The concept that your personal treatment of people affects their treatment of you is also an old trope in business management circles. The best managers are always those who generate good feelings (admiration, respect, etc) in those they manage. This is one aspect of leadership, a concept that has been closely studied since the 1970s.

The least believeable aspects of your post are the “chain letter” style stories, where an act of kindness is quickly repayed from a totally unconnected source. This kind of story is a staple of late-night TV and spam e-mails. It’s enticing to think the world works that way, but it’s typically more a factor of cherry-picking the data than any real measurable effect. As Mark pointed out, a real consideration of this type of effect must include the bad as well as the good, and not just that, but all the bad and all the good.

Just to be clear:
I’m not trying to discourage people from doing kindnesses and living their lives in an open, warm, and giving way. My point is that there are limits to what one can expect in return. Giving is a good in its own right, and if managed properly can aid the giver as well as the receiver. It does not take a mystical explanation to see why. And, there are limits to what giving, alone, can do for a person’s life.

From a Buddhist perspective the ones that pass the test and indeed get off the ferris-wheel do not reincarnate anymore. (Duh

@Jonathan:
It’s courageous to isolate a concept from Buddhism and put it in a corprate, Western world context. People tend to respond from a dualistic perspective, and also the common idea is that death is bad, so creating a *real* discussion about this topic is very complicated. It SEEMS to be about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ karma, whereas good and bad are concepts from a dualistic view. There are simply thoughts, words and actions that lead to enlightenment and actions that don’t. Not everyone is into the enlightenment thing, though
I wish you wisdom in dealing with the responses to this, thank you for your article!

A while ago I wrote an article in Dutch, which is called ‘ the commercial power of karma’, so I pondered the topic for a while, too
For your Dutch readers:
http://www.lancelots.nl/ontwikkelen/ondernemerschap/karma-commerciele-kracht

How sad is that? So something that I may have done in a past life, that I have NO recollection of could damn me in this life… And yet the whole concept of reincarnation is so you can start over and have another chance to learn from your past failures. That’s nice when you are playing video games, but if a person were to come back and yet have zero recollection then learning never takes place. What a trap that is.

Also, if reincarnation was real and people did keep coming back and learning from the their mistakes in an effort to self-improve and get off the reincarnation ferris-wheel then wouldn’t we as humans over the years be ‘better’? Over time you would expect humanity to improve – which is not happening.

People should be kind to others because they DO get something out of it, but it’s not karma points. They hopefully get others being kind in return. You know, what your mom taught you – treat people the way that you want to be treated.

Anyways, keep searching Jonathan – the truth is out there

Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. I believe the Buddhist reply would be that it’s not so much the act of the individual “as he/she exists in this lifetime,” but the collective actions throughout many cycles of life “as that person may have existed” that may come full circle in seemingly unjustifiable ways.

This is not always the easy answer to digest from a modern standpoint and, for sure, the scenario you describe is the one place I, myself, am still trying to get comfortable with this notion, though I don’t rule out anything at this point in my life and I continue to study and ask my teachers these very questions. As I learn more, I am happy to share.

Looking past this, though, the bigger message of the article is in-sync with your bigger picture message, too – which is to offer something to inspire people to lead their actions, even in a business setting, with acts that will leave the world a better place.

It would be amazing if this came naturally to people, I know I try to cultivate kindness as the motivation for my personal actions. But, unfortunately, in today’s world, the reality is that often people need a more me-oriented hook upon which to motivate acts that will impact others beneficially. Which is why the Dalai Lama said it is better if the motivation was kindness, but still okay if it was self-serving, because the net result was greater acts of service in the world.

Have a great week ahead!

To believe in karma is to believe that the victims of 911 deserved what they got – that they all did something to make those men fly planes into a building. Or that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold only shot students that in some way deserved it. That any victim gets what they had coming to them because of their past actions.

The reality is that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. There is NO correlation. Think Princes Diana got what she deserved? Or Steve Irwin? Mahatma Gandhi – Martin Luther King Jr. – Abraham Lincoln – Cassie Bernall and countless others? I don’t.

I have addition problems with some of your other comments that I have addressed here in a post entitled, “Karma – I Got A Problem With It”

Hope you’ll have a read and if you have questions, let me know.

mark