What is Karma?

I grew up hearing the word "karma" as a bad, negative thing. And I often used karma to judge others. Let's be honest, our society has pre-programmed us to think that those who work in less paying or less respectful jobs are unhappy. Or when someone encountered an accident or some bad fortune, we often blame the situation on bad karma.

But in truth, we have no clue to that person's reality. You have no idea what that person is experiencing in their lives. That man who works at the deli selling coffee to you could be the happiest person in the world. Perhaps he lost high-paying job to make you coffee and now he's extremely enlightened and fulfilled with his life. And isn't that what we all want to have? We all just want to be happy in this world. Strangely, we seek and pursue happiness in different ways - some of us seek power, wealth, love, etc. But happiness doesn't rely in those external objects. Happiness relies within ourselves. 

We have control over our causes and conditions. We have control over our karma. Good situations arise from our positive actions. You've planted seeds of good karma that have ripen in the right causes and conditions to manifest in good situations. Let's not use karma to judge others, but to contemplate on how we (ourselves) arrive to where we are today in this world.  

Nothing is permanent

When we encounter a difficult situation in our lives, we often react with worry. We worry about an outcome, we worry that a person might not like us if we say something they don't like to hear, we worry about everything! And then our mind often start to imagine different outcomes and scenarios based on that worried mind. 

Why do we chose to live this way? Living in a reality that isn't even real! 

We always hear people say: live in the moment, carpe diem or seize the day. But I don't think a lot of people, including me, understand what this truly means. It takes practice to live in the moment and not let your mind wander into scenarios and outcomes that aren't real. It takes understanding and wisdom to realize that to live in the moment, we need to understand that our current "reality" is impermanent. 

What do I mean by this? Let's take a look at the basics. Everything in this world is not permanent correct? We hear people say: nothing last forever. All living beings will die and give their bodies back to the earth to help regenerate new living beings. All other objects will transform itself into other objects within seconds or sometimes within decades. Water evaporates and buildings erode. Anger subsides and happiness calms. 

If we know this to be reality, then why do we worry so much? A worried mind cannot make sound and rational decisions when it encounters a difficult situation. We need to realize the impermanence nature of everything in this world. 

If I realize that my phone will ultimate die someday because the battery will simply die, then do I need to worry about my phone dying? No, because I know the truth that phone dies. When that moment happens, I will accept my reality.

Let's remember today that objects, situations and people are not permanent. And observe how our mind will start letting go of the worry mind and start living in the moment. 

What is your intention today?

When we wake up every morning, we often get caught up immediately with our ongoing to-do list in our heads: I must brush my teeth, I have an 9 am meeting, I'm going to have a tough day today, I should eat healthier, I need to go to the gym and the list goes on and on. Aren't you exhausted doing this every morning? I am.

Wouldn't it be great to wake up every morning and realize our good fortune that we're taking one more breath on this earth? Realize our good fortune that our health and conditions have allowed us to live for another day? Wouldn't that be a nice intention to have for the day... 

Instead of going about our daily routines like a to do list, let's try to appreciate everything that's happening in our lives. From the drops of rain to the interesting characters we meet throughout the day. After all, we have no control over our external conditions. We can't control the weather. So why let the rain or snow bother you? Remember your first snow day when you were a child and how happy you were? What changed now? Why are you miserable when it snows? Did the snow change or did your mind change? 


Your mind is capable of incredible things, including setting your intention for the day. When acclimate weather arrives, your mind has the ability to set a good intention or a bad intention. After all, snow melts and rain dries. Nothing in this world is permanent. So, why get hung up on things that we know will go away? Let's set our good intention today by thinking how fortunate we are to be taking another breath. 

What is Beauty?

When we look at objects or people, we often only see what is attractive and what is not attractive. We try to pull attractive things into our lives and we push non-attractive things away. We've been pre-conditioned to do this since we were young. This is the equation that we grew up with:

Attractive = Happiness

Not Attractive = Not Happiness or Suffering

In truth though, everything in this world is neither attractive nor non-attractive. Everything is relative to our mind.

When we see a beautiful person walking down the street, we think that person will bring happiness or think that person has happiness, and ultimately we think to ourselves that we are not that person. We then come to the conclusion that the person we see is happy because they're beautiful and I'm not happy because I'm not that person. 

What we all must realize is that the person walking down the street is just like me. He or she just wants to be happy in this world. Happiness doesn't exist in attractive objects because attractive objects are only attractive relative to our mind. 

Our mind is constantly creating this world that we are living in. So walk down the street today and start to realize that everyone in this world is equal regardless of their external appearance and how your mind might perceive them. They're just like you. Whether they're rich or poor, tall or short, everyone is equal.  

Where is happiness?

We are pre-conditioned in this life to pursue happiness... Some ask 'what is the meaning of life', etc. But let's be simple and state the one true fact: every human being in this world want everlasting happiness. And we all pursue happiness in different ways.

I grew up thinking that a 'good life' was comprised of having lots of money to do whatever I want. So I dedicated my 30 years of life pursuing what I thought would make me happy: education, job, relationships, etc.

But, I've learned a flaw in my pursuit. Thinking that these external conditions will make me happy actually only make me suffer and, ultimately, sad (the opposite of happiness). The things I've been chasing my whole life will in fact disappoint me at some point: I would get a bad grade, I won't like my job anymore, and I would grow apart from people I used to be close with. 

So where do we find happiness? 

Everlasting happiness doesn't exist in external conditions. External conditions will only bring temporary joy - temporary relief from suffering. Everlasting happiness exist in our mind. If I understand that my external conditions (job, relationships, the weather, etc.) will not make me happy, then I am one step closer to understanding that I have control over my own world. I will not place my happiness on external things. I will place my happiness on me.