When I was a little girl, one concept that my mother really stressed to me was to treat others how I wanted to be treated. Of course when I was younger, I did not understand the meaning of this concept. Now that I am 16 and am capable of abstract thought, what is known as “karma” is one of my greatest beliefs. When I was younger, I didn’t even notice what karma really was. But through the years, I have seen karma happen to enough people, and even to myself to truly understand what it is, and appreciate what it does for the human species.

The non-religious definition of karma is, “Destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.” Since I personally, am not Hindu or Buddhist, I generally hold karma to this definition, but it is important to note that karma is extremely important in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism and Buddhism, karma is seen as “bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation.” While I agree with most of the definition, I am unsure about reincarnation so I still tend to look at karma unrelated to religion.
Sakyong Mipham, the head of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and Shambhala International, once said, “Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don't even notice it.” Mipham is right when he said this. The truth is though, since people in general don’t notice karma, they generally use karma in a harmful way. I think it would be more beneficial not to only the human species, but the whole world, if people used karma for good things to happen instead of bad.
It is a necessity that people start to understand the old saying, “treat others how you want to be treated,” that mothers always used to tell their children when we were younger. It seems that the population does not realize that karma is real, and that it does what it is supposed to do.
There is a very big difference between good and bad karma that people seem to not understand. A businessman who is very successful at work was stealing money from the company to pay for things that were inappropriate and unnecessary. In turn, karma could get him back by letting his boss find out that he was stealing money. The businessman then loses his job, and then also ends up getting a divorce since his wife also found out. This is an example of bad karma. Bad karma forces the world to be filled with hatred, so why continue to let bad karma happen?
Instead, the world should be filled with good karma. An example of this would be if instead of someone stealing money, someone lent money to a friend in need. One day, the person who lent the money lost their job and their house. Karma paid off because the friend that the person lent the money to in the first place, offered to take the person into their home and pay for all of his or her expenses. Karma does not have to be on such a big scale as the two examples that I gave, it could be as small as helping someone pick up papers that they dropped and then someone doing the same for that person. But the world could truly be so much better if our society used good karma instead of bad.
Maybe the justice system not only in the United States but also everywhere around the world is unfair and does not serve karma the way it is supposed to be, but in the end karma will catch up with those who do bad things. The thing that people don’t actually realize though is that karma is there to help the world, not to destroy it. Wayne Dyer, an author and motivational speaker, once said, “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” What one should take from Dyer’s wise words is that one should not worry about what other people are doing and how his or her karma is affecting that person. Instead, people should worry about what they do, and only their karma will affect them. I don’t believe that helping people turn karma into something that people use for good instead of bad will stop all of the bad things that are in this world. I do believe though that if this world puts karma to good use, this world would be going in the right direction to fixing world issues.
In the end, like Justin Timberlake once sang, “What goes around, goes around, goes around, comes all the way back around.” I live by this concept, and try to do things that will promote good karma in this world instead of bad. I hope that people will join me and make a difference by using good karma to make the world a better place.