The Karma Cycle

Karma begins with an impression. From the time we are born, choices are made for us. We’re surrounded by information and experiences that shape us: our environment, our parents, our friends, our schooling and religious instruction. We don’t pick these influences, but we observe and absorb their messages. Samskara is the Sanskrit word for impression, and wen we are young, we collect samskaras. The impressions that we carry from these experiences influence our thinking, behaviors, and responses. As an impression grows stronger, it starts to shape our decisions. If you grew up putting milk in your cereal bowl, then adding the cereal, that becomes your norm. Then you move our and get a roommate who tells you you’re doing it wrong, that it makes much more sense to put the cereal in before you add the milk. Now you have a choice. Will you stick with the impression that you absorbed as a child, or will you try a new way? As we get older, we gain the intelligence to curate our impressions by choosing what we watch and who we listen to. We also have the opportunity to revisit, edit, and unlearn past impressions. In youth, choices are made for you. These become impressions. As an adult, you use these impressions to make your own choices. Those choices generate an effect, a consequence, or a reaction. If you’re happy with the consequence, you probably won’t change your impression. But, if you don’t like the consequence, you can revisit the impression and decide whether it steered you wrong. If it did, you can break the cycle by forming a new impression, which then steers you to a new choice, from which you get a new reaction.