Karma

Karma – from the Sanskrit karman, “action”, “deed” – denotes the law of cause and effect in human life: what we do, think and also leave undone has consequences, for others and for ourselves. At the Kyborg Institute we understand karma as an invitation to take responsibility for oneself – not as a fate that befalls us, and not as a punishment. This is our worldview-based conviction; it is not a claim of natural science.

What does karma mean?

In Die Ethik des Neuen Menschen (The Ethics of the New Human), D. Harald Alke described it like this: karma is “my destiny, brought about by my own actions, and the further development of my life arising from it, with all its consequences”. In Europe, he adds, this was long called fate; in Asia it is called karma.

Actions here include more than the visible deed: thoughts and feelings that go out from me belong to them just as much as omissions – what I consciously do not do.

Is karma the same as fate?

No – and the difference lies in the word itself. The German word for fate, Schick-sal, carries the sense that something is sent to us. “With karma the emphasis lies on action, on activity.”

In the West, D. Harald Alke writes, karma is “either denied or regarded as fate, in the sense of ‘there’s nothing you can do’! Both are mistaken.” Whoever understands karma as the consequence of their own actions also sees the other side: what arises through action can be changed through action. Karma is not fatalism.

A fine counterpart from the Norse tradition is the tapestry of the Norns, into which fate is woven – “and yet this tapestry is created by ourselves, from our thoughts, feelings and life impulses”.

How does karma work? Three parables

In Energytraining, D. Harald Alke explains karma with three images:

• The boat: A man stands in a boat and throws bricks off the back – in doing so he pushes himself off, and the boat moves forwards. Every action creates a countermovement.
• The island: Whoever eats all the fruit on an island at once soon goes hungry; whoever sows lives well from it for a long time. Hence the sentence: “Help others with their tasks, and thereby yourself!”
• The stone’s throw: Someone throws stones in order to move forward – the others feel hit and throw back. “And yet the first one only wants to get ahead!” This is how conflicts escalate, until someone begins to respond more consciously.

The core of it: act rather than react. “We must not let conflicts dictate to us; we should decide for ourselves when and how we respond.” Folk wisdom has long known this: “What goes around comes around” – and “Whoever sows thistles cannot harvest sunflowers.”

Is karma a punishment?

No. “The universe knows no … such thing as punishment. There is no God who goes and punishes someone.” And further: “The universe does not punish, it does not forget, it simply creates a balance, whenever and however.” The tarot card of Justice, with blindfold and scales, captures this in an image: cosmic justice is passive – what is weighed is what we have produced ourselves.

This is why we should not see the term “too negatively”, and working through old patterns is expressly “not a call to tear oneself apart”.

For us this sets a clear limit: karma is a yardstick for one’s own actions – never a judgement on the suffering of others. Whoever tells someone who is ill, injured in an accident or disadvantaged that their lot is “their karma” misuses the idea.

A saying from the Institute’s own family sums up the attitude – D. Harald Alke’s grandmother used to say: “God pays the best interest. In good as in bad, so take good care how you act!”

Is there good karma too?

Yes. “Karma need not be negative. Karma, the consequence of my actions, can be positive too.” Whoever takes responsibility for what they do and decides consciously moves, in our view, “onto the credit side” of life’s balance sheet.

In his work on altruism, Tobias Alke describes karma as a “scale” that weighs a person’s good and bad actions against each other over the course of a life – an idea that shows why helpfulness is not exhausted in the single deed.

How are karma and rebirth connected?

In our conviction, karma reaches beyond a single life: what remains unfinished continues to work in a next incarnation until it “no longer has any meaning”. Seen in this way, karma is “a memory programme from which we are meant to learn”. More on this in the entries Reincarnation and Death.

What does karma have to do with magic and ethics?

A great deal. “Ethics is the applied law of cause and effect in the human being.” This applies especially where people want to influence others. In the chapter “Magic and karma” we read: “Of course we could do a love spell or a ritual for success. But what for? Shouldn’t we first talk about the consequences?” For the forces one releases produce “an echo” – “this echo can be called karma”. Whoever uses magical practices against others gets it back “like a boomerang”.

Hence the Institute’s simple rule: “Do good, harm no one, not even yourself!” – and: we have no right to influence other people without being asked.

How does one get out of the cycle?

• Forgive. “The quickest way to leave the wheel of karma is ‘to forgive’.” Only whoever renounces revenge and retaliation, steps back voluntarily and lets the matter rest steps out of the game of endless settling of scores. Or, more briefly: “But revenge does not pay.”
• Act without self-interest. Actions performed for their own sake or in the service of one’s neighbour do not bind, according to this teaching – an idea also known to the Bhagavad Gita in Karma Yoga.
• Accept what has passed. Old experiences can be “analysed, but not undone – at most their effects on you can be changed”.
• Let go, even of the goal. “Only the one who no longer craves liberation is free.”

How do other traditions see karma?

In Hinduism and Buddhism karma is a fundamental concept; the Bhagavad Gita devotes a chapter of its own to Karma Yoga – the path of right, selfless action – linked with dharma, what is necessary and ought to be done. A well-known verse (Gita 3:35) advises following one’s own law rather than that of another. The Christian tradition knows a related idea in the image of sowing and reaping – “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7); the Norse tradition, the tapestry of the Norns. We place these approaches side by side as equals – they describe the same experience in different words.

Note: This entry sets out a personal, worldview-based view. It is not medical or psychological advice; health problems or blows of fate are never to be interpreted as a person’s “karma”.

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By D. Harald Alke, Tobias O. R. Alke