It's all about karma
In Hindu belief where the term karma originated the good and bad a person does, by intention or by deed shall return to them either in this life or in a later one. In the West we have a belief system that is similar using the expression: "what goes around, comes around". What you do in this life will determine whether you are rewarded or not in this or the next, which can have an influence on an individual's current life or their cycle of rebirth.
Our choices and their consequences keep changing the reality we experience. Karma is the consequence of old choices, old beliefs and old attitudes - which unconsciously create and re-create similar consequences, until we become conscious of them and choose to change them. In the ancient Sanskrit language "karma" meant "action". Karma is an opportunity to correct old mistakes and make our lives (and ourselves) better.
That being the case with our future largely determined by what we do in this lifetime, we consciously want to create a good life for the best karmic results. So how can an individual create such positive possibilities? One such way is to regularly meditate. The very nature of meditation creates within an individual the aspiration to seek higher experiences and to transcend their negative qualities. This inner transformation originates from the seeker's spiritual heart whose very nature is one of compassion, self-giving, concern, happiness, tolerance and kindness: all positive karmic energies. As a result the heart's aspiring qualities manifest themselves within an individual's thoughts and deeds, inspiring them to do as much good and as little bad as possible.
According to Buddhist philosophy every birth is conditioned by a past good or bad karma, which predominated at the moment of death. Karma that conditions the future birth is called Reproductive Karma. The death of a person is merely 'a temporary end of a temporary phenomenon'. Though the present form perishes, another form which is neither the same nor absolutely different takes its place, according to the potential thought-vibration generated at the death moment, because the Karmic force which propels the life-flux still survives. It is this last thought, which is technically called Janaka Karma, that determines the state of a person in his subsequent birth. This may be either a good or bad Karma.
Sri Chinmoy the meditation teacher says,(1) "It is for the sake of the soul's growth that karma exists. The universe is governed by the law of karma; one's deeds and thoughts leave their impression upon one's causal body and bring about certain results. At the same time the soul is far beyond the snare of cause and effect. It is the hyphen between all that precedes and all that succeeds. It is enriched by all the experiences that the personality derives through the law of karma".
So its a simple matter depending on which philosophy you have faith in. Your life's current thoughts, actions and deeds shall flow on bringing you either positive or negative karma in this life, or the next. And the postive aspiring qualities of the spiritual heart, realised through meditation sees the seeker consciously bringing their best qualities forward extending the hand of friendship, good-will and kindness.
Ref: (1) From Sri Chinmoy book - Yoga and the Spiritual Life.
Biography - Sahayak Plowman by nature is a calm, positive and happy person. He attributes this to the growing experiences gained through his own meditation practice with the guidance given by his meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy. He is a writer on spiritual topics, compiler of a published book of poetry Sri Chinmoy's Heart-Garden, meditation teacher and web master for Sri Chinmoy Books.com