You tend to look at your life through the lens of cause and effect. This perspective assumes that acts motivated by generosity, love, and kindness will create effects or outcomes reflecting that motivation. More precisely, you believe that these acts will create the space from which generous, kind, and loving outcomes are likely to arise. Conversely, you believe that acts of malicious intent will create and foster outcomes of suffering, pain, and difficulty.

The belief in cause and effect is presented by many religions as an axiom: Do good, and good will be done to you; do bad, and bad will happen. Of course, there are many exceptions to this rule: Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. What is in error with this cause-creates-effect or intention-creates-outcome thinking is that your deeds — no matter how good they might seem — can be seen from another viewpoint as bad.