Karma is essentially a very complex cycle of action that is moving forward towards its completion in slow motion. There is a sense of inevitability associated with it. If that cycle is hindered then all kind of repercussions result from it. Again those repercussions force the movement of that cycle toward its completion.
For example, a person borrows some money. To complete that cycle the debt needs to be discharged. If it is not discharged as it was agreed upon then various repercussions come about. This cycle continues to influence all those associated with it, one way or another, until that debt is discharged.
Parents raise their children with care. Children owe their parents for that care. When parents are old and vulnerable they need care. Children have to pay that debt to their parents to complete the cycle. If that doesn’t happen, and such incomplete cycles start to build up, then the social fabric starts to break down.
When a person with a ‘problem-body’ dies, and a person is born with ‘good-body’ but with memories of that ‘problem-body’ do we have the continuation of the same soul whose wishes are now fulfilled because of some good karma? The answer is not so simple. The only fact here is that a memory of another life is there. Whether it is the same soul can only be speculated.
The actual karmic cycle is that of the combinations of chromosomes that bring about a certain person. If you look objectively, there are physical atoms and molecules that go into the construction of the new body. The combinations of those atoms and molecules carry a programming that results in certain memories and considerations, which go into the construction of the new soul. There are infinite number of permutations and combinations in which all these atoms and molecules combine to produce a person.
So, a person is what he is. His memories are what they are. Memories are part of the current configuration of body and soul. One has to make the best out of the cards he is dealt with in this life, rather than trying to figure out why he is the way he is. Is this the result of some karma? Yes. But that karma is beyond that one person’s actions. It is karma at a much larger, universal scale.
So, what can a person do about it? Can he straighten out the universal karma? It is like asking, “Can a cell straighten out the whole organism?”
I think the answer is yes. I think that was what Buddha was trying to do. It is like a cell straightening out itself and the other cells around it, and this action then spreading out like a chain reaction reaching the scale of the whole organism.
For Buddha this “straightening out” was “mindfulness.” Mindfulness helps round up cycles toward completion. As smaller cycles get completed, the bigger cycles, of which they were a part, get completed, and then still bigger cycles get completed and so on. The universal karma is a very complex cycle.
I hope this makes sense.
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