Quote Originally Posted by ShlupQuack
BoB, tell Linus to shove it. Karma is a belief that good deeds will be rewarded in the next life (not this life). Such as jerks get reincarnated as spiders and cool people get reincarnated as richer people. That's the way I learned it in my fancy pants college.
Karma literally means, cause and effect. So if a person performs good actions in their life, they'll be rewarded with good results. From my understanding of it, Karma doesn't only apply to reincarnation as you described it. Karma exists in every action that prompts a reaction, so it applies to everything in this life as well as in the next.