7/3/02
The Spiritual Chicks^SM Speak Out!
Am I doomed by bad karma?

A few months ago, Virginia, from Peekskill, New York, wrote to us and asked, "Is there such a thing as karma?  My mother said that if I don’t clean my room and do my homework, I’m going to come back as an ant in my next life."  We replied, "Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as karma, although an unclean room and uncompleted homework probably won’t land you ant status. Mothers can be very funny when they’re tired or fed up.  Ask her again after you’ve cleaned and studied.  I bet she’ll give you an upgrade." 

All joking aside, Virginia is not the only one who doesn’t understand karma.  Most people assume it’s about whether we were the Boston Strangler or St. Francis of Assisi in a past life, when it’s simply the ever-present law of cause and effect that eternally governs all aspects of creation.  And, while there’s no sure fire way to prove whether we reincarnate or not, most of us, at least intuitively, accept Jesus’ explanation of karma, "As you sow, so shall you reap."  While our victim-oriented (it’s everyone else’s fault but mine) culture probably wouldn’t agree, what we put into life, we get out of it.  If we put a lot of hate, anger, and mistrust into life, without a doubt, we’ll get it back, not in the next life, but as a direct response to our thoughts and actions in the moment.   So if you want to change your "karma," we need to forget about the past and think about what you’re going to do today.  Now that we know how the law works, we have a really good reason to "do the right thing" because life will respond in kind.  In other words, payback’s a bitch---only when you  act like one.