RT that's an interesting description of karma. I've never thought of it as a concept of 'pass it on' but in a negative way. I do value people who try hard to refrain from taking out their pain on others and I try to follow this principle myself with mixed success. I have noticed perhaps in the last year how even the passing comments we make can affect others, not always negatively either, but I am starting to see how important we all are to the peace, or lack of it, each in our little bit of the world.
Regarding your inability to take pleasure in life, I get this and I battled with it too. It's something to do with having such a goal driven upbringing where every form of pleasure was trivialised in favour of 'theocratic' service. A woman from the children of God cult I heard speak at a seminar said exactly the same thing. After leaving she said it was very difficult to find meaning in life because everything seemed trivial compared to the great and magnificent purpose she had in the cult. Don't know if that helps I just thought you might like to know. I really enjoyed your thoughts on karma.