Buddhist (kind of) Here

I just wanted to clear up a few common misconceptions about the idea of Karma. It is not the black and white, cause and effect, universal justice system that it so often portrayed.

[side note: I’m stepping out of my lane here culturally so I welcome any disagreement with my characterization]

In the same way that the Buddhist concept of compassion very closely mirrors the Christian concept of forgiveness (albeit 500 years earlier), the Buddhist concept of Karma is more similar to say a Christian idea of “following the path of Christ”.

Good and bad karma are sort of misleading terminology. It’s easier to explain through examples. Let’s say I steal something from you. This creates what’s called a negative karmic ripple. You realize your property is missing, you feel hurt. Betrayed. Angry. Then you take that anger and you project it somewhere else, onto your spouse maybe, or your children. And then the process continues. The children project that pain out in school on their classmates, your spouse internalizes the anger and develops negative self worth, etc...

But in the same way, I am negatively impacted by my own bad deed. Let’s say the theft left me feeling guilty, very bad about myself. So I go out and indulge in intoxicants to relieve the anxiety. Maybe that leads to cheating on my partner, or I cause a drunken collision that hurts other people. It’s more of a network of consequences than it is a mystical penal system.

Hope this helps. Feel free to engage this further in comments

[another side note: I read a lot of Buddhist literature so I tend to talk about it in the same language. It can come off mansplain-y af. Sorry about that. ]