Karma

Category: Dharma

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• Chinese :  yin guo
• Pali :  kamma
• Sanskrit :  कर्म karma

Karma means action, generally taken as a term 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. Individuals go through certain processes and accompanying experiences throughout their lives which they have chosen, and those would be based on the results of their own creations. Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward. The law of Karma simply deals with the causes of all deeds actively created past and present; and the effects in all present and future experiences; thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy brought to oneself and others. All living beings are responsible for their karma and for their release from samsara.

Karma is strictly distinguished from vipaka (result). Karma is one of the element in the chain of cause and effect. Any action is understood to create seeds in the mind which will sprout into the appropriate vipaka when they meet with the right conditions. Certain types of karmas, with good or bad result, will keep one within the wheel of samsara; others will liberate one to nirvana.

• Karma is really happening -- it is not an illusion.
• You are really responsible for your actions. There is no outside force like the stars or some gods or evil being acting through you. When you are conscious, you are the one who decides what to do.
• Your actions will have its results -- you are not just writing on the water -- and those results can be good or bad depending on the quality of the intention behind the act.

References

• Treatise on Response and Retribution by Master Chin Kung
• Liao-Fan's Four Lessons
• Development in the Early Buddhist Concept of Kamma/Karma by James Paul McDermott
• Exploring Karma & Rebirth by Nagapriya
• Freedom From the Bondage of Karma by Rama
• Karma and Chaos : New and Collected Essays on Vipassana Meditation (Vipassana Meditation and the Buddha's Teachings), Pariyatti Publishing
• How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent-Arising by Geshe Sonam Rinchen
• The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan by William R. LaFleur
• Karma 101: What Goes Around Comes Around...and What You Can Do About It by Joshua Mack
• What is Karma ?. By Enlightened Master Tathagata