I think perhaps that the concept of karma is one of the most misunderstood of esoteric laws. After all, the ageless wisdom does teach that everything that happens to us right now, our station in life, the people we meet, the way our day goes, are all effects of prior causes either from this present life or from our previous ones, i.e. it's our karma.
At this point, one may either feel a certain desperate helplessness at being tossed about by the waves of effects coming into one's life, or a sort of rebellious anger at the way things are going. Or one may be oscillating between these two states. Unfortunately, staying in these states makes one miss out on opportunities to turn things around. After all, karma is also called the Law of Cause and Effect, and while many people recognize bad karma, many also forget that there is good karma as well. So while there may be little that one can do about the effects coming into fruitition right now, one can still put into action good causes today that will bear fruit as good karma later on.
The issue can get more complicated with all the dire predictions about 2012 and other possible disasters. The fear generated by this knowledge can hammer one into inaction and a "there's nothing we can do about it" attitude, which is a mistake, since the future is always malleable.
What can one do then, in order to create these good causes so that the negative effects, if not neutralized, will at least be mitigated? The simplest formula is given by the Bible, which is basically tithing and good works. There is also of course proper conduct and character development (do unto others what you would have them do unto to you). One should also reflect on one's past actions and learn one's lessons. This can only happen if one accepts responsibility for everything that happens in one's life, both good and bad.
Another way that one can make use of the Law of Cause and Effect is that of giving what one wants to receive. What you give out comes back to you in full measure, with interest, and this concept can be used positively as well as negatively. Need more money? Then help people who need money. Want to always have food? Then share food to the hungry. This way, one can shape the specific effects that come back. This is useful if one is targetting a specific result, as opposed to tithing which is more general. But it would still be good to combine the two methods, because one never knows when one may need the good karma to deal with a situation that wasn't anticipated. If one will look closely, this is also another use of the Law of Attraction.
This is an important point to consider, since a lot of people are so taken nowadays with the Law of Attraction, popularized by The Secret and dealing almost exclusively with attracting prosperity. Many forget that there are other esoteric laws, and they are all intertwined. Thus to get the most out of them, one needs to have a basic understanding of all these esoteric laws. One other thing that people should take note of is that karma supersedes anything one might be doing to attract prosperity. Good karma is the way not only to lasting prosperity but to an overall good life as well.
Later on, one may notice that after doing so much tithing and service, either there is no improvement or some bad things still do happen. Although karma is difficult to quantify, the question is, how much negative karma have we really accumulated from our present life and our past lives? Perhaps one is still paying off all that negative karma before one's life can start to turn for the better. And if bad things still do happen, take note that in that form they may have already been mitigated (instead of having a hand amputated, you just suffer a nasty cut in the kitchen, for example).
One of the favorite metaphors of kabbalists is that of the tree, and particularly of seeds. If you look at the seed of the tree, you are looking at the entire potential of a tree, even though it has not manifested yet. If there is anything wrong with the seed, it will show itself as some sort of malady once it grows into a tree. This is what happens when we plant negative seeds and they manifest as pain, sickness or bad luck in our life. Consequently, if you cure the sickness at the seed level, then you also cure the entire tree. Whereas if you only tried to take care of the branch, the sickness is still there because you are only treating the symptoms and did not get to the "root of the matter."
Let's look at it in another way. Say you are getting recurring headaches, so you take a painkiller so it goes away. Then it turns into a migraine and you look for even more powerful painkillers. Finally your whole life revolves around how to "cope with" your migraine. If one does not do inner reflection, it just spirals downward from there. What if the cause of the recurring headaches and the migraine is your punishing work schedule and high stress? Without addressing this "seed", even if one is able to control the migraines one might soon have to deal high blood pressure, and further on even a heart attack. This is why inner reflection and asking for help from God is important, so that one is granted the wisdom to find the seed and correct it.
How does this apply then to the worldview, on what one can do to mitigate all the negative things happening in the world right now? The solution, after taking care of one's self, is to help raise the consciousness of other people. All the pain, injustice and atrocities we see around us are all effects of negative choices by a lot of people, from the people in power to the lowly janitor. Greed, envy, denial of the existence of anything other than the physical, these all contribute to the darkness around us. You may catch the thief, but if the conditions that cause people to steal are still there, more thieves will still come out of the woodwork. So you can either concentrate on catching thieves, or you can remove the conditions that create thieves in the first place. This is what it means to be a teacher and helping bring Light to other people. Of course, this only goes up to a certain point, because it will be the people affected who will have to make the decision to change. The teacher can only show the door, it is up to the person to go through it.
It's really a challenge to accept. Now there is no excuse to shout "Why me?!" because by one's past actions, it is indeed you! YOU created what happened to you today, sometime in the past. Nothing happens arbitrarily, no matter if it seems that way. But it would be an equal mistake to stop there, because one can still define and shape one's future. Again, taking responsibility and admitting one's mistake is key. Everything that we are right now, everything that is happening to us, is the sum of all our previous choices, either in this life or the last.
One of the worst places to be is to be in denial about all of this, because how can one fix something when one is not even aware that something is wrong? Again, nothing happens by chance. Even a stubbed toe or forgetting the keys in the car after locking it all have prior causes. The trick is to discern what those causes are. It's a very complicated subject, but it will be well worth one's while to at least exert an effort to understanding it.
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