Karma or Fate or Both

Sorry I've neglected this little space of mine ... I've opted to go back to a more traditional form of thought tracking (i.e. pen and paper) ... I'm also not completely sure I'm ready to really express all my thoughts. I guess I think some things are better kept private. If I had to sum it all up though ... I guess confusion, chaos, off balance, emptiness, melancholy, up, down, and anger would be some words I would use to describe it ...

Back to the reason I'm here though, Karma or Fate. Are things meant to happen or do things happen because of prior actions? On the one hand you have karma which means that all events have a direct root cause in your past. Something that you've done directly or indirectly plays a part in your future. In this sense when things are great you can only congratulate yourself ... and when things are bad, you can only blame yourself.

On the flipside you have Fate. Fate dictates that everything happens the way it was meant to happen. Life and all that encompasses occurs just as it should. There can really be no blame, and regardless of whether or not you understand it things will occur as they should. This can be comforting in the sense that all the negativity arises from outside forces that you have no control over. At the same time anything that could be labeled as "good" is also not of your own doing.

Overall I find people have a tendency to believe in one or the other ... I have a tendency to believe in both, unfortunately I believe in karma for the negative and fate for the positive which actually means that anything good comes about not from my actions, but from an outside force. All the negativity occurs due to past actions that have somehow triggered a series of events ... in the end you take no credit for your accomplishments, and all the blame for your failures. Depressing isn't it?

I don't think you can believe in both ... I think I need to choose ... or maybe I need to choose option D: "none of the above".