Karma & Consciousness
i have always been someone who believed in karma. even samsara. for a long time i thought karma was mostly a buddhist belief, but the older i get the more i realize it is deeply embedded into our culture as a whole. it shows up everywhere. in religion, in movies, in children’s stories, and even in the way we talk about justice.
and i am not talking about consequences. of course every action has a reaction. Newtwon’s 3rd law, right. that is just reality. if you touch a hot stove, you get burned. consequences are observable. they are tangible.
what i am questioning is something different.
does the universe have the same perspective of justice as humans? is the universe actually moral? does it reward goodness and punish cruelty? or does it simply operate according to its own laws, completely indifferent to our ideas of right and wrong?
from my experience, and i think most people would agree, people do not always get what they deserve. we are constantly told that they do. movies teach us that the villain eventually loses. religion teaches us that justice will come after death. culture reassures us that somehow, someday, everything balances out.
but do we actually see that happen? or does relying on karmas actually stops us from confronting injustice? sometimes i wonder if belief in karma actually makes people more passive in the face of injustice. if we believe the universe will eventually punish those who cause harm, then we no longer feel responsible for doing anything about it ourselves. we tell ourselves that karma will get them. that justice will come eventually. that the universe is keeping score. but what if it isn’t? what if waiting for cosmic justice is one of the reasons injustice persists? what if some of the greatest evils in history were allowed to continue because ordinary people assumed someone or something else would handle it? perhaps belief in karma can become a way of outsourcing responsibility. instead of confronting cruelty, we wait for the universe to do it for us.
humanity has wrestled with this question for thousands of years. why do good people suffer while cruel people prosper? why do people with the biggest hearts often struggle the most? why do those who exploit others sometimes continue accumulating wealth, power, and influence with seemingly no consequences at all?
we do not have to look very far. we can look at the people who run governments, corporations, and industries. we can look at what has happened to the environment, to communities, and to countless living creatures. if karma operates as a universal law of justice, then why do so many people appear to benefit from causing harm?
these questions are what led me away from believing in karma and toward thinking more deeply about consciousness.
i believe reality is, in some way, an extension of consciousness. there are methods of influencing consciousness that seem to influence reality itself. manifestation is probably the most popular example, though that is not really what this essay is about.
what i am interested in is the relationship between our inner world and our outer world.
our consciousness shapes how we experience reality. our beliefs shape what we perceive as possible. our expectations shape our actions. our fears shape our limitations.
and because of that, i have started to believe that you are your own karma. and whoever ‘controls’ this world, does not want you to know that.
i know that sounds radical, but hear me out, ok.
i think society, religion, and various institutions have conditioned us to believe that some external force is constantly watching us, evaluating us, and deciding whether we deserve rewards or punishments. whether that force is called karma, god, fate, the universe, or something else entirely.
the underlying message is often the same:
behave correctly or you will suffer.
and i think this has made many of us afraid. afraid of being judged. afraid of making mistakes. afraid of trusting ourselves. afraid of stepping outside of what is considered acceptable. especially with social media this fear has almost become unbearable.
i wonder if karma functions as a form of social control through culture itself. if people believe they will be punished by the universe for stepping out of line, they become easier to control. they police themselves. they silence themselves. they tolerate situations they should leave. they accept injustice because they believe some cosmic force will eventually handle it. “be good or you will be punished” is a message that appears everywhere, from religion to politics to childhood stories. and while it may encourage certain kinds of behavior, it can also keep people trapped in fear. fear of making mistakes. fear of being judged. fear of trusting their own instincts. fear of claiming their power.
i have noticed that many people, especially younger generations, seem to struggle with being seen and perceived. in some ways, it feels almost epidemic. and i cannot help but wonder if part of that fear is connected to a deeper fear of judgment.
if karma is understood as a system of rewards and punishments, then every action becomes a kind of gamble. will i be rewarded for this? will i be punished? am i doing the right thing? what will people think? what will god think? what will the universe think?
over time, these questions can become internalized. the fear of judgment becomes so deeply rooted that it no longer matters whether the judge is society, religion, the universe, or ourselves. we begin monitoring our own thoughts and actions constantly. we become afraid of making mistakes. afraid of being wrong. afraid of being seen.
perhaps this is one of the hidden consequences of growing up surrounded by messages that tell us we are always being evaluated. that every action is being scored. that every choice will eventually be rewarded or punished. whether those messages come from religion, culture, media, or childhood stories, the underlying lesson is often the same: someone is watching.
and i wonder how differently we would live if we no longer believed that…
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Another reason i believe karma is such a powerful idea is because we desperately want the world to be fair. we want to believe that goodness is rewarded and cruelty is punished. we want to believe that suffering has meaning and that justice will eventually prevail. honestly, i understand the appeal. it is comforting. if someone hurts us, we can tell ourselves that karma will take care of it. if we are struggling, we can tell ourselves that a reward is coming. but i have started to wonder if this belief sometimes prevents us from seeing reality clearly. perhaps karma is not just a spiritual belief, but a psychological coping mechanism. a way for us to make peace with a world that often seems indifferent to our ideas of fairness…
life does not always operate according to our moral expectations. what if you do the right think, but get punished for it? like helping a random stranger but they end up harming you or worse? on the other hand, what if someone makes a selfish business decision that harms others but generates life changing wealth and opportunity for themselves?
reality does not seem nearly as interested in moral fairness as we would like it to be.
religions often solve this problem by pushing justice into the afterlife. maybe they were rewarded after death. maybe they went to heaven. maybe they went to hell. maybe they were reborn as a maggot.
personally, i do not buy it anymore.
what i do believe is that the true judge is your mind. consciousness. or more specifically, the subconscious mind. because regardless of what happens externally, every person must live inside their own consciousness. many of us already know what it feels like to be punished by our own minds. anxiety. guilt. shame. self sabotage. fear. self hatred. these experiences can be more brutal than any external punishment.
and unlike a cosmic judge, your subconscious is always with you. for example, imagine someone spends years building a business. they have a plan. they have resources. they have a team. everything appears perfectly aligned for success. consciously, they want success, this is their dream but subconsciously, they may believe they are unworthy of it. they may fear visibility, or responsibility, or surpassing their parents. There could be a plethora of reasons. Maybe they even secretly believe that wealthy people are bad. and so, despite doing everything “right,” they repeatedly sabotage opportunities without realizing it.
not because the universe judged them or because karma decided they were unworthy. but because success was not yet a reality their subconscious mind could accept. that is why i believe the subconscious functions much more like karma than any cosmic force.
it rewards what feels real. it rejects what feels impossible. it reinforces what it believes to be true, even on a subconscious level.
i think humans are naturally uncomfortable with randomness. we want things to make sense. we want suffering to have a reason. we want justice to exist. if a kind person suffers from illness while a cruel person lives comfortably, it creates a kind of psychological tension. it feels wrong. belief in karma resolves that tension. it reassures us that even if we cannot see justice, it is happening somewhere behind the scenes. maybe in another lifetime. maybe after death. maybe through forces beyond our understanding.
but what if the universe is not organized around human ideas of fairness? what if fairness is a human value rather than a cosmic law? that possibility is uncomfortable because it means there is no guarantee that everything will work out in the end… but it also means that justice becomes our responsibility. if fairness is not built into the universe, then it is something we must actively create ourselves.
our minds can be our greatest prison, but they can also become our greatest source of freedom. if you can change your subconscious beliefs, you can radically change your experience of reality.
now, i want to make something very clear. i am not advocating for harming people. i noticed when i have talked to people in the past that i do not believe the universe holds the same moral codes as humans or that i do not believe in a god that punishes or rewards humans, people automatically think,” well what’s stopping people from going crazy? From hurting others, looting, stealing, destroying, etc, etc?” I find this question always fascinating. Do you really need a all powerful being watching you to not harm others? To not destroy? From what I have seen is the only thing that has stopped a person from harming or destroying is another person. not a god. but i digress.
i genuinely believe empathy, compassion, and cooperation are natural human traits. despite what many systems tell us, i do not think humans are born evil. yes, humans can be violent, destructive, selfish, and cruel. history gives us plenty of examples. but i think much of that is learned, conditioned, and reinforced.
i do not think we need a cosmic police officer watching our every move in order to care about one another. i do not think we need the threat of punishment in order to be kind. and yet fear has been used as a tool of control for centuries.
we see it in religion, politics, media, even in our childhoods.
children are told that if they lie, their nose will grow like pinocchio’s. they are told that monsters come for bad children. they are told to behave or the boogeyman will get them. they are told that santa is watching them all year long and keeping score.
be good and you will be rewarded.
be bad and you will be punished.
it starts early. and eventually many of us internalize the idea that freedom itself is dangerous. that trusting ourselves is dangerous. that questioning authority is dangerous. that stepping outside the lines is dangerous.
i no longer believe that.
i believe you are far more powerful than you have been led to believe. i believe your mind can be programmed, but it can also be reprogrammed. i believe you do not have to live in fear.
i believe you have agency. agency over your thoughts. agency over your beliefs. agency over your life.
if there is a cosmic judge, perhaps it is consciousness itself. and if consciousness is the judge, then we are not merely its subjects.
we are its authors.