What is karma? The literal meaning of karma is action, and it has been used in many different ways to define the levels of human interaction, to define the nature which is manifesting in one's life. Action is usually founded on projection, assumption, misunderstanding; and therefore karma is generated. Now, mostly people have a very superficial understanding of karma. Karma, of course, we know means cause and effect and we usually think of karma in terms of "You kicked the dog yesterday, the dog bites you today".
So, it's external things. Actually karma is much more subtle than that. There is what we could call the external level of karma, which is things producing tangible external results. This is the area where most people think of it. By the way, karma is nothing to do with punishment. It is cause and effect right across the spectrum. From the most harmful act producing the most devastating result, to the most altruistic act producing the most beneficial result. So karma relates to all our activities. But a much more important level of karma is; every time you do, think or say something an imprint is left in the deeper levels of your mind. So it is called karmic imprint and that imprint is what moulds the way you are.
Those imprints are the basis of our tendencies, of our predispositions, of the way we are without thinking about it. So we are moulded or we are moulding ourselves by the way we use our mind. For example, if you habitually give way to anger, the imprints you leave in your mind are deepening imprints to strengthen anger. Therefore, anger will strengthen as a result of that. If however, you consistently practice generosity, forbearance, kindness, the imprints you create are according to that and you will become kinder, more gentle, more generous, more peaceful. This is why understanding karma is so valuable, because then we understand why training the mind is so effective.
In our life, similar situations occur repeatedly and we respond to them all the same way. For example, suppose when you were a school boy(or girl), you giggled in the class and the teacher heard you and punished you hard. You thought you were so unlucky. Thereafter, you often meet similar situations in life and every time you respond by thinking that you are such a unlucky person. You wonder why this should happen to you all the time but find no answer. The reason is this: Each one of us responds differently to any given situation because everyone has a different background. However, regardless of how each one responds, if the response accompanies strong emotions like fear, hurt, etc. that emotion remains even after the situation is over.
Later, if you meet a similar situation, this emotion revives from your memory and makes you respond the same way as before. You have no choice the emotion controls your response. Furthermore, this emotional charge grows stronger and stronger each time and it gets power to attract similar situations because the emotional charge stored in your memory (neural nets) is a vibrating energy and by force of resonance, it attracts the same frequency. To learn more visit http://www.frequencyawareness.com