A friend of mine, who is dealing with an injury, recently texted me and asked, “Why did I deserve this?“. My friend believes in karma and is perplexed at how, given that she is a “good” person, life has handed her such a crappy situation.

In my attempt to answer my bewildered friend’s question, here are my thoughts about why, despite being a “good” person, unfortunate events can (and will) take place in your life…

The General Belief About Karma

Some people see karma as an ongoing scorecard you carry around with you as you go through life. For every “good act”, you earn “good karma” which comes in the form of something positive happening in your life. For every “bad act”, you earn “bad karma” which comes in the form of something negative happening in your life. The general belief about karma is that your current actions influence your future. Karma is thought of as a reward/punishment system based on good/bad behaviour. There is also the idea that you take your karma with you into your next life. Depending on how things went last time around, you can spend this life reaping the rewards or paying off the debt.

Here are a few reasons why I have trouble believing in “bad karma” (or any karma for that matter)…

Life Is Supposed To Be Hard

One of the main reasons we view the aches and breaks in our life as some sort of cosmic punishment is that we view pain as an imposter – something that should not exist in our lives. Rather than pain (which comes in the from of all kinds of unfortunate events) being a form of “bad karma”, it’s actually just an inevitable aspect of this physical world. We are human therefore we are going to get hurt. I think our resistance to pain is born out of our expectation that life is supposed to be some kind of fairytale – life is no fairytale – if you lose one of your shoes at midnight, that just means you’re drunk.

Judgement Is Only A Human Thing

The idea that anything (such as an action or behaviour) is “good”, “bad”, “right”, or “wrong” only exists in the physical world and by the way, it’s completely made-up – we could change our collective minds tomorrow and the rules could be totally different. Just sayin’. Only we humans place value on things and with such virtues and sins comes judgement. While we are busy down here on earth trying to be “good” people and doing “bad” things, the universal energy that we have deemed as the “karma dispenser” doesn’t judge because it doesn’t even think. Cosmically speaking, it’s tough to dish out “bad karma” when you don’t know the first thing damn thing about being “bad”.

There Can’t Be Karma When There’s Dharma

Based on the teachings of Buddha, dharma is essentially the practice of inner peace and happiness. If “happiness” is too strong a word or too high of a standard to consider, think of dharma as the practice of contentment – the opposite of struggle and resistance. We resist pain because deep down we don’t expect it to happen. Our resistance to pain is our suffering. When the inevitable emotional and physical pain of the human experience occurs, the suffering part is optional. Pain + Resistance = Suffering. Every time you experience pain, you’re not being punished – life is giving you a chance to choose contentment rather than suffering.

Things Don’t Happen To You, They Happen For You

If you are like my friend, and worry about karma, just think about why you showed up here in the first place. You agreed to come down here on a specific mission and that mission is to face all the pitfalls and pain of the physical world all the while experiencing and expressing your true nature.

Without the aches and the breaks, you would never have any reason to rise. Without your confusion, you would never seek the clarity to remember the wisdom you showed up with at the very beginning of your life. Without the darkness, how would you know your light?

The unfortunate events that happen in life (like injuries) always come with great purpose – they come along to show you what you have yet to let go of – what is preventing you from contentment. It could be control, it could be expectations, it could be judgement. It could be many things.

When you ask, “Why is this happening to me?” it’s all about the tone in your voice. You can ask it in a whiny way. You can ask it in a way that oozes resentment. Or you can ask it full of curiosity like Sherlock Holmes. “Why is this happening to me? Hmmmmm???”

Let go of the illusion of “good” and “bad” karma by focusing on what’s true.

This human experience is one hell of a ride – it’s actually supposed to be tough. (Your soul signed up to have these big adventures!)

Judgement only exists here – not out there.

You’re not here to suffer – you’re here to remember who you really are.

Life is always on your side and walking you home.