You and Your Karma

Mention the word 'Karma' and many would think this has to do with religion or superstition.  Some even equate karma as retribution.  Like Microsoft's CEO said 'it is bad karma for a staff to ask for a salary raise'.  

The dictionary defines 'Karma' simply as 'action'.  So when we say 'bad karma', it is simply 'bad action'.  Because every action will have an effect, bad action will lead to bad outcome or effect.  Note that the effect may not be immediate, direct or even obvious.  For example, if you take in dirty food, you may get food poisoning, but it may be delayed, indirect (you get headache instead of stomach ache) or non-obvious (you may think your stomach upset is caused by water and not the food you take). Also other factors are at play, like how strong your body is. 

Nevertheless, karma affects everything in life, whether you know it or not is irrelevant.  The 7 elements of karma are:

1. Size: the bigger the action, the bigger the effect
2. Repetition: the more often an action occurs, the more is its effect
3. Timing: certain timing will produce more effect, like if you call people when they are less busy, you will get better response
4. Intention: An intended action will produce more effect than an unintended action, simply because the intention itself is an action.  Also the intensity of intention is key too.  If you intend to smile, and your intention is very strong, then you will be easily tickled
5. Other Factors at Play: Other factors like laws of nature and other peoples' actions will play a part in determining the outcome of an action.  Like if I plant good seeds, my plant may not grow because my action may be nullified by other factors like bad weather or other people's disturbing my plant.  
6. Subsequent Actions: Action subsequent to your initial action will too affect your outcome.  We cannot look at one action in isolsation
7. Non-Fatal: Because of the above 6 factors, there is a never a direct or easily attributable way to determine if an action has an effect.  That's why a bad action does not necessarily leads to bad effect; similarly a good action may not lead to good outcome. Having said this, because of the law of cause and effect, a bad action will lead to a bad effect sooner or later, direct of indirect.  Because of this,you can always change your course of action and this will also change your fate. Thus we say karma is never fatal because we can always do something today and our tomorrow will be changed.  Like if I find that my coffee has too much sugar inside and is too sweet, I can change the outcome by adding more water to my coffee.  The 'coffee ' is the karma, but it is never fatal or final because everything in this world is impermanent and can be changed easily. 

Note that karma or action applies to thoughts, feelings and emotions too.  So if you think dirty, you will have dirty outcome.  Since thought is the beginning, if you change your thoughts, you will also change your outcome.  

Now you too can apply karma into your daily work.  Managers and leaders will do well if they learn Karmic Management and Leadership, which are found in many of our courses at Asia Trainers at here.  Related articles:

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