My Karma Tangle

I like to be able to fit things together in a neat, logical way. When I think about Karma, I find myself in a tangle. Karma is the law of cause and effect. I love it. We all face challenges every day, hard challenges. It’s easy for me to get stuck on, “Why is this happening to me?” “I don’t deserve this.”

At first glance, Karma seems to be telling me I’ve brought this on myself. But there’s a way out of that gloom. Maybe, the cause of today’s trouble doesn’t lie in this life. Maybe the challenge has been handed down to me through my parents or from previous generations. (Buddhists usually call this “previous lifetimes.”) In this way, Karma takes me off the guilty hook. No need to beat up on myself, but the challenge is there, what am I going to do with it? “Do I face the challenge, or do I ignore it?” 

Karma has an answer. As the Fram Oil Filter pitchman said, “Pay me now or pay me later.” Deal with it in this life or postpone it to the next. My choice. There’s a karmic debt which will be there until it’s paid. Once I see this, I’ve almost always decided to face the challenge now, get it over with rather than put if off to the future — this life or the next life or the life after that, a demon always hovering in the shadows. Facing fears, embracing demons, moves me forward. No need to worry when the demon will reappear. There’s a special joy in realizing that a debt I’ve settled burdened my father all his life.

For me this is all good stuff, but there’s a tangle. Karma seems to depend on reincarnation. Do I have to believe that I’m going to be reborn for this to work? I’m an agnostic on this next life/past life stuff. There’s a logical conundrum I can’t untangle. Call Karma a myth if you like. It’s a wonderful myth. I act as if it is true, feel the relief, and don’t worry about the tangle.