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In Hinduism and Buddhism, karma refers to the consequences of your actions or intentions. In pop culture karma seems like cosmic justice, the universe conspiring to inflict upon you whatever harms you inflict on others. But at its root—“karma” means simply “action” or “doing”—karma is self-inflicted, referring to the ways our own actions, intentions, and beliefs give rise to our own suffering. Think of Wile E. Coyote always ending up injured by the elaborate traps he sets up to catch Road Runner. If he would just stop trying to inflict harm on others, he would stop unintentionally harming himself. The Taoist concept of wu wei seems relevant here, with its “non-action” as a remedy for the tendency of our own actions to cause us suffering.
In the reincarnation traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, there is the idea that one’s karma transcends incarnations, that your actions and intentions in past lives bear on your experience in the current one.
Karma Yoga
In Hinduism, karma yoga is a path to liberation that runs through normal life. Contrasted with Jnana yoga (the path of knowledge) and Bhakti yoga (the path of devotion) which involve withdrawing from everyday life in some way, karma yoga involves trying to live one’s life as ethically and fully as possible in every moment.
The Bhagavad Gita is the classic text on karma yoga, which argues that inaction is as much a choice as action, so the best choice is to act as ethically as we can without getting hung up on the consequences or worrying about “What if I fail?” or “What if I succeed but it’s not enough?” This concept is Nishkama Karma or “action without desire [for a particular outcome]”, doing the right thing because it’s the right thing and not because of some assumed guarantee of a result that we can never depend on in an uncertain world. As Krishna in the Gita puts it:
You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of the work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established in himself—without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat.
Avdi Grimm has a lovely reflection on this.