Understanding Karma

and its role in my writing

A wonderful place.

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My understanding of Karma is in process. Like so many other things…

Until recent years, Karma was a state brought on by willfully causing harm to others. It was something that people had, like a disease. It seemed to be a consequence of a single act. The curse of “bad karma” could haunt you, showing up as falls and accidents, or as punishment in the afterlife.

And sometimes karma was just your fate, predetermined and beyond your control.

And then there was the video of a song by Culture Club called “Karma Chameleon,” which in the 80s when I first saw it on MTV, the title of the song seemed like nonsense words to me. The video consisted of a multiracial group of people on the Mississippi river boat in what appears to be the 1800s. Quotes of Boy George says the song is about the alienation and the symbolism of the colors red, gold, and green are about diversity. Maybe Boy George’s intention was to use the song to change our American historical karma? Confusing. But I do appreciate the magical thinking.

If you're really a mean person you're going to come back as a fly and eat poop. -Kurt Cobain

Buddhism teaches that all things happen as they should. Meaning, when you say something “shouldn’t” have happened that is a false understanding of how things work. Things that shouldn’t have happened, don’t, and everything that has happened, should have, because causes and conditions have all worked together to lead up to that moment in time.