Problems arise due to 

our misunderstanding cause and effect. 

Although we may think we understand karma, or cause and effect, we really don’t.

Or at least not fully. Karmas, or causes, are good, bad, or neutral actions. Neutral means the activity is neither good nor bad morally. So these karmas don’t pose any problems because they don’t carry retributions.

Good karmas have retributions, but they’re good. No problem here, other than the fact that we don’t create enough of them.

Clearly, our problem is bad karmas. Then why do we keep committing them when we know they result in suffering? One reason might be that we don’t grasp the pervasiveness of karma. It does not pertain only to major actions. It is not intermittent. Cause and effect concerns everything, everywhere, all the time. Yes, we need to pay attention to major karmas, but our minor daily actions have consequences too.

And good, fortunately, or bad, unfortunately, they add up.