Karma and reincarnation are key concepts in many Eastern religions. Good karma is accumulated through positive actions that we take during our lives, and bad karma through negative actions. The karma we collect during our lives will affect the nature and quality of our future lives. Positive actions you take in this life will yield positive future lives, and negative actions you take in this life will yield negative future lives. This process of rebirth, affected by karma, continues eternally.


These ideas of karma and reincarnation may seem difficult to integrate with western scientific understandings of reality. 
Who or what is doing this tallying of karma? 
How do we know that good or bad things that happen to us are caused by the karma of past lives instead of random chance? 
How could we know if reincarnation actually takes place? 


Using the lense of Life can give us a different way to understand these ideas. Consider an interpretation of karma where we evaluate an action by its effect on the survival and propagation of Life. Consider reincarnation as the Life forms of the future that will literally be made up of the same material and genetics that comprise us. Future Life will also live in the same environment that we leave behind. With this interpretation, we can come to a more concrete understanding of karma and rebirth. If we take actions that positively affect Life, future iterations of us (as Life) will benefit. And if we negatively affect Life by our actions, we (as Life) will be worse off.