Karma: reclaiming the power to transform
Today, the word trauma is everywhere. We talk about intergenerational trauma, attachment trauma, and complex trauma. Trauma has become a sort of identity badge — a way to define oneself as the product of ancestral pain, dysfunctional systems, or emotional neglect – to the point where it has become an all-purpose explanation, even a justification. Of course, acknowledging the deep wounds of the past is vital on any healing journey but in a culture where every discomfort is pathologized, aren’t we at risk of losing something essential — personal responsibility? In other words, while these influences are real, let’s not fall into the trap of reducing ourselves to them and by doing so, narrating away our power to act.
Against this backdrop, karma offers a radically different, and in many ways, more liberating perspective. Often misused to imply fatalism (“That’s just their karma”), the true meaning of karma in Buddhist philosophy is about cause and effect. It doesn’t blame; it illuminates. It asks us to consider how our choices — conscious or not — create ripple effects in our lives and those of others; a perspective that I used to struggle with when I discovered Buddhist philosophy and practices in the early 90s. I was looking at life events through the lenses of emotions and judgements, and like most people, I found it difficult to accept that for everything that happens in someone’s life, one of the causes lies within them… Difficulty taking full responsibility for my very own circumstances.
In this view, karma isn’t punishment, it’s a mirror. It reflects the seeds we’ve planted through our actions, words, and thoughts — and it reminds us that we are always planting new ones, right now.
Turning karma into mission… Perhaps one of the most powerful and forward-thinking interpretations of the idea of karma is the concept of “turning karma into a mission.” Rather than seeing past causes as life sentences, this view suggests that everything we’ve lived — the pain, the struggles, the mistakes — contains the raw material for our higher purpose. This reconsideration of the true meaning of karma finds its origins in Mahayana Buddhism. It has expanded upon the ancient view that considers karma as a “fixed account” of all past deeds and thoughts. A view that is still held today in various forms of Buddhism in South East Asia.

This challenges the popular notion of karma as static, fixed, or backward-looking. It shifts the lens from “Why is this happening to me?” to “What can I build from this?” It invites us to alchemize suffering into service, to transform what has weighed us down into the very ground from which our mission grows.

In that light, karma becomes not just something to work through, but something to work with. Our past becomes fuel for our purpose. We stop trying to erase what has happened, and instead, accept our whole life, shadow and light* — as the foundation for creating something meaningful. Holding both: shadow and light.
This is not a call to reject trauma work. It’s a call to hold both: to face our wounds without clinging to them, and to recognize that healing is not just about processing pain — it’s about growing through it.

*This journey of integration — Holding both light and shadow — finds echo in the work of Carl Jung, who introduced the concept of the “shadow self” as the repressed or denied parts of our personality that, when acknowledged, can lead to wholeness. (Learn more on the “shadow self”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/jungian-psychology/shadow-self)
Karma invites us to stop waiting for external redemption and start creating internal movement. It’s a return to agency, to spiritual maturity. A reminder that no matter what happens, we always can choose how we respond, how we show up, how we move forward, and perhaps even how we serve.
A path to liberation: lessening of the karmic retribution
One of the most empowering aspects of Mahayana Buddhism is the teaching of “Lessening of the karmic retribution*.” Far from being a rigid system of cosmic punishment, karma is seen as malleable, capable of transformation when we engage in conscious, virtuous actions in the present.

This principle means that by cultivating compassion, engaging in spiritual practice, and acting for the benefit of others, we can transform the weight of past causes — and even reduce the suffering we might otherwise experience. It’s a hopeful, dynamic vision that honors both accountability and possibility.
*For a deeper look at this concept, read this article by Soka Gakkai International: “Lessening of the karmic retribution”. https://www.sokaglobal.org/resources/study-materials/buddhist-concepts/lightening-karmic-retribution.html
Trauma or Karma?
It’s not either/or — it’s both/and. Trauma helps us name what did hurt. Karma helps us understand that we’re growing. One speaks to our past, the other to our present power. And when karma becomes a mission, that power takes on direction. Because ultimately, what matters most isn’t what we’ve lived through, but how we use it to become more fully ourselves, and how we help others do the same.