That's Karma, Man! — book cover, by Hugo Salles

Standalone work

That's Karma, Man!

Stop freaking out, accept the obvious, and learn to plant better what you want to harvest.

Kindle Unlimited Standalone work

About the book

Karma is not an entity with a little notebook recording your sins. It is cause and effect — and cause and effect can be managed.

Few Buddhist words have been treated as badly as this one. It became an internet joke, a veiled threat, a consolation for anyone waiting for the universe to send someone else the bill. None of those uses has anything to do with what the tradition actually describes.

That's Karma, Man! is the most direct and unceremonious book in the catalogue. Karma here is not destiny or cosmic punishment — it is consequence. And consequence has an enormous advantage over destiny: it can be managed. What you plant today largely defines the field of choices available tomorrow.

The book first dismantles the folklore — revenge-karma, merit-karma, karma as an excuse not to act — and then builds a usable reading: how to spot the patterns you keep feeding, how to interrupt a cycle before it closes again, how to choose actions by the result they produce rather than the intention you swear you had.

A short book, with a sharper and more pop tone, made for readers who have already tested longer methods and want to apply the same logic of cause and effect faster and less solemnly — without losing substance.

Who this book is for

  • Readers who use the word karma without being sure what it means
  • Anyone repeating the same pattern and unable to trace where it starts
  • Readers waiting for the universe to fix what only action fixes
  • Anyone who wants something short, direct and funny
  • Readers who prefer cause and effect to metaphysics

What you will find inside

  • What karma is not: destiny, punishment, merit and other confusions
  • How to identify the patterns you keep feeding
  • Intention, action and result — what actually counts
  • How to interrupt a cycle before it closes again
  • Why other people's karma is not your problem

From the book

“Karma is not an entity with a little notebook recording your sins. Karma is not the universe trying to teach you a lesson. Karma is basic physics, just applied to the mind. It is cause and effect.”

Frequently asked questions

Is karma punishment for things I did wrong?

No. In the traditional description, karma is action and consequence, not a moral judgment collected by someone. The book spends its opening chapters undoing precisely that confusion.

Is it a religious book?

No. It is a practical reading of a Buddhist concept, written in ordinary language and requiring no adherence to any belief.

Is it part of The Technologies of the Awakened Mind?

It is a standalone work, shorter and more direct, that converses with the series but can be read on its own.

Is it on Kindle Unlimited?

Yes, and also available for individual purchase on Amazon US and Amazon Brazil.

Start reading today

Available in English and Portuguese, on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

About the author

Hugo Salles is a writer, lawyer and executive. For over fifteen years he has led teams and projects — an experience that brought his study of Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism into contact with the concrete problems of everyday life. He has translated selected Buddhist sutras into Portuguese and writes The Technologies of the Awakened Mind.

Meet the author