When you think of the word “karma,” what feelings come to mind? For many people, it evokes a sense of worry, perhaps even dread. In many popular understandings, karma refers to the idea that past mistakes or misdeeds will come back to haunt us one day, and they may even affect our present or future chances for happiness. We might imagine it primarily as a sort of cosmic mechanism for punishment. But unfortunately, thinking of karma in those terms may make it seem more like a looming threat than...