and I do everything I can to maintain a healthy body, mind, and soul as well.

So does karma exist? I can’t answer that. But what I can answer though is that at least I know I’m doing now what I can to correct all those former behaviors and actions that I did which added nothing but more pain and anguish to the world and myself. And I’m also doing what I can to love everyone equally a lot more than I ever used to. From taking this new path alone, I can at least say I’m a lot happier than I ever used to be when I was doing what those Eastern religions would classify as a lot of “bad karma”.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson