Karma is often described as cause and consequence extended across lifetimes.
Karma
Karma, understood in its fuller metaphysical sense, is the long arc of consequence that extends beyond a single lifetime-an accumulation of intentions, actions, and inner tendencies that continue shaping the conditions into which a soul returns. When its effects are immediate or unfold within the same lifetime, we often call it Cause & Effect; when the pattern stretches across incarnations, we call it Karma and Grace. It is not retribution but continuity: the unfinished lessons, unresolved impulses, and unintegrated behaviours we carry forward until they are transformed. In human interaction, this perspective softens judgment and sharpens responsibility. It suggests that what we cultivate now-our motives, our habits of heart, our willingness to act with integrity or avoidance-becomes the soil of future experience. Karma, then, is less a cosmic ledger and more a long-term curriculum, guiding us toward greater coherence, compassion, and self-understanding across the span of many lives.
