What is karma?

Throughout my life i have met a lot of people who have proudly claimed their "belief" in karma, a philosophy that if you do good things, then good things will happen to you. In one sense this obviously good, sharing mentality could be in itself viewed as selfish, that the only motivation for "giving" is the reward, albeit indirectly, handed back by karma. This in many respects fits with human natures own tendency, as even the most altruistic of actions can be seen as being "selfish" if you consider the overall feeling of well-being as something of a reward.

It would be very cynical of me, however, to judge the generous acts of obviously nice people in such a way as selfish. For what its worth, followers of the karma principle are generally good people.

But what of the belief in some sort of mystical force that exists around us in the form of so-called karma? There can be no doubt that in our society shit things happen to good people, while good things happen to shit people. Its just the way of the world. Karma has been a bit of a twat to me over the years, and there are plenty of people far less fortunate than myself.

This isn't to say that the fundamental principle of karma should be ignored, after all there is a kind of truth in it. If i do good things to those around me, then hopefully i will find myself around other good people who will share the same ideal and in turn help me out when i need it. Likewise its always nice to know that a "favour" may one day be returned in some form of kindness.

Similarly, if my own actions can inspire someone else to follow this ideal then sure enough altruism in society will increase. If me giving you back that £5 note that just fell out of your pocket inspires you to do the same thing when you see someone else drop some money then that is in itself karma taking shape. Should this continue forever then eventually that karma spirit will eventually come back around.

Of course the reality is very different, i have found and returned several mobile phones but whenever i've lost one it has never come back to me. Not that i would change my actions, returning someone's phone is not something i do for reward but simply because i consider it the right thing to do.

Ultimately though, i see no sense to "believe" in karma, even though i follow the principles of it. It comes with atheism, not just a disbelief in God but indeed any sort of superstition. The fact is that we are all just people living our own lives and there is no unseen force deciding our fate. Adopting a policy of following karma will not in itself bring us good fortune, but living a good life can be of benefit to us and those around us. Selfish acts will continue to be rewarded in shallow materialistic ways but selfless acts will reward us in ways that can not be so easily defined.

There is no need to imagine any sort of mystical force in order to justify or explain our actions, especially when those actions are inherently good. We dont need to believe in karma to be nice to each other, we can just do it because its right.