Karmic Relief: Harnessing the Laws of Cause and Effect for a Joyful, Meaningful Life

Meditation teacher Goldberg (Roadsigns) provides a thought-provoking exploration of karma and what it means to live according to its logic. He traces the term from its original meaning as the correct performance of ritual to curry favor with the gods, to its evolution in Indian culture into the notion that people reap what they sow as part of a just cosmic order. Chronicling its introduction into the West, he notes that karmic influences shaped the thought of Greek philosophers like Pythagoras and were later absorbed into such movements as German idealism, British romanticism, American transcendentalism, and the New Thought movement, which ultimately helped popularize the concept of karma in the United States and beyond. This popularization, Goldberg notes, has spawned erroneous notions of karma as a kind of inescapable destiny; in reality it’s “modifiable,” and, like a bank account, can be balanced. The author shares solid advice on boosting karma through sensible practices like serving others and forgiving oneself (which, he argues, drives home moral lessons more effectively than self-flagellation), though practices like mind-shifting, or replacing negative thoughts with more positive ones—which stems from the idea that, when it comes to karma, thoughts count nearly as much as actions—may be tougher for some readers to swallow. Still, it’s a nuanced and perceptive assessment of an oft-misunderstood spiritual concept. (Oct.)