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General
Buddhism |
Namo Dharmaya !
Hail to the Teachings
KARMA
CONTENTS:
The Sanskrit word Karma literally means action. In Buddhism, karma mainly refers
to one's intention or motivation while doing an action.
The shortest explanation of karma that I know is: you get what you give. In
other words; whatever you do intentionally to others, a similar thing will happen
to yourself in the future.
Our largest obstacle to understanding or even believing in karma may be time.
The re-actions or results of our actions show up with a time delay, and it becomes
extremely hard to tell which action caused which result. Actions done in a previous
life can create results in this life, but who can remember their past life?
For ordinary humans, the mechanisms of karma can be intellectually understood,
but never completely "seen".
From His Holiness the Dalai Lama's book Path to Bliss:
"Some people misunderstand the concept of karma. They take the Buddha's doctrine of the law of causality to mean that all is predetermined, that there is nothing that the individual can do. This is a total misunderstanding. The very term karma or action is a term of active force, which indicates that future events are within your own hands. Since action is a phenomenon that is committed by a person, a living being, it is within your own hands whether or not you engage in action."
Simply said, if we chose to ignore the workings of karma, we tend to create many problems for ourselves. For example, if we like to have something expensive, but we cannot afford it, it becomes very tempting to steal. If we are smart and attentive enough, we may never be caught stealing. However, by stealing, we create problematic situations for ourselves in the future, like poverty, or being the victim of robbers. Therefore, if we chose to ignore karma, the results of our actions will still haunt us.
Every mainstream religion teaches us about the consequences of our actions. The explanations may differ, but does it really matter whether the law of karma causes us trouble or God himself in his final judgement?
Two of my personal favourite reasons to believe in karma, are that it represents ultimate justice; everyone will harvest the results of their actions, and even if karma would not exist, if people would try to follow it, the world would be a better place to live in.
Good old science itself comes with another argument for karma. In physics and any other Western science, there is a direct causal relationship between action and reaction. It may be interesting to look at the next explanation of the four laws of karma and see how "scientific" it sounds.
As the Buddha taught:
Do not think a small sin will not return in your future lives.
Just as falling drops of water will fill a large container,
The little sins that steadfast accumulate will completely overwhelm you.Do not think a small virtue will not return in your future lives.
Just as falling drops of water will fill a large container,
The little virtues that steadfast accumulate will completely overwhelm you.
1.
Results are similar to the cause. Simply said, when I cause other people
harm, I will harvest suffering myself. It is important to note here, that
"positive" actions are defined as actions that have happiness as a result;
"negative" actions are defined as actions that lead to suffering as a result.
2. No results without a cause. As is obvious within science, things do
not just appear out of nothing.
3. Once an action is done, the result is never lost. Similarly as above,
things do not just disappear into nothing.
4. Karma expands. Once we have an imprint of an action in our
mind, it tends to be habit-forming. As is often said in wars for example, killing
the first enemy is tough, but after a handful, you lose count and it becomes
"normal". Psychology often stresses this point when e.g. explaining actions
of adults from childhood experiences.
WHAT IS NEEDED FOR KARMA TO RIPEN?
1. A previous action, or karmic potential.
2. Conditions: the circumstances must be available before I can undergo a specific
result.
3. A deluded mind. Without delusions in our mind, we will never experience
the results of previous actions. This happens to Arhats and Buddhas; their minds
are purified from delusions, and they will not experience karmic results.
The severity of the results of our actions depends on various factors:
1. Our intention or motivation.
2. The nature of the action: obviously, gossiping is less severe than killing.
3. The actual deed: whether we kill in self-defence or sadistically torture
someone to death.
4. The basis or object: it does make a difference whether we kill our mother
or an ant.
5. Repetition; how often do we repeat the action, which reinforces the habit.
6. Doing the reverse: if we always behave negatively to others and never try
to do any good, consequences will be severe.
How we experience the result of an actions does depend on our other actions in life. For example, if we experience the result of being hungry for a day, there is a huge difference whether we experience this as a malnourished person in a hopeless situation, or as a healthy fast chosen by an obese person.
Interestingly enough, the Buddhist answer to this question forces you to think
and decide by yourself.
Positive actions are defined as having a pleasant experience for oneself as
a karmic result, negative actions result in unpleasant karmic consequences.
Obviously, the results mentioned here are unlikely to come immediately, but
the karmic result may even take lifetimes to ripen. For example, if I steal
an ice-cream and enjoy eating it afterwards, the enjoyment is not a karmic result
of stealing; it is the result of feeding someone else. The karmic result of
stealing an ice-cream is that something will be stolen from me.
In A Living Buddhism for the West, Lama Anagorika Govinda expresses another approach:
"All the suffering of this world arises from a wrong attitude. The world is neither good or bad. It is only the relation to our ego that makes it seem the one or the other."
Nobody likes to suffer, so we all like to rid ourselves of negative karmic
potential.
There are several possibilities, and in fact we may need to try and apply all
of these methods as much as we can:
- To avoid having negative thoughts that lead to negative actions, we need to
observe our own thoughts and behaviour, and destroy our negative attitudes.
- Similarly, we can study ourselves and encourage positive thoughts that lead
to positive actions.
- We can avoid negative karmic seeds to ripen by purifying it, using the four
powers of purification (see below).
- Ultimately, when we realise emptiness directly (see the page on Wisdom),
and remove all our delusions, we are not under the control of past karma anymore.
The purification practices found within Buddhism are not unlike the practices
applied in many other religions. The most essential mental factor that one requires
is sincerity or honesty with oneself. When one wants to purify past negative
karma, some practice needs to be done with the correct motivation. This is summarised
in the following Four Powers of Purification:
1. Power of the Object: One should practice thinking of all sentient beings
one may have hurt. Traditionally, one remembers all sentient beings and the
Three Jewels of Refuge (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha), by generating compassion
for all sentient beings and taking refuge.
2. Power of Regret: This should not be senseless guilt or self recrimination,
which are said to be useless emotional torture. What is intended here is to
examine oneself and one's actions and to understand that negative actions done
in the past were very unwise.
3. Power of Promise: As a logical consequence of the above, one promises not
to repeat these negative actions. It is good if one can promise to avoid a negative
behaviour for a specific time, or at least promise that one will put effort
in avoiding repetition.
4. Power of Practice: Basically any good intended action can be used. Traditionally
in Buddhism, one can think of symbolic actions like making prostrations (throwing
oneself to the floor - as a means to destroy pride), making offerings (to counteract
greed), reading Buddhist texts (to counteract ignorance and negative thoughts)
etc.
It is often explained that one needs to clear a field by purifying, then planting
seeds by study and meditation, giving water and fertiliser by doing positive
actions, and automatically new sprouts will grow.
PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES OF KARMA
"What fisherman looks for water
In dry, dead riverbeds?
He who hopes for spiritual progress
But cultivates neither wisdom nor merit."
His Holiness the 7th Dalai Lama, from 'Songs of spiritual change' translated by Glenn Mullin.
To begin with, I need to understand that I cannot immediately change my present
situation, but I should understand that:
- The reason why I am experiencing this is only due to my own actions in the
past, my mind filled with delusions or positive thoughts, and the right circumstances
for the karma to ripen.
- I can chose to have a selfish reaction to my situation and create my own suffering
in the future.
- I can chose to have a reaction considering others' welfare and create happiness
for myself as well in the future.
- If I react without thinking, it is easy to create negative results for the
future, and even make that a habit.
- The others whom I like to blame for hurting me, are merely the circumstances
that make my negative karma ripen.
- Understanding karma means that I have full responsibility for everything that
happens to me in the past, present and future.
- Positive thinking and acting will do others and myself much more good than
being negative and acting that way.
In case you came this far, and the above did not bore you away, you are already
creating positive energy or karma.
It takes nothing special to create positive actions, you can do it, even with
a few simple clicks of your mouse and a compassionate thought.
Interested? Why not click one or all of the buttons below while you think of
the benefit to others.
If you want to go a simple step further, change the home page of your browser
to www.thehungersite.com and take a second to donate food for free every day
you go on the internet (see below how to do that). Can it be made any easier?
If you are using Netscape:
Click the EDIT - menu at the top of this page, and select PREFERENCES. Next,
click on NAVIGATOR and in the window that appears you can select that the browser
always opens with the home page, and you can fill in the hungersite web address:
http:\\www.thehungersite.com
If you are using Internet Explorer:
Click the VIEW - menu at the top of this page, and select INTERNET OPTIONS.
In the window that appears, you can fill in the hungersite web address: http:\\www.thehungersite.com
You want to do more than just clicking? Need some ideas? Try
the following links:
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Last updated: January 26, 2001
