Karma.

The word "karma" has traveled far from its origins. In everyday conversation, we use it casually: "That's karma" or "What goes around comes around." We imagine it as a cosmic scorekeeper, tallying our good and bad deeds, rewarding virtue and punishing wrongdoing somewhere down the line.

But what if this understanding, however familiar, only scratches the surface? What if it even obscures something far more liberating?

Let us take a gentle journey together, back to the roots of this ancient concept, and discover how its original meaning might transform the way we live, create, and meet ourselves.

The popular understanding of karma carries a heavy weight of judgment. Good karma. Bad karma. Cosmic punishment. Divine reward. It frames life as a moral ledger, where we accumulate debts or credits based on our actions.

But here is a quiet truth: judgment is an ego construct.

When we label something "good" or "bad," we are filtering reality through our limited perspective, our conditioning, our fear. We are placing ourselves as judges over the unfolding of life itself. And this, perhaps, is the very trap that keeps us separated from our wholeness.

In pure presence, in the stillness beyond the mind, there is no judgment. There is only what is. Things simply are, without needing to be weighed, measured, or condemned. A thunderstorm is not "bad." A sunny day is not "good." They are simply expressions of life, each with their own place in the larger unfolding.

Nature does not punish or reward. It simply responds. Cause and effect, endlessly flowing, without moral commentary.

This is the original heart of karma. Not judgment. Not punishment. But intention.

The word "karma" comes from the Sanskrit karman (कर्म), meaning simply "action" or "deed." In the ancient Vedic tradition, it originally referred to ritual actions performed to maintain cosmic harmony. Later, as Hindu and Buddhist wisdom deepened, karma came to mean something more subtle: intentional action.

In Buddhist teaching, karma is specifically volitional action, known as cetanā. It is the intention behind an action that matters, not merely the action itself. "Karma is intention," the Buddha is said to have taught. What we will, what we choose, what we set in motion with our hearts and minds, this is karma.

Think of it like planting seeds. Every intention, every conscious choice, is a seed dropped into the soil of our being. Under the right conditions, these seeds grow. They shape our habits, our tendencies, our inner landscape. They influence how we perceive, how we respond, how we experience life.

This is not punishment. It is not reward. It is simply how things work. As you act, so you become.

The seeds of fear grow into patterns of fear. The seeds of love grow into patterns of love. We are always planting, always cultivating, always becoming the harvest of our own intentions.

And here lies the profound freedom in this understanding: if karma is intentional action, then karma can be transformed. It is not a fixed sentence handed down from above. It is a living process, responsive to the quality of our presence, our awareness, our choices right now.

The ancient teachings tell us that karma can be transcended, not by running from it, but by bringing consciousness to it. Through spiritual knowledge. Through selfless action. Through devotion. Through coming home to who we truly are.

How does this understanding of karma weave into our journey here, on the Way of Creation?

If karma is intention, then every moment of creation is a moment of karma. Every brush stroke, every word written, every choice to show up and offer something real into the world. We are not just making things. We are planting seeds. We are shaping who we become.

And this invites us to create not from fear, but from love. Not from ego, but from soul. Not from judgment, but from presence.

When we create from fear, from the desperate need to prove ourselves, to control outcomes, to be "good enough," we plant seeds of contraction. We reinforce the patterns that keep us small.

But when we create from love, from surrender, from trust in the process itself, we plant seeds of expansion. We align with something deeper than our personal will. We become available to what wants to move through us.

This is the shift from living in the "pop karma" of external payback to living in the true karma of intentional presence. It is not about what life will "give back" to us. It is about who we are becoming in each moment of choice.

The Way of Creation is not about accumulating good karma or avoiding bad karma. It is about bringing such awareness to our intentions that we act from wholeness rather than fragmentation. From connection rather than separation. From the quiet knowing of the heart rather than the anxious calculations of the mind.

In this way, karma becomes not a burden but a gift. It becomes the very path of transformation.

So perhaps today, as you move through your life, you might pause and notice.

What seeds am I planting right now?
What is the intention behind this action, this word, this choice?
Am I acting from fear or from love?
Am I creating from ego or from soul?

There is no judgment in these questions. Only curiosity. Only presence. Only the tender willingness to meet yourself exactly where you are.

Because in the end, karma is not about what the universe will do to you. It is about what you are doing to yourself, moment by moment, intention by intention.

And in that awareness, everything can change.

As you act, so you become.