Do nations as well as individuals have karma?  Each of us as individuals, as well as each group and nation, is continually creating karma, both good and bad.  All thoughts, words, or actions will sooner or later come full circle and return home to their creators. This is the universal Law of Cause and Effect, which is operating all the time, just like gravity, whether we choose to believe it or not.  Positive, loving thoughts and actions create positive results. Angry, hateful, fearful thoughts and actions return negative results to their creator in equal measure.

"What goes around, comes around" is a statement of fact. An African tribe puts this in a colorful way: "He who shits in the road, meets flies on his re­turn."  In the East, it is said that the wheels of karma grind slowly-- but exceedingly fine.

The purpose of karma is not to punish, but rather to educate and to help us evolve our consciousness. Karma is also called the Law of Balances as we are responsible for bal­ancing out the results of all the causes we have generated that are out of har­mony with the Law of Love, a fundamental principle of the universe. Through these experiences we learn that love is the "measure of all things," and that we will have lives of joy, beauty, and balance if we adhere to the Law of Love.

It is difficult to evaluate with certainty the karma of another person or group as the interacting forces of karmic causes are vast and complex--what the Buddhists call “co-dependent origination.”  Since everything is interconnected, assigning specific causes to specific events can sometimes be an oversimplification. Each action causes a ripple effect.

Nonetheless, there seem to be some interesting connections we can speculate about in exploring the possible karmic causes of events which can provide some helpful insights into national events. For example, towns in Mississippi that dumped sewage in their river for years, found that the sewage flowed back to them when the Mississippi River overflowed its banks in the great flood of 1993, as the flooding caused tributary rivers to flow in the opposite direction.  The flooding was also karmic because wetlands that had previously absorbed river overflow had been overdeveloped for profit.

What might be some of the karmic causes of terrorist attacks?  Ten years ago in our book Spiritual Politics we wrote that the United States may have experienced the karmic consequences of its arming and training religious zealots to defeat the communists in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and then abandoning support for them, as several of those it trained were reportedly involved in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.  And most significantly, one of those U.S. trained zealots was Osama bin Laden, who was implicated in the second World Trade Center attack in 2001.  Also contributing to the karma of terrorist attacks might be U.S. policies that support dictatorships, ignore human rights and contribute to the poverty and suffering of people.

Depleted ura­nium used in American shells to kill Iraqis in the 1991 Gulf war re­turned months later to the U.S. as soldiers who handled these shells developed strange illnesses from their exposure to them.

The key to karma is motive—beneficial karma results when the motive is pure, and painful karma when there is selfish motive.  The motives (and past karma) of all the players-- especially the leaders-- in an event contribute to the karmic balance. Negative karma was probably set in motion by the Bush administration by invading Iraq to control its oil and assure that world oil trade remain in U.S. dollars, and also by presenting false information about its weapons of mass destruction as the justification. 

However, the positive motive of many Americans (and especially the armed forces who served in Iraq) who at first sincerely believed they were selflessly liberating Iraq from an oppressive dictator may have offset some of the negative karma created by our political leaders.  And those thousands who courageously demonstrated against the war because they sincerely believed it was morally wrong, also contributed positive karma.  Significantly, in the early days of the Iraqi invasion, more U.S. troops were killed by friendly fire, than by the enemy—a reflection of the negative karma.  And just to make sure we get the point, American newspapers reported last April that the heaviest fighting since the U.S. invaded Iraq was in a town actually called “Karma” near Fallujah. 

The random sniper attacks that terrorized Washington D.C. last year occurred during the period when the decision was being made to start a war in Iraq and inflict random attacks on Iraqis with bombs raining down from the sky.  Significantly, the snipers turned out to not be foreign terrorists, but rather American citizens trained at our own military facilities, who seemed to be mentally unbalanced. 

But positive karma in the form of peace and abundance returned to the U.S. from its generous treatment of its enemies after World War II, as it helped rebuild war-torn Germany and Japan through the Marshall Plan.  And America’s welcoming of refugees over the centuries created the positive karma of a stronger citizenry with many talents and invited world goodwill for many years.

Karma came back to the U.S. in the form of inflation from the Vietnam War, as our government borrowed heavily to pay for the war.  Karma showed up more tragically in the psychological damage suffered by returning veterans, as thousands committed suicide. 

Karma is one of the primary means of spiritual growth.  It’s said, "Sow a thought to reap an act, sow an act and reap a habit, sow a habit and reap a character, sow a character and reap a destiny." 

Sooner or later, often after many painful experiences, individuals and nations begin to realize that each and every one of us is responsible for the consequences of our actions. In truth no one is ever really a victim of anything. Rather it means that we have drawn a difficult situation to ourselves because of past karma in order to learn why what we initiated previously was harmful. This is true even if past causes are not consciously remem­bered, as all learning is stored in the subconscious and is ultimately inte­grated into our character, our essential being.

For example, if we as individuals or as members of a group we have suffered great injustice at the hands of others, we often become highly sensitized to issues of injustice in relationships between people, groups and nations. This arena will then be where our soul moves us to take action to right injustices and im­prove fairness.

From this perspective, life's experiences can be seen as lessons to be learned from, rather than as something to react against, creating more problems and karma for ourselves in the future. We then begin to see the deeper truth of the statement "We create our own reality." The Law of Karma is a Law of Empowerment, for once we begin to understand how we are collectively creating our the reality we experience through our thoughts, words, and actions, we realize that we have the power to change our circumstances by changing the causes we are setting into motion. Eventually humanity will realize that we are each microcosmic creators, and that every day we are creating our future, both individually and collectively.

The Dalai Lama of Tibet spoke about karma when asked by a reporter for The New York Times why he wasn’t angry at the Chinese for killing his people and destroying the Tibetan culture.  He said, “The Chinese aggression must have come because of something we did, something bad.” But he said that “the chain of causes that will eventually undermine Chinese rule in Tibet must already be lengthening, even if it cannot yet be seen.”

As we learn how the universe works, we inevitably begin to take respon­sibility for our inner and outer actions. Forgiveness and desire for change are the keys to releasing negative karma--forgiving others for past hurts and forgiving ourselves for anything done to others. When we truly feel re­morse for past actions, we receive an inflow of spiritual energy that trans­mutes the energies of past mistakes, dissolving and neutralizing them. We therefore can change the past by how we think about it.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, which encouraged citizens to publicly acknowledge their past racist acts in return for not being prosecuted, was an enlightened way to release negative karma.

Time is not linear--it is spherical, and our true, eternal self lives in the center of the sphere, causing change in the future and the past. In a sense, we are just as influ­enced by our future as by our past. Once a lesson is learned through karma and through forgiveness of ourselves and others, we no longer have to continue suffering from its negative effects. This is the true meaning of the Law of Grace.

There is actually more positive karma in the world today than negative, although most people tend to think of karma as something bad that they have to be punished for. Good karma is accumulated through our many thoughts and acts of kindness, courage, patience, unselfishness, and giving to life.

So if our democracy, and the sacred trust it represents, has been violated in the recent election and voting machines tampered with, as many claim, what will be the karma of those responsible?  Much depends upon the motive, and the degree of knowledge and approval given by the political leadership for this manipulation. 

But each of us will also be affecting the collective karma and destiny of our nation by how we respond to this great crisis.  Do we react in anger and become more polarized and withdrawn, or do we work to shed light on the facts, and educate the American people about what is really occurring in our nation?  Can we develop the will to stand up and confront true evil—dishonesty and manipulation--while still maintaining a consciousness of oneness?   Can we help people feel secure without resorting to military dominance and violation of rights?

The key to releasing karma is willingness to learn the lessons provided, while still keeping our hearts open. After the humbling purification that returning karma will undoubtedly bring, we need to be ready collectively for a profound transformation in consciousness. 

Eventually, we will need to embrace the grain of truth on each side of the red/blue (right/left) polarity in American politics, and create a new and higher synthesis of the best of each side—strength and nurturance, morality and tolerance, unity and diversity. Can we find higher common ground on these polarized issues?  Can we heal our divided  nation?  This is the path into the future.