A simple truth of life is that we all influence and shape it, through our actions and choices. This is what karma means, not a ledger of good and bad deeds, with rewards and punishments dolled out, rather, the collective effect of every choice we all make. And by all, I mean all, not just human life, but all life. We choose, and do, and those choices have effects, and those effects have consequences. The web of karma itself is too complex for a single mind to comprehend. Even if we see the edges of our choices, we’ll never see the edges of the choices we can’t see even when they overlap with our own.
So, we change the world every day because we’re alive.
The web of karma is so vast, and the behavior of people at scale can at times be so rigid, that consciously trying to change that sea is impossible. I can call out to the heavens, or lament on social media, “oh if only people would be more kind,” and while it may effect the people who see my words, I have no control over their actions and choices. If my definition of changing the world is, “life is more just for all,” then I’ll never achieve this. I’ve set the conditions for my own failure, and may end up seeing only the failure I’ve defined. I control the outcome, and the price of that control is a failure to do what I set out to do. The price of my controlled failure is blindness to the truth, that I already change the world every day.
We have influence, and we shape the world, and that knowing can feel like a burden, to the point where some refuse to accept that responsibility, and believe that living in the delusion frees them from karma. Yet, there is no freedom from karma. Because karma isn’t a shackle. We can choose to see it that way, but the reality is that karma is a word to help describe this particular fundamental truth of life.
What if more of us saw the truth of our own lives, and accepted that truth? If we want to not just passively shape the world, but actively do so, could we accept that the immediate, knowable world around us could be changed for the better? That we can learn to see, and understamd what better means? That we could help others see it, if we so choose?
The paradox of change is that the bigger the change we seek to make, the less likely it is that we’ll enact that change. But that the smaller we make intentional changes, the more likely it is that we’ll contribute to the big change we thought we sought in the first place.
Lament not for the ‘failures’ you see in our culture, our lives, ourselves. Instead, face the truth, live the change you seek, love the truth of life, and affect the small world around you. In that act, you’ve already changed the world, and shown others how to do the same. Like a pebble thrown into a pond, the ripples go out, touching everything. And soon, others may throw their own stones, send their own ripples, and in that change everything.
Accept yourself, accept your agency, and accept this fundamental truth. In this acceptance, may you make the lives of those around you better. Including yourself.