K - A - R - M - A

Karma is a bitch.  But how do you know if the bad shit you are going through is the result of payback for something bad you had done or a way to prepare you for a flood of good fortune?  This is the question that is plaguing me today since I have heard good and bad news about friends and I am of course in a continual pattern of struggle.

So if this is a payback for as previous wrong indiscretion, how do I make amends if I am not sure what the indiscretion was in the first place?  If this is advance suffering for the good times to come, then on what scale do we define good times?  This becomes significant since in bad times, even the smallest thing can seem a jackpot, which then in the long run diminishes it.

Whatever the answer, I am ready to know which cycle I am in so I can plan accordingly.  But isn't the whole point of karmic retribution/reward that is it unexpected?  I have such headache now.