Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म from the root kri, “to do”, meaning deed) or Kamma (Pali: meaning action, effect, destiny) is a term in several eastern religions that comprises the entire cycle of cause and effect. Karma is a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do. The effects of those deeds and these deeds actively create present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one’s own life, and the pain in others. In religions that incorporate reincarnation, karma extends through one’s present life and all past and future lives as well.
The ‘Law of Karma’ is central in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, & Jainism. (These religions were formed in India). All living creatures are responsible for their karma and for their salvation (or release from samsara). As a term, it can be traced back to the early Upanishads.
The ‘Law of Karma’ is taught in the esoteric Christian tradition, Essenian and later Rosicrucian, as the ‘Law of Cause and Consequence/Effect’ [1]: the Law being mentioned by Paul of Tarsus in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (15:55,56). However, this western esoteric tradition adds that the essence of Christian teachings is that the law of sin and death may be overcame by Love, which will restore immortality.
Karma in the Dharma-based religions
Hinduism
Karma in Hinduism differs from karma in Buddhism and Jainism, and involves the role of God. Within Hinduism, Karma appears to function primarily as a means to explain the Problem of evil. The concept of Karma is an integral part of Hindu idealism.
One of the first and most dramatic illustrations of Karma can be found in the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. The original Hindu concept of karma was later enhanced by several other movements within the religion, most notably Vedanta, and Tantra.
Karma literally means “deed” or “act” and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction which governs all life. Karma is not fate, for man acts with free will creating his own destiny. According to the Vedas, if we sow goodness, we will reap goodness; if we sow evil, we will reap evil. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determines our future. The conquest of karma lies in intelligent action and dispassionate reaction. Not all karmas rebound immediately. Some accumulate and return unexpectedly in this or other births.
It is considered an entirely impersonal and spiritually originated law that cannot be abrogated by any person but may be mitigated by God. Karma is not punishment or retribution, but simply an extended expression of natural acts. The effects experienced are also able to be mitigated by actions and are not necessarily fateful.
Buddhism
In Buddhism, the ‘Law of Karma’ is used as an ethical principle, rather than a cosmological explanation for the world. Buddhists believe that the actions of beings will effect their own future, and because of this there are no private actions: all actions have a consequence.
It should be noted that the emphasis of karma in Buddhism is on cause, not on effect: Buddhists do not say “it was due to her karma that it happened to her” - indeed the karmic consequences of one’s actions are dependant on sufficient conditions, and therefore it is a mistake to identify Buddhists as fatalists, and likewise it is a mistake to think that Buddhists believe that victims are getting their ‘just desserts’.
Buddhism distinguishes samsaric happiness (birth in the high realms), from the final state of enlightenment: nirvana; so likewise there is samsaric good karma, which leads to the high realms (such as the human realm), and then there is liberating karma - which is supremely good.
Therefore the major dichotomy is samsaric karma and liberating karma, of which the former is typically divided into the three: good, neutral, and bad (in accordance with the degree of samsaric happiness or suffering that will mature as a consequence).
It is worth remembering that term karma is often used to refer only to samsaric karma, as indicated by the twelve nidana of interdependence.
This differentiation between “good” karma and “liberating” karma has been used by some scholars to argue that the development of Tantra depended upon Buddhist ideas and philosophies. [citation needed]
Due to the inevitability of consequence, Karma entails the notion of Buddhist rebirth; death is no escape in Buddhism! However, karma is not the sole basis of rebirth. The rebirths of eighth stage (and above) Bodhisattvas in the Mahayana tradition refers to those liberated beings who consciously choose to be reborn in a future life in order to help others still trapped in Samsara.
Analogs of Karma
If we accept that the basic ethical purpose of Karma is to behave responsibly, and that the tenet of Karma may be simply stated ‘if you do good things, good things will happen to you - if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you’, then it is possible for us to identify analogs with other religions that do not rely on Karma as a metaphysical assertion or doctrine.
Karma does not specifically concern itself with salvation - it is just as important within a basic socio-ethical stance. However, as a mechanic, Karma can be identified in purpose with the concept of God’s relation to ‘good works’ as found within Christianity, as well as any other religions that assert an omniscient, omnipotent judge, as Hinduism considers with respect to the role of Karma.
Similarly, the Egyptian goddess Maàt (the divine judge) played a similar an impartial role meting out justice in a manner very similar to Karma; Maat could not be appeased by faith or regret - an action done was done, with no space for the more recent theistic concepts of grace, as Hinduism allows for its role of God.
Western interpretation
An academic and religious definition was mentioned above. Millions of people believe in it and is a part of many cultures and the psyches of millions of people. Others without religious backgrounds, especially in western cultures or with Christian upbringings, become convinced of the existence of Karma. For some, karma is a more reasonable concept than eternal damnation for the wicked. Spirituality or a belief that virtue is rewarded and sin creates suffering eventually leads to a belief in Karma.
According to Karma, performance of positive action results with the reaction of a good conditioning in one’s experience, whereas a negative action results in a reaction of a bad response. This may be an immediate result following the act, or a delayed result occurring either in the present life or the next. Thus, meritorious acts may create rebirth into a higher station, such as a superior human being or a godlike being, while evil acts result in rebirth as a human living in less desirable circumstances, or as a lower animal. Some observers have compared the action of karma to Western notions of sin and judgment by God or gods, while others understand karma as an inherent principle of the Universe without the intervention of any supernatural Being. In Hinduism, God does play a role and is seen as a dispenser of karma; see Karma in Hinduism for more details. The latter understanding is accurate with regard to Buddhism and Jainism.
Most teachings say that for common mortals, having an involvement with Karma is an unavoidable part of day-to-day living. However, in light of the Hindu philosophical school of Vedanta, as well as Gautama Buddha’s teachings, one is advised to either avoid, control or become mindful of the effects of desires and aversions as a way to moderate or change one’s karma (or, more accurately, one’s karmic results).
Some people have problems with the teaching on karma, but what exactly is the Buddha asking you to believe in when he asks you to have conviction in karma? First, action really is happening — it’s not an illusion. Second, you really are responsible for your actions. There’s no outside force like the stars or some good or evil being acting through you. When you’re conscious, you’re the one who decides what to do. Third, your actions have results — you’re not just writing on the water — and those results can be good or bad depending on the quality of the intention behind the act.
New Age and Theosophy
The idea of karma was popularized in the Western world through the work of the Theosophical Society. Kardecist and Western New Age reinterpretations of karma frequently cast it as a sort of luck associated with virtue: if one does good or spiritually valuable acts, one deserves and can expect good luck; conversely, if one does harmful things, one can expect bad luck or unfortunate happenings. In this conception, karma is affiliated with the Neopagan law of return or Threefold Law, the idea that the beneficial or harmful effects one has on the world will return to oneself.
There is also the metaphysical idea that, because karma is a force of nature and not a sentient creature capable of making value judgments, karma isn’t about good and evil deeds, since applying those labels would require those judgments, but about positive and negative energy, where negative energy can include things not seen as “being bad” like sadness and fear, and positive energy can be caused by being creative and solving problems as well as by exuding love and doing virtuous acts. It is referred to as “omniverse karma” or “omni-karma” because it requires the existence of an omniverse (a space which contains all possible universes), and includes concepts such as souls, psychic energy, synchronicity (a concept originally from Carl Jung, which says that things that happen at the same time are related), and ideas from quantum and theoretical physics.
Psychology
A popular misconception of Karma is that it is based on the idea that people get what they deserve. Within the context of religion, this could not be further from the truth: For Buddhism and other religions, the doctrine of Karma provides a deep-rooted focus on responsibility for one’s actions, and does not function to provide an explanation for the fortunes or misfortunes of individuals or populations: The principle of Karma is that every action counts - regardless of whether or not it is perceived by the community. It introduces the notion that ‘private’ actions will still have ‘public’ consequences.
Psychologist Melvin Lerner showed experimentally that people have a cognitive bias that predisposes them to think that innocent victims deserve their suffering and beneficiaries of good fortune their windfall. This just-world phenomenon (hypothesized to be caused by the need for people to see the world as a just and orderly place in order to avoid cognitive dissonance) bears striking resemblance to the popular misconception of karma.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Karma”.
