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.
