“Karma Unbundled”
by Kelvin Chin
Life After Life Expert & Meditation Teacher
I will cut to the chase.
The whole notion of “karma” was a made-up theory by a group of Vedic spiritual leaders about 10,000 years ago. (See 30thNovember.com for details of the group). And “dharma” too. I discuss this in greater detail in my Afterlife & Reincarnation Experiences session on “Punishment and Rewards, Hell, Karma, Dharma and Sin...” (See a description of the Series here.)
What was their intent in creating these theories?
Essentially to help move humankind forward by prodding us to act more kindly, with fewer human sacrifices (ideally, none), and to be less lazy in our behavior and actions. That’s the reason in a nutshell. Again, see the above-mentioned 30thNovember talk if you are curious for more in-depth historical details.
But, back to the theory itself…
So, are there consequences to our actions? Is there karma in that sense? Absolutely yes. Everything we do has consequences.
But there’s no cosmic “accounting system” of “rewards and punishment” given out by some tribunal of godlike judges or by some innate omnipresent energy force (sometimes people will call it “the Universe” or “Mother Nature”).
In other words, karma is not structural. It’s not some independent eternal universal concept — it was a theory made up by a small group of well-meaning spiritual leaders about 10,000 years ago to curb human sacrifices and other extremely hurtful behavior. And then over the millennia, the theory got further conflated and added to by other religious and spiritual leaders who sometimes had less altruistic intent — for more power over others, or to control the behavior of others.
To the point now where billions of people believe they amass “mountains of karma” that may take them millions of lifetimes to get rid of...and that’s only assuming they don’t accumulate any more “bad karma” on a daily basis (which of course they think they are doing)! So they are left bereft, distraught, defeated and depressed. Constantly living in fear and unhappiness. Afraid to live life for fear of making the “millions of lifetimes” become “billions of lifetimes”...
All the while not realizing it was just a theory to start with. Not a pronouncement of some supposed structural universal principle in the universe.
The Perceived Need For Certainty
Why has this “blind” belief in the idea of karma, which has risen to an almost religiously-fevered pitch, become so popular?
Because people want certainty. And they want certainty because their level of inner security demands it. Because we are essentially disconnected within ourselves and therefore insecure, lacking in inner strength.
So we grasp at anything — yes, even a theory like karma — a theory that if we examine it more closely is fear-inflating, and so it really is not in our best interest. But it seems to give us certainty. It gives us a rule to follow — “Don’t do bad stuff or you will get punished with bad karma. Do good stuff and you will get rewarded by chipping away at your pile of bad karma with your good karma.”
And following that rule is seemingly easier than figuring out within ourselves what makes us happy and basing our choices on that. Because that involves “turning within” and each of us looking at our individual desires and emotional patterns — oooooh, way too much work! So, instead we blindly follow some rule.
And the rule — which started out 10,000 years ago as a theory — is perpetuated.
Free Will
But looking at this old theory about karma more dispassionately, it also contradicts Free Will.
Free Will means freedom of choice to make any decision one wishes. That means hurtful or helpful decisions. And, hurtful or helpful to oneself...or to others.
And if that’s the case, it means without restriction. That’s what Free Will means. Otherwise it’s not “free” will.
Again, I’m talking about this from a spiritual standpoint. Not social. Socially, we may decide to have laws or codes of conduct that forbid certain unacceptable, hurtful behavior. I leave that to the social scientists to decide what and how is best to manage our social behavioral issues. So I am not suggesting we should have no prisons for bad actors in our society, nor am I debating whether that is the best means for curbing their bad social behavior.
Instead, I am talking about this spiritually. And the social issue of having societal laws to follow is not the same as an eternal individual soul “amassing mountains of good or bad karma.”
And looking around for even a split second, we can all see examples of the existence of our Free Will. Our ability to make personal choices — even to disagree when told to do something and to make the opposite choice.
Has anyone ever observed the behavior of a 2-year-old child?
So since Free Will clearly exists, and since it does not fit along with the (now) old theory of karma, even from that standpoint — logically — karma must be the incorrect of the two ideas.
Randomness of Life
Life is much more random than most of us realize, or would like to admit.
Yes, we do make our own individual choices. And yes, we should make those decisions in as informed a way as possible, and try to take control of our lives as much as we can. Of course that is true.
However, we must also be equally aware of this unmistakeable fact in life: everything is not within our control. Nor is it even possible that everything would be able to be within our control.
Why?
Because many other minds are always involved, known and unknown, in our lives. Directly and indirectly. Seen and unseen. And their Free Will is always operating — their inherent right to have varying desires and their innate ability to act on those desires. In that sense, there’s an inherent randomness to our lives caused in large part by the constant and ever-changing effects of the Free Will of those many minds.
That is just a fact.
And moreover, would we want it any other way? I don’t think so. Wouldn’t we each rather have our individual Free Will to make our own choices in life? Absolutely yes. I think we would all agree to that.
Well, then that comes with consequences. And the randomness in life, i.e., the lack of full control of everything that happens in our lives is part of that consequence.
No Rewards & No Punishments
No one is rewarded structurally — maybe psychologically, individually and internally — yes, sometimes — but not externally by “the Universe.” And no one is structurally, externally punished by the universe. Said another way: there is no structural place or system of punishment that exists in the system of the universe. It only exists in the minds of some people who choose to believe in that. But that is belief-based. Not based in the structure of reality.
Yes, no exceptions. Not even a universal structural punishment for Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Genghis Khan. They’re only held accountable by themselves and that’s only if they choose to be. That’s what I mean by internally, individually and psychologically. It’s between Genghis Khan and Genghis Khan to figure out his stuff, if he wants to. No external structure is making him be accountable. Yes. Did he piss off women he raped. Absolutely. Are there consequences from those actions? Absolutely. But it’s his choice to work out those relationships in subsequent lifetimes or not. And it’s also those women’s choices to do so with him or within themselves — or not. All have their individual Free Will operating. Always.
(For what would drive such a personality to acknowledge his accountability, see my essay on Transcending Cruelty below.)
Final Thoughts
As we have said, there is no karmic “external accounting system” at play.
After the initial theory of karma was conjured up about 10,000 years ago, that idea was then added to — and conflated further by others — in the subsequent thousands of years.
I hope that helps free you up to enjoy life now with less fear. Discernment and awareness of the consequences of one’s actions is always good — yes — but now we should do the discernment with much less fear. That is the current goal of those who originally created the theory 10,000 years ago.
Similarly, it also the goal of those of us who have been asked by the creators of the theory to let others know that their original intent was a good one, albeit flawed, and thus is now being abandoned. Instead, it is now being replaced in favor of Free Will, the idea that life is an eternal democracy, and that we can transcend cruelty.
Kelvin H. Chin is a Meditation Teacher, Life After Life Expert, and Author of “Overcoming the Fear of Death,” “Marcus Aurelius Updated: 21st Century Meditations On Living Life” and “After the Afterlife: Memories of My Past Lives.” He learned to meditate at age 19, and has been teaching Turning Within Meditation and coaching others in their self-growth for 40 years. He helps people understand their life challenges through their individual belief systems, and helps them find their own solutions. His past life memories reach back many centuries, and he accesses those memories in his teaching and his coaching in the same way all coaches draw on their own available experiences for perspective and effective analogies. He can be reached at www.TurningWithin.org.