# Karma *Canonical page: https://ra.contact/concepts/karma* *Last updated: 2026-06-25* *The carrying-forward of unbalanced action between incarnations, resolved not by punishment but by forgiveness.* ## What Ra means Ra gives karma a mechanical definition: inertia. Actions set in motion continue — using the ways of balancing — until the controlling principle is invoked (34.4). There is no cosmic judge in this picture and no ledger of guilt. The momentum of an action carries forward because that is how action works, and it continues until something stops it. What stops it is forgiveness: Ra calls inertia and forgiveness inseparable concepts (34.4). Importantly, the stopping can happen at any point and by anyone involved in the original action — the entity who set the inertia in motion, or the other-self affected by it. Understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness at any moment in an incarnative pattern can ameliorate karmic momentum without waiting for some future lifetime (34.5). Ra uses an automotive metaphor: forgiveness brakes the wheel, stopping it entirely. The term itself appears only a handful of times in the corpus. Two of the most vivid appearances involve specific historical figures. In one, Ra identifies a pattern of distorted relations with a mate/teacher in a well-known entity's life as a development of karma (35.1). In another, forgiveness spoken at the moment of death is described as stopping a wheel — the karmic absolution of a long chain of action (17.20). ## In Ra's words Karma as inertia, and forgiveness as the only thing that stops it: > Our understanding of karma is that which may be called inertia. Those actions which are put into motion will continue, using the ways of balancing, until such time as the controlling or higher principle, which you may liken unto your braking, or stopping, is invoked. This stoppage of the inertia of action may be called forgiveness. These two concepts are inseparable. > > — [34.4.2-5](https://ra.contact/sessions/34#34.4) Forgiveness can brake karma at any point in an incarnation — by self or by those involved: > This is, in general, correct. However, both self and any involved other-self may, at any time, through the process of understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness, ameliorate these patterns. > > This is true at any point in an incarnative pattern. Thus one who has set in motion an action may forgive itself and never again make that error. This also brakes, or stops, what you call karma. > > — [34.5.2-6](https://ra.contact/sessions/34#34.5) Forgiveness spoken at the point of death as the absolution of an entire karmic chain: > The entity was absolved karmically of the destruction of an other-self when it was in its last portion of lifetime and spoke upon what you would call a cross saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” In forgiveness lies the stoppage of the wheel of action, or what you call karma. > > — [17.20.7](https://ra.contact/sessions/17#17.20) ## Every use Every line where Ra uses this term, in its own context, chronologically. 9 uses, first at 9.2. - [9.2](https://ra.contact/sessions/9#9.2) — …together. The relationships varied. There is balanced **karma**, as you call it; each thus the teacher of each. The work… - [10.1](https://ra.contact/sessions/10#10.1) — …was to place upon itself a type of what you may call **karma** alleviation. For this purpose they came into incarnation… - [10.4](https://ra.contact/sessions/10#10.4) — …were able to remove the accumulation of what you call **karma**, thus being able to accept a third-density cycle within a… - [17.20](https://ra.contact/sessions/17#17.20) — …lies the stoppage of the wheel of action, or what you call **karma**. - [34.4](https://ra.contact/sessions/34#34.4) — I am Ra. Our understanding of **karma** is that which may be called inertia. Those actions which… - [34.5](https://ra.contact/sessions/34#34.5) — …make that error. This also brakes, or stops, what you call **karma**. - [35.1](https://ra.contact/sessions/35#35.1) — …sense, developing a pattern of what may be called **karma**; this karma having to do with inharmonious-relationship… - [35.1](https://ra.contact/sessions/35#35.1) — …developing a pattern of what may be called karma; this **karma** having to do with inharmonious-relationship distortions… - [35.8](https://ra.contact/sessions/35#35.8) — …the concept of freedom. This entity did not gain or lose **karma** by these activities due to its detachment from any… --- Source: *The Ra Contact: Teaching the Law of One* — Don Elkins, Carla Rueckert, Jim McCarty, published by L/L Research (https://www.llresearch.org/). The transcript is quoted verbatim; Catalyst contributes the navigation, the lexicon and the guides. Citations are `session.question` — `14.7` is the seventh exchange of session 14, and reads at https://ra.contact/sessions/14#14.7. Any page's markdown twin is its URL plus `.md`.