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Disclaimer: I am not a believer in the mystical. I do not believe there is an intergalactic checklist of our past rights and wrongs which determines our future.

“Karma” throughout the body of this short article is in reference to the popular notion of what karma is, and not Buddhism’s definition. For the sake of clarity, the word “karma” throughout this article can be defined as “a notion or belief that what goes around, comes around”.

My notion of karma in action. To me, the concept behind karma boils down to basically the idea that if you screw the people around you, you’ll eventually get screwed yourself. I believe this is true, not because of any kind of supreme being determining how today will go based on our behavior yesterday, but because other people tend to treat us as we treat them.

It can be said, therefore, that karma is simply other people judging our future performance by their past experience with us.

Does this make adhering to the karma-concept any less useful, or a waste of our time? Should we be selfish beings, mistreating others if it is beneficial to ourselves? Of course not. In fact, it should inspire us to treat others fairly better than any religious connotations ever could.

If we look at karma as a religious belief, we expect punishment for our misdeeds after we die. If we look at it from a logical, rational perspective, we can expect punishment virtually instantly. Not from a supreme being, but from the people we have wronged.