Plainly speaking, Karma is a teacher of souls or spirits. Karma is a property of the present lifetime and teaches through life lessons and experiences.
Look at your present lifetime circumstances. If you are suffering from lack of money; if you are suffering for lack of love; if you are suffering from loneliness; no matter what you are suffering from, this is your Karma.
Whatever you feel you are being the effect of (usually outside forces), this is your karma and you brought it onto yourself.The usual response to this is "What? Why would I cause myself to________________?" You fill in the blank. The reason for this question is because the person has no knowledge of Karma and how it works. Therefore, he continues suffering whatever negativity is present in his life and blaming it on others because he has never learned his Karmic lessons.
Now supposing you are listening and want to understand and learn from this thing called Karma. How can you go about it?
Well, the method is very simple. All you have to do is look at the area that is causing you problems or grief. Look at the areas that have caused you to become their effect. What you are looking at is a result of your own karma even though you knowingly would never visit such things upon yourself. Usually, the effects of karma are negative experiences mainly because they were created out of negativity.
Once a very wise man* said: "That which one is complaining about, criticizing, whining about, or is the effect of, is what the person is secretly, or unconsciously doing himself." His words are true but one must know how to look at these things within himself. It is so easy to deny that which is so plain if only we could see."
Here is a method that one can use. Find yourself a place where you will not be disturbed. Take with you pen and paper.
Here is an example to help you. There was a man who wanted to buy a house but did not have good enough credit for a mortgage. He contacted a friend who agreed to help him. The man had enough money for the down payment and he agreed that the down payment money would, in effect, be given to the friend, who would use it for the down payment himself. The man agreed that until he could get his credit rating handled (which might take years) and he could then take over the mortgage himself, he would live in the house as a tenant and the rent that he paid would be equal to the mortgage payment. All was well for a time but then, due to adverse financial situations, the man began to get behind on his rent. The friend went ahead and made the mortgage payments so he would not have a black mark against his credit rating since the mortgage was in his name. The man was having serious financial problems and failed for several months to make his rent. The friend continued making the mortgage payment without being reimbursed with the rent payment. Finally, the friend had no choice but to give the man a three-day notice to vacate the premises. The three days passed and so the friend then had to go to court to get a writ of restitution against the man. Meanwhile, the man was scrambling trying to raise the money for the rent but times were hard and he failed in his efforts. He tried to tell the friend about opportunities that were in the near future and if the friend would only wait, the man would surely pay him all that was owed. The friend's only response to this was "You expect me to take your word?" The man had lost the friend's respect and trust.
Upon closer examination of his plight, the man sat down with himself with pen and paper and wrote out all his upsets, complaints and criticisms about the friend whom he felt was being unreasonable. He felt that the friend should trust him and wait until the opportunity came along and the man could pay him. He felt that the friend was betraying him by not trusting him. When he finished, he read what he had written and found that the main theme was that of "betrayal of trust", the same thing he was accusing his friend of. So the man asked himself, "When have I ever betrayed someone's trust in me?"
He then set about writing out all the times that he had betrayed another's trust (discounting all the excuses, justifications and reasonablenesses) and found many instances.
One instance seemed to stand out more than the rest and he could see how he had betrayed the trust of one who was good and who helped others anonymously. The man then acknowledged that he definitely was guilty of "betrayal of trust".
The next step was to look at the consequences of this betrayal of trust. He found that although it may look differently to a person on the outside, the betrayal of trust may have actually caused undue hardship on the persons whose trust was betrayed (usually a financial betrayal of trust by not paying back a loan, or not paying in a timely manner). The amazing thing that the man discovered was that the very negative situation he was experiencing due to his lack of money to pay the rent to the friend, was a replication of all the hardships he had visited upon others because of his betrayal of their trust.
Therefore, from this example, we see how Karma had entered this man's life and was attempting to teach him the error of his ways.
After acknowledging that he was guilty of betrayal of trust and acknowledging the damage his
betrayal of trust had caused, he now needed to make amends**. Fortunately, in his case, an opportunity was arising that would allow him to make amends. He took advantage of the opportunity and paid back everyone whose trust he betrayed. After that, his life took a turn for the better and he no longer experienced a lack of money. He had learned the lesson Karma was trying to teach him
The steps are simple:
1) Notice your negative situation and whom you are blaming for it.
2) Sit down in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed and write out all your complaints, criticisms and upsets about the one you are blaming.
3) Notice what theme pops out from your writings.
4) Find all the instances in your past where you did the same thing that the theme suggests.
5) Take responsibility for what you did. You do this by discounting all the justifications, excuses, reasonablenesses, making nothing of's, etc. and simply acknowledging that you did do those things and are responsible for their consequences to others.
6) Look at the consequences you caused others by doing those things. You'll notice that the consequences that you caused others, are pretty much the same consequences you are currently experiencing. This is karma in action.
7)Find ways to make amends to those you have harmed.
9) Before, during and after you complete your amends, refrain from committing the same harmful or coping acts again no matter what the temptations or circumstances karma will test you in this way to see if you indeed have learned the lesson. If you fail, you will only bring more of the same Karmic lessons onto yourself and it probably will be worse than before because obviously you still need to learn the lesson.
So, you see, for us, in order to learn the lessons of this lifetime, we must be aware of karma. First, we must understand how we bring karma onto ourselves by our misdeeds. Second,we must take responsibility for the consequences our misdeeds have caused others. Third, we must make amends to those we have harmed. If one to whom we must make amends is deceased, then we make amends to that person's closest living relative.
By heeding the lessons of Karma and understanding how you brought their consequences upon yourself, and by making amends for those consequences, you will prevent yourself from becoming a Victim Identity (see my article about Identity Classification on this web site).
Remember, one will always become a victim in the area of his or her own wrongdoing in the past. It may be only one instance of wrongdoing, but if it goes against one's sense of eithics and virtues, it may be this one instance that manifests in one's present time existence and it will cause one much emotional pain and suffering until the wrongdoing has been corrected and amends have been done and the karmic lesson has been learned.