In Buddhism, we talk about karma. Some people do not want to hear that word and say they do not believe in karma. But instead of calling it karma, we can just call it cause and effect and the meaning becomes very simple. Everything we think, everything we say, everything we do, has consequences. It means we know that whatever we do will produce effects that we will experience.

The Sanskrit word Karma (or kamma in Pali, or Chenyuan in Chinese Buddhim) literally means action. In Buddhism however, karma mainly refers to one's intention or motivation while doing an action. According to the teachings of Buddha, the circumstances of one's birth, both fortunate and unfortunate, are the direct result of past life karma. Every virtuous and non-virtuous word, thought, or action creates an imprint which at some point will be reflected back as either positive or negative karma. It is the karma of action that holds more consequence than the karma of thought. Also, it is one's intention, or mental attitude, that largely determines the weight of the karma.

“I am the owner of my karma .
I inherit my karma.
I am born of my karma.
I am related to my karma.
I live supported by my karma.
Whatever karma I create, whether good or evil, that I shall inherit.”

The Buddha, Anguttara Nikaya V.57 - Upajjhatthana Surta

The understanding of karma is part of Buddhism. Karma, in very simple terms, is cause and result. It is not reward and punishment. Reincarnation belongs to the law of karma. With this understanding, you know that if you have done good then somewhere there will be a good result and if you have done bad things then the result will be bad. Karma, or action and result, means that if you want to improve anything, yourself or something else, then you have to work on the improvement yourself - this is Buddhism.

The 4 Laws of Karma

1. Results are similar to the cause.
Simply said, 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.
Things do not just appear out of nothing.

3. Once an action is done, the result is never lost.
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.

How Karma is ripening?

1. Body
2. Word of mouth and of mind
3. Greed, anger and stupidity

It should be realized that without any karma to ripen at all, we could never experience anything unpleasant - most likely, when this occurs, we are in a blissful state of nirvana or full enlightenment.

The severity of the results of our actions.

The severity of the results of our actions depends on various factors:

1. Our intention or motivation - the intention is the most important aspect by far, as karma is mainly connected to the intention of the action, be it positive or negative.

2. The nature of the action: obviously, gossiping is less severe than killing.

3. The actual deed: whether we kill in self-defense or sadistically torture someone to death does make a difference, usually this directly related to intention.

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, and makes even killing feel less negative.

6. Doing the reverse: if we always behave negatively to others and never try to do any good, consequences will be severe.

The four powers of Purification

When one wants to purify past negative karma, one has to do some action with the correct motivation.

This is summarized in the following Four Powers of Purification:

1. Power of the Object:
One should practice thinking of all sentient beings one may have hurt.

2. Power of Regret:
What is intended here is to examine oneself and one’s actions and to recognize that negative actions done in the past were very unwise.

3. Power of Promise:
It is good if one can promise to avoid a negative behavior for a specific time, or at least promise that one will put effort in avoiding repetition.

4. Power of Practice:
Basically any positive action with a good motivation can be used as practice.

“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.”

From His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s book Path to Bliss, Snow Lion

Fate is in our hands

In a time long past, there was an old monk who, through diligent practice, had attained a certain degree of spiritual penetration.

He had a young novice who was about eight years old. One day the monk looked at the boy’s face and saw there that he would die within the next few months. Saddened by this, he told the boy to take a long holiday and go and visit his parents. ‘Take your time,’ said the monk. ‘Don’t hurry back.’ For he felt the boy should be with his family when he died.

Three months later, to his astonishment, the monk saw the boy walking back up the mountain. When he arrived he looked intently at his face and saw that they boy would now live to a ripe old age.

‘Tell me everything that happened while you were away,’ said the monk. So the boy started to tell of his journey down from the mountain. He told of villages and towns he passed through, of rivers forded and mountains climbed.

Then he told how one day he came upon a stream in flood. He noticed, as he tried to pick his way across the flowing stream, that a colony of ants had become trapped on a small island formed by the flooding stream. Moved by compassion for these poor creatures, he took a branch of a tree and laid it across one flow of the stream until it touched the little island. As the ants made their way across, the boy held the branch steady, until he was sure all the ants had escaped to dry land. Then he went on his way. ‘So,’ thought the old monk to himself, ‘that is why the gods have lengthened his days.’

Sources:

‘Living Dharma’ by Venerable Lama Yeshe Losal
Anguttara Nikaya V.57 - Upajjhatthana Sutta
Doctrines of karma and reincarnation by Dr Akong Tulku Rinpoche
Understanding Karma by Paramahamsa
Buddhist Karma by Rudy Harderwijk

Tag: Karma means action