The First Law of Karma

This is an article about the First Law of Karma and how to use it for your life and business.

Do you know what karma is and how it works? Most of us have a loose understanding. What goes around, comes around. Right?

Well, in the most recent months, I have been inspired and drawn to Tibetan Buddhist teachings. It is said that all the Buddhist teachings come from ancient books over 2500 years old. From generation to generation, the concepts have been handed down from one teacher to the next.

For me, it all started with the book called the Diamond Cutter written by Geshe Michael Roach. This book takes the Buddhist teachings and applies them to business.

I found a simple definition of the first law of karma at the following website: buddhism.kalachakranet.org - first law of karma

Results are similar to the cause. Simply said, when I cause other people harm, I will harvest suffering myself. It is important to note here, that "positive" actions are defined as actions that have happiness as a result; "negative" actions are defined as actions that lead to suffering as a result.

This is so simple yet the implications are so vast. If you want to have "positive" results in your life, you need to cause others to have "positive" results. There is a slight caveat to the above and to use the same logic statement, it would be refined to say:

If you want to have "positive" results in your life, you need to intend to cause others to have positive results.

In the world of Karma, your intention to do good is what counts. The actual result is almost irrelevant.

For example, if you

1. intend to help someone,
2. perform a simple act such as opening the door for him/her,
3. and as a result, he/she snipes at you saying "I can do it myself",

you can consider that you have just made a deposit in your karma bank account. You intended to do well. Unfortunately, the good intentioned act was not well received. There is not much you can do about that once the full sequence of events has played out.

Just make sure you don't call them a jerk under your breath as you walk away. That would cause you to lose the deposit you just made and likely bring you back to the a), b), c) scenario you just experienced sometime in the near future.

Also notice that when you walk away calling the person you intended to help a jerk, it doesn't matter if he/she notices. The karma is still being generated. Cool eh?

Tips for Incorporating the First Law of Karma into your Life

Take two minutes at the end of your day. Just observe it. Be aware.

Don't make yourself wrong for the bad things. Start today because the more you start to apply this law, the more everyone else benefits.

That's the beauty of it!

I've been doing this for 30 days now and somehow, the universe appears to be conspiring to help me get what I want and present to me opportunities to help others get what they want. I think these Buddhist folks are onto something.

Feel free to pass this along to anyone you feel might get some good karma from my words.

Read more about the laws of karma and how to apply it to your business and life.

Return to the previous page, the Four Laws of Karma to learn about the other three laws of karma.