"You have bad Karma!"

Did you know that karma isn't necessarily a negative thing?

I often hear people around me use the word “karma” when something bad happens, as if it were a punishment for something they said or did.

In fact, the term “karma” comes from the Sanskrit word “karman,” which means ‘acts’ or “actions,” and therefore, by definition, encompasses all of the actions we take on a daily basis.

However, when these actions are human, they cannot be perfect. We always make mistakes at some point, which inevitably leads to imperfections in the process or the result, something negative that disrupts the order.

For example, when Adam and Eve disobeyed, they “created” karma that caused them to be expelled from the Garden of Eden: but this shift, this departure from order that leads to regression, this “chaos,” has as its consequence and counterpart a return to order and balance, whether from one life to another (if we believe in reincarnation) or at a certain period in our current life.

Finally, our Karma does not only impact our own lives, but can also have an impact on the lives of others, in the same way that our actions can affect others, change their decisions or influence them.

The concept of Karma is sometimes linked to the question of “mirror neurons” studied by science. Rather than a ruthless fate that punishes us with negativity or positivity as punishment for our good or bad actions, it is more the result of our behavior that ends up attracting similar experiences or attitudes, pleasant or unpleasant, in our daily lives.

Sources : 

Johannes Bronkhorst, Karma, University of Hawaii Press, 2011

BTLV, “L’antitradition” de Paul-Georges Sansonetti