In 2007, Justin Timberlake released the song “What Goes Around… Comes Around”. The music video featured Scarlett Johansson in an 10 minute clip. The story depicted JT and Scarlett as lovers, however it eventually comes out that Scarlett has been cheating on our main man and in the end, pays the price when her car flips through the air with her in it. Hence, what goes around comes around. Aside from the movies, it seems that the world has a way of righting wrong in it’s own ways. That’s Karma.

The notion of karma originated from Buddhism and Jainism. In these religions, karma is understood in the traditional sense. Any action that is undertaken plants “seeds” within someone’s mind. These seeds will sprout into the appropriate result with the certain conditions. Karma in Buddhism directly links the motives behind the actions to the results that emerge from that actions. Basically, if you do something horrible to someone with the intention of hurting them or nonchalance towards whether it will hurt them or not, eventually something horrible will happen to you. 

It’s an interesting concept that has been adapted into many cultures around the world. I can remember my father telling me from when I young, “What goes around comes around”. My parents were sort like a version of modern hippies, hence karma was a strong belief within in our family. As I grew up, I naturally questioned it’s existence. However, recently its become more and more apparent to me that the world does indeed, have its own way of making sure balance is restored between people. Like Sakyong Mipham, head of the Shambhala Buddhist Lineage said, “Like gravity, karma is so basic we often don’t even notice it”.

Recently, I had some people do some horrible things to me that messed with my head to a certain degree. I continually thought, “What on earth have I done to get such bad karma?”. What I hadn’t realised is that these last few weeks of trials had been life lessons in love and friendship. In a way, they were indeed good karma. As for the people that had hurt me, from what I’ve heard karma has indeed caught up to them. From the sounds of things, they have a lot of bad karma following them and I’m positive that it will catch up eventually.

It’s all too easy to feel hurt, violated and resentful towards the world when someone wrongs you. What a lot of people fail to see is that it’s all part of life and things will balance out. Whether it’s the girl that cheated on you and broke your heart, the roommates that stole everything and vanished or the friends who double-crossed you, the world has a way of making sure people get what’s coming to them. Karma happens. It might not occur today or tomorrow, or even a year from now. But good or bad, it definitely catches up with everyone. It’s just the way the world works.