Karma is cause and effect plain and simple. Karma has been made out to be this entity that rewards you or punishes you based on whether or not you're a good person. That's not what karma is at all. We believe that when someone is a bad person, they will get the karma that is coming to them and when they don't appear to get any karma, we then say that we don't believe in karma since they didn't get what was coming to them. At the same time, we believe that we are a good person who deserves good karma and get frustrated when our good karma doesn't come around. It's very frustrating waiting for bad people to get their bad karma while us good people don't get our good karma. Karma is not an entity that doles out punishment and rewards based on how good or bad someone is.
Every action that we do is a cause which results in an effect. Cause and effect are simultaneous even though we may not see the effect until a later time within time as we know it. We tend to see the cause and the effect as two separate events, of which are not related, when in fact they are not two separate events but one, they are only separated by time and time is an illusion. Karma is the combination of the two events which only appear to be separated by time. As soon as an action is committed, the effect is cemented in place and cannot be changed. That is karma, karma is the effect to your actions. There isn't a single action that we do that doesn't have an effect. There can be no cause without effect, just as there can be no effect with no cause. When something happens to us, it is simply because we caused it to happen, with our own actions. We are not being rewarded or punished based on our actions.
Since karma is one event which only appears to be separated by time, we have the ability and power to change our karma right now in the present if we so choose. What other time is there but now? We've probably heard people talk about clearing our karma which in turn makes us think that it is something we will never be able to escape or be free from. We will be forced to spend eternity making up for our past karma. That's all bullshit, all we have to do is change our behavior now, change our actions now, change our thoughts now, accept everything as it comes now, and allow all future effects from past causes to come as they will without fighting them. It really is that simple. We all face our own karma; we all face the effects of our own actions. Karma is not some entity that goes around making sure everyone gets what is coming to them at all times.
We all have to take responsibility for ourselves and our own actions. No one else can clear our karma, no one else can suffer the consequences of our actions for us, and no one else can take the effects from our causes. It's so much easier to blame others for what goes "wrong" in our lives instead of looking at ourselves and figuring out what we are doing (cause) to create the situation within our lives (effect). We create our own karma in every moment, with every decision we make, and every thought that we think. When we don't take the responsibility for ourselves and blame others and turn karma into some kind of entity, we will never be free from karma. If we want to be from karma, all we need to do is accept responsibility for every single thing that happens to us and within our own lives. Stop blaming others and accept the fact that we choose what happens to us.
The universe operates under the law of cause and effect and is always looking to return to a neutral state of balance. When we do anything, the universe requires there be an effect in order to balance itself out. Love and Peace!