Muito simples...

“In simple terms, what does karma mean? It means that whatever we do, with our body, speech, or mind, will have a corresponding result. Each action, even the smallest, is pregnant with its consequences. … Although the results of our actions may not have maturated yet, they will inevitably ripen, given the rght conditions. Usually we forget what we do, and it is only long afterward that the results catch up with us. By then we are unable to connect them with their causes…. The results of our actions are often delayed even into future lifetimes;… What you are is what you have been, what you will be is what you do now.”

Sogyal Rinpoche, Karma, Evolution, Karma and Rebirth, The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying, Rider, London, 2002.