The Concept of Karma

I see an innocent person charged with an offence and feel disturbed. This isn't fair. How can such things happen?

Unfortunately some people do bad things and get away with it while innocent people might end up carrying the blame.

I often fall back on the concept of karma as a way of rationalising what happens around me. Perhaps the innocent person's soul agreed to come into this lifetime and have this experience. There is some unfinished business that this person needs to deal with. 

While there is no way for me to know that karma is really the cause, thinking this thought removes any strong reaction that I might have to the situation.  And for that I am very grateful.

Reincarnation

I was in a meditation group in the early 1990’s and one night read a statement in a magazine lying open on the table. It said that if there is an area that you don’t get right this lifetime, you’ll have to come back in another lifetime to try again. This was an interesting thought to me and has made me more conscious of aspects of my life that I’m not quite gelling in.

Reincarnation makes a lot of sense to me. I can’t say that I believe it, because there’s no way of proving that it is real. But whether or not it is the way things work, the concept can be used to explain so much about what happens to us. 

If we meet someone who feels familiar, perhaps there has been a past life connection. What might look like an unfair situation of someone receiving a lot of money leaving the other person penniless might be a karmic payback for a past reversal of fortunes. Phobias of heights, enclosed spaces and snakes could be the result of experiences in past lives.

The concepts of karma and reincarnation can help when we are overcome by strong emotions. If someone is no longer with us and guilt is playing on our mind, we can take comfort in the thought that there might be opportunities in future lifetimes to address any remaining issues.   

It doesn’t matter to me whether reincarnation is real or not. I look for karmic explanations of what is happening around me but generally don’t discuss these explanations with others. Karmic considerations contribute to a more peaceful mind which is what I’m looking for.