ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Karma in Buddhism

Karma is a fancy word that means whatever you do or think will affect your life later on. Imagine you have a big piggy bank called "karma," and every time you do something good, like helping someone or being kind, you put some coins in the piggy bank. When you do something bad, like taking something that's not yours or being mean, you take some coins out. The more coins you have in your karma piggy bank, the better your life will be, and the fewer coins you have, the worse your life can be.

Buddhism says that karma can follow you not only in this lifetime but in the next ones too. So if you accumulate a lot of coins in your karma piggy bank, you will be better off in future lives. But if you do bad things, you may have a hard time in future lives. But the good news is that you can always add more coins to your karma piggy bank by doing good things and following the Buddhist teachings.

So in simple words, karma is like a bank account where you deposit good and bad deeds, and your future depends on how much you've saved or spent. It's an essential concept in Buddhism that teaches you to be kind, generous, and make good choices in life.