Karma means that you can change your destiny, not simply be ruled by it.
~ Sadhguru

Every so often, I am guided to repost this clarification on Karma,
(the last time was December 2019, as part of the guidance the year 2020.)
originally posted 6/22/2014.

On KARMA:
Many westerners have a misunderstanding of Karma.
It is not “an eye for an eye” or
Punishment or something that is necessarily out of our “control”…
The mechanism that decrees that we cannot evade the consequences of our actions. In reality, karma has nothing to do with reward and punishment.

Karma is not always negative, yet not necessarily positive
Karma is complicated but also very simple.
Karma is more the cycle of cause and effect.

Karma simply means action:
your action, your responsibility.
It is an internal cycle generated by you.

Every action has an outcome.
One action may contain multiple outcomes which arise not just in the present moment but at other points in the future.
These outcomes can be positive or “negative”… remembering that what seems to be a negative today can evolve into a positive.
(Therefore Karma might be considered a neutral)

To Buddhists, karma is non-linear and complex.
Karma acts in multiple feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped both by past and by present actions;
present actions shape not only the present but also the future.
BUT present actions need not be determined by past actions.
In other words, there is free will, although its range is somewhat dictated by the past.

The nature of this freedom is symbolized in an image used by the early Buddhists:
flowing water.
Sometimes the flow from the past is so strong that little can be done except to stand fast,
but there are also times when the flow is gentle enough to be diverted in almost any direction.
Even though the past may account for many of the inequalities we see in life,
our measure as human beings is not the hand we’ve been dealt, for that hand can change at any moment.
We take our own measure by how well we play the hand we’ve got…
being accountable for our actions in this moment,
rather than being a victim of our past…
And blaming “Karma”

Ancestral Karma and Tribal Karma are
also contained within our experiences.
We can certainly feel that flowing water connection when it comes to these.
Our work within our individual Karma helps to shift these broader reaching karmic patterns.

An example of how the one impacts the all, and of how important each of us is to the collective experience.

~ Jill ♥
Channel ☆ Psychic-Medium ☆ Creator