Karma is not fate but consequence — the universe's memory of action. Every deed leaves a samskara (impression) that conditions future experience. The mechanism is impersonal: karma operates like gravity, not like punishment. Hex 24 (Return) is the turning point, the moment when accumulated consequences circle back to their origin. Seven days and the return comes, the I-Ching says — not as moral judgment but as structural inevitability. Hex 18 (Work on the Decayed) is the inheritance of karmic debt: 'what has been spoiled through the father's fault' must be repaired by the child. The Hindu and Chinese traditions converge on this: the past is not merely remembered, it is actively present in the conditions we inherit. The difference is that Hinduism extends karma across lifetimes, while the I-Ching contains it within the sequence. The structural insight is the same: nothing is lost.