You reap what you sow.

Today I was reading about karma.  (I promise someday I will figure out how to do a reading list on here).  The book is The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, but they all boil down to karma, and the concept of you reap what you sow.  Do you want money?  Give some away.  Do you want more love and affection?  Give others love and affection.  The concept is really quite simple.

Perhaps the sheer simplicity of this concept explains why it is so hard to practice.  I have always believed in karma, but I am more of a negative karma type believer.  In my mind, I would rather not perform an action based on the fact that I believe that said action could negatively affect my karma standing. For instance, cutting a car off in traffic will doom me to nothing but red lights and people who don't go the speed limit.  Perhaps it is a remnant of my catholic upbringing. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" was never used to explain something good.  It was always used to explain why we don't hit people or talk ill of them.  A psychologist would say that this is negative reinforcement (one good action will take away one bad one).

So, if karma does exist and you do in fact reap what you sow, and you do want to do unto others as they would do unto you, then perhaps I should take a different approach.  Instead of thinking about what is going to flush my karma down the cosmic toilet, I should focus on actions that will build my karma account with things that I would like more of in my life.  I guess it is time to break out the checkbook and start hugging people.  I will have to see if this can work for me.  Another idea that I got from the book is to wish everyone you meet happiness, joy and laughter (quietly and to yourself so they don't think that you are nuts).  It will bring more happiness, joy and laughter to your life as well.

And as a side note.  I watched more than one hour of tv.  My house is messier than it was yesterday and I am unusually tired.  While only one hour of tv feels draconian, some happy medium is going to have to be reached.  Perhaps this is part of my karma too.

So