Karma is often misunderstood. The common conception of karma is that if you do something good, you’ll be rewarded, and if you do something bad, you will be punished. But that’s wrong; that’s not how karma works. There’s no higher power pointing at you and deciding to punish you for being a ‘bad boy’ or a ‘bad girl.’

Karma simply means cause and effect. You do something (a cause), and that has a consequence (an effect).

Your present, what you are experiencing right now, is a direct consequence of your past actions or the lack of them. You had desires in the past, you acted on them, and now, in the present moment, you live out the outcomes of those actions.

For instance, when you were in school and you had to study for a final exam. And you didn’t. You took the exam and failed. And then you had to repeat the entire class again, and it caused you pain. It was annoying and frustrating. But you brought it upon yourself, because you didn’t study, you didn’t prepare.