What Is Karmic Debt?

Karma refers to the energy created as a result of your actions and relationships during your current and past lives. Karmic debt means that something negative happened in the past that must be addressed in the present or the future before you can continue to enjoy your life fully. The idea of karma has roots in ancient Eastern philosophy and later became a key proponent of Buddhism. Today, it shows up in many New Age philosophies and was secularized by the popular television show "My Name is Earl."

Types of Karmic Debt

Karmic debt can be accumulated in many ways. These include romantic relationships that ended badly and situations in which you actually caused someone physical, emotional or psychological harm. However, karmic debt often stems from more mundane instances. For example, if you wanted to stand up to a family member or friend but were too scared to take action, then this instance becomes part of your karmic debt. You will have to stand up to this person, or someone representative of this person, before you can move forward with life. Likewise if you failed to thank someone for something, you may accumulate karmic debt and would need to express your gratitude. While karmic debt normally applies to relationships between humans, this does not have to be the case. For example, someone who dedicated a career to cutting down trees or doing something else that harms the environment may feel karmic debt to the natural world. The debt may be settled by becoming an environmental activist or donating time and money to conservationist efforts.

Ways to Settle Karmic Debt

As described above, the most common way to settle karmic debt is to do something to directly counteract it. For example, if you acquired the debt because of a negative relationship with someone, make a point to build a positive relationship with him now. However, not all debts must be settled this way. Sometimes karmic debt exists simply because you perceive it to exist. For example, you may feel responsible for someone when, in fact, her choices were her own, and you really did nothing to hurt her. In this case, karmic debt is settled by making a conscious choice to release yourself from responsibility and to let go of any negative emotions linked to the situation.

The Purpose of Karmic Debt

Karmic debt is a means of helping people learn. Every debt provides a lesson, and these lessons allow your soul to evolve. Karmic debt is not a punishment. It may feel uncomfortable because it requires you to confront past hurts and fears. However, these uncomfortable sensations leave when the debt is paid. In reality, karmic debt is a means of helping you replace pain and fear with peace and hope so that you will be more healthy and powerful in the future.

The Connection Between Karmic Debt and Soulmates

According to popular New Age philosophy, people involved in romantic relationships and close friendships are usually drawn together for one of three reasons. They are soulmates, they are twin flames or they owe each other karmic debt. Soulmates are like classmates in the school of life. They consistently choose to share lifetimes together and have a friendship that spans lifetimes. Twin flames are the masculine and feminine sides of the same soul. They manifest separately for lifetimes and rejoin at key periods in the earth's history and when it's time for them to stop manifesting as humans and return to the eternal consciousness from which they originally came. Finally, karmic partners seek out each other's energy. Their relationships often begin with great passion yet end without any attraction. These relationships may also leave one partner feeling particularly drained. When karmic partners part, this is a sign that (a) business has been settled and debts are paid or (b) the timing is not right to accomplish these goals and it's all right to move on.

Considerations

The idea of karmic debt complements religions and philosophies that support the idea of reincarnation. However, it's not necessary to believe in reincarnation to benefit from knowledge of karma. In a completely secular sense, you may think of karmic debt as meaning that past actions affect the present. In order to feel more fulfilled, you must make peace with the past, either by confronting it directly or by making the conscious decision to let it go and move forward with life.