A recent event reminded me of a post about karma I had written half a dozen years ago. The idea of the post was thanks to Umair Haque, who had a definition of karma that was different from the garden variety ‘consequences of your actions’.
Karma isn’t what you “have” or something you “do”. It’s what you are….. Karma is all the concepts and notions you hold in that tiny little head. All those concepts are stitched together by the idea of “you”, right? So karma is all those concepts, together, which determine your intentions, actions, behavior, all of it.
Umair Haque
In my post, I had also linked to another line of thought – Two Meanings of Karma, which distinguished between universal and psychological karma. To quote,
When western Buddhists talk about the law of karma, they often have in mind only one meaning of the term, and that is the psychological meaning of karma. In its psychological meaning, the law of karma in Buddhism amounts to this: intentional actions of body, speech and mind have psychological consequences for the agent, such that good actions bring positive experiences in their train, and bad actions bring negative experiences.
…the universal meaning of karma. In this more traditional meaning, the law of karma amounts to a theory about universal moral justice: intentional actions of body, speech and mind will have felt consequences in this life, or, more likely, in future lives.
Dhivan Thomas Jones
That brings me to the iceberg. Or rather, the Iceberg model in systems thinking. I noticed that I could connect it with the psychological meaning of karma. I think the image below does a great job of explaining the iceberg model with an example. You can read more here.
As the image explains, more often than not, we react to events, and our investigations stop there. And these events will continue happening until we dig into patterns and structures, and finally our mental models, and thereby our worldview and mindset. While this model has been my go-to framework in professional contexts, it now plays a part in the rest of my life too. In many recent personal experiences, I have been amazed at the change in myself the moment I dived into mindset, and made tweaks when necessary. It is hard but refreshing, and I am happy that it is now becoming a habit.
And to me that is karma. To paraphrase what someone famous said (the internet is divided between Lao Tzu, Gandhi, Thatcher, among others) thoughts become words, words become action, action becomes habits, habits become character, and character becomes destiny. The world will throw randomness and luck at us, that is its nature. But if we can focus on mindset, we have a chance at having some modicum of control on our thoughts and thus controlling the narrative from there on.
One of may favourite James Clear insights is on focus – For the beginner, execution. For the intermediate, strategy. For the expert, mindset. This is obviously invaluable in the professional context, but as we grow older and become (relative) experts at navigating the vicissitudes of life, I think it becomes valuable in the personal context too.
To sum it up, my mental model of karma is not past-oriented, it is future-oriented. It is not what happens to us because of our previous actions. It is built from our reactions to the things happen to us. From cause and effect, to cause and affect.
In life, depending on your luck, it is possible that you will encounter events where you feel that someone who did you harm ought to pay for it. That’s only human. The good news is that if we go by the iceberg model of karma, it is fun to watch events unfold thanks to the mindset. The person could change their ways and become better, or his/her karma will create a Titanic out of life. Either way, you can make peace with it.