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“You don't believe in karma?” She said. I agreed and she was shocked that someone couldn't believe in something that was, at least to her, a basic truth.

I actually found this kind of failure to comprehend as a common trait among those people who considered themselves to be very spiritual. Usually those folks would assume that all spirituality would follow the general guidelines of their preferred spirituality. When explaining alternatives, as I was wont to do, I would often refer to things in such a way so that the person would more understand the concept. Sometimes I wouldn't know the actual answer but because I believe in truth I would strive to give one anyway. Hence the one time when I explained to some evangelical Christians the Hindi use of astrology.

Of course, most Christians view astrology as some kind of archaic system of divinity that has no place in Christianity. I had to explain to those Christian souls that yes, Hindus look at the stars for guidance but it wasn't the same as the astrology they read in the daily paper. They struggled to make the connection and so one of them said “It's like a prayer?”

Yeah, that is the default answer for some people. It's like a prayer. It covers just about everything.

Time, of course, told me how inaccurately I had addressed that question. I now have a better understanding that Hindu priests use astrology to determine auspicious dates for life events. My new found knowledge would not have changed my answers in the conversations I had, but only make me realize that sometimes I manage to find truth without intending to.

So … karma. It's ultimately a tool that some religions use to crowbar people into making righteous moral decisions. It's really a threat—mess up this time and you're going to have to wait in the Department of Motor Vehicles line forever only to have the clerk reject your driver's license reinstatement due to the fact that you haven't been neutered by a bunch of frenzied kittens.

But yeah, as I so politely told that lady in that worn clapboard house outside of town,it was bullshit. I was there to ask her opinions about politics. At first she was reluctant because she thought I might be offended, but I was being paid to be there and I was ready to pay her for her opinions. I handed her a fifty dollar bill after asking my questions and she said “Wow, my karma is good today!”

So I said “I don't believe in karma.” And look where it got me.