Karma in Buddhism

Ayoub Laissouf

HUM 5368 01

May 03, 2016

 1

Buddhists around the world see the law of karma as the most important law that governs

the universe. For that reason, they strive to understand it so that they may find a sense of peace

and wholeness. Buddhists believe that if one lives his life in a way that is out of harmony guided

by ignorance of the nature of things, that person will experience suffering and pain. Still, they

regard the law of Karma as one of the most prominent natural laws that through it people create

their own various realties. Buddhists believe that, when one recognizes the law of causality, or

karma, then his world will become clearer and has some meaning to it; he will comprehend that

he is the creator of his world, and he did that through the action of his mind, speech, and body.

Besides, he will realize that he is the only one responsible for his own fate and the circumstances

that he is living under whether good, or bad; if h is living a happy life, then, he should thank

himself for that, but if he is living a miserable life, then he should blame no one but himself.

However, he should keep in mind that his future life is still in his hand and he could shape it or

mold it the way he likes

Buddhists believe that karma tells us that we are the architect of our fate; our fate is in

our hands. We construct our present life and the future one. We are all artists, but the materials

that we are using isn’t marble, nor paint but plainly our minds and bodies as the main mediums

for our own creative expression. Peck says, “Karma – our actions and their results (fruits) –

governs our present reality, determines our future, and explains some of our past.”1 This paper

will shed light on karma in Buddhism and cover mostly all its aspects in Buddhism.

What Is Karma?

1
Alexander Peck “Insights into Karma - The Law of Cause and Effect by,” Free-eBooks.net, accessed April 30, 2016,
http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Insights-Into-Karma-The-Law-of-Cause-and-Effect.17.
 2

Karma in Sanskrit means deed or action. Karma is the law of cause and effect that

concerns with volitional acts. The law of karma stresses that all intentional acts yield certain

results that ultimately will be felt by the doer of the action. Karma simply tells us that

wholesome deeds produce good karmic effects, and unwholesome deeds produce bad karmic

effects. In other words, when our deeds are motivated by hatred, delusion, and greed, then, we

are creating the karmic conditions for pain and suffering, but if our actions are motivated by

wisdom, love, and generosity, then, we are planting the seeds of happiness and joy. Hanson and

Stewart used an analogy to explain how the law of cause and effect works; they said, “If we plant

an apple seed, the tree that grows will bear apples, not mangos. And once the apple seed is

planted no amount of manipulation or beseeching will induce the tree to yield a mango. The only

meaningful action that will produce a mango is to plant a mango seed. Karma is just such a law

of nature.”2 Besides, karma emphasizes that every action that one may undertake through his

mind, body, or speech, will have a corresponding result. Whatever deeds we do even the smallest

ones are pregnant with their results. According to Riinpochi, the Buddha said,

Even a little poison can cause death and even a tiny seed can become a huge tree. Do not
overlook negative actions merely because they are small; however small a spark may be,
it can burn down a haystack as big as a mountain. Similarly he said: do not overlook tiny
good actions, thinking they are of no benefit; even tiny drops of water in the end will fill
a huge vessel.3

Karma cannot be ridden of using water, fire or time; it doesn’t become inoperative or

disappear until it is ripened. Another way to understand karma is to think of it as a lift in a

building that takes people from one floor to another; good actions lead to upward movement, the

2
Virginia Hanson and Rosemarie Stewart, Karma, Rhythmic Return to Harmony (Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2001),
61-62.
3
Sogyal Rinpoche, the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller
(HarperCollins, 2009), 96-97.
 3

higher realms, while bad actions usher to downward movement, the lower realms. Buddhists

don’t see karma as a system of punishments and rewards regulated by God but as a natural law

similar to the law of gravity. That means people themselves are the authors of their good and bad

luck. According to Harvey,

The law of karma is seen as a natural law inherent in the natural things like a law of
physics. It isn’t operative by a god, and indeed the gods are themselves under its sway.
Good and bad rebirths aren’t, therefore, seen as rewards and punishments but the natural
result of certain kinds of action. An action is like a seed which will sooner or later as a
part of a natural maturation process results in certain fruits accruing the doer of the action
just as one my get tasty edible fruits or edible bitter ones depending on what seeds one
plants.4

How Karma Works?

Chodron states that any action that we do intentionally using our bodies, speeches, or

minds leaves marks on our mind-streams, and when the right conditions come, that seed gives

fruits. For instance, if we provide help to someone who needs it, this benevolent act leaves seeds

upon our mind-streams, and when time is right, that seed will ripen, and we will receive help

instead. Besides, if a deed brings suffering and anguish in the long term, then, it is named non-

virtuous; however, if it yields happiness and abundance, then, it is named virtuous. The point

here is that actions or deeds aren’t inherently bad or good, but they are designated through the

consequences that they produce.5

Yun and Lee assert that the law of cause and effect functions through cyclic repetition; a

specific volitional act yields a certain karmic consequence. Then, this consequence is reacted to

and that ushers to another karmic consequence and so forth. The life that we have today is

4
Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (Cambridge University Press, 2012),
40
5
Thubten Chodron, Buddhism for Beginners (Shambhala Publications, 2012), 101.
 4

constructed on our own reactions to situations that we fashioned ourselves; our reaction to our

own karma keeps us living in delusion and trapped in samsara. The Buddha said that people

cling to the delusion of the cycle of death and rebirth, for they cannot see beyond it. They aren’t

able to escape it because they don’t understand how it works. It is karma that keeps people

trapped in that cycle. Nevertheless, if they comprehend how karma works, then, they will be

liberated.6

What Makes a Deed Karmically Good or Bad?

The intention or the will behind an action is what determines the nature of karma: good,

or bad. Keown and Prebish state that,

The Buddha defines karma by reference to moral choices and the acts consequent upon
them. Moral actions are unlike other actions in that they have both transitive and
intransitive effects. The former is seen in the direct impact moral actions have on others;
for example, when we kill or steal, someone is deprived of his life or property. The latter
is seen in the way moral action affects the agent; for example by instilling good, or bad
habit.7
Buddhist teachings stress that humans have free will and through the choices that they make

freely, they engage in self-determination. In short, individuals shape their own lives through their

moral choices. By clinging to some sorts of things, a person builds his character and through his

character he creates his future. Keown said, “As the proverb has it; sow an act, reap a habit; sow

a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”8

The Types of Karma

Generally speaking, there are three basic kinds of karma: the karma of the mind, speech,

and the body. However, Buddhist texts revealed other types of karma and are the followings:
6
Hsing Yun, Pey-Rong Lee, and Mu-Tzen Hsu, The Core Teachings (Buddha’s Light Publishing, 2008), 41
7
Damien Keown and Charles S. Prebish, Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Routledge, 2013), 438
8
Damien Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP Oxford, 2013), 41
 5

Neutral Karma, Good Karma, and Bad Karma

Shangari asserts that, there are some actions which yield good karma such as helping

other people through articulating encouraging words or giving charity, and some actions that

produce bad karma such as harming oneself or other sentient beings through stealing, killing or

engaging in sexual misconduct. However, there are other actions which don’t produce karma, the

unintentional acts that don’t have good or bad results which called neutral karma. The latter

incorporates also the involuntary behaviors such as eating, walking, sleeping, and breathing.9

Individual and Collective Karma

Yin and Lee say that, the shared karma of various beings is called collective karma; for

instance, because sentient beings share the same karmic causes, they are born on this planet;

thus, they have the same consequences. Besides, the country or the city in which we live share

the same karmic results, for it is part of the collective karma. If a city is hit by an earthquake or

swept by flood, that is a karmic result shared and experienced by all people who live in that area.

Buddhists also divided the collective karma into “karma that is shared by all and karma that is

unshared by all.” For example, if an earthquake hits a city, all people in that city will be affected;

this is a karma that is shared by all, collective karma. Nevertheless, the physical and the financial

damage that may be sustained by each person will be distinct. Some may die, some may be

injured, some may walk unscathed without a scratch on them, some may lose their houses or

business, and some may not.10

Though individual karma is different from one person to another, it is divided like

collective karma, shared and non-shared karma. For instance, sentient beings could show distinct
9
Himanshu Shangari, Heaven and Hell Within - Part II: Karmic Personality Development (Notion Press, 2015), 132.

10
Hsing Yun, Pey-Rong Lee, and Mu-Tzen Hsu, The Core Teachings (Buddha’s Light Publishing, 2008), 43.
 6

emotions and reactions about one situation. For example, every member in a family has his/her

own karma, but if one of them dies, the rest will experience grief and pain. We call this, shared

karma within individual karmas.” Still, if two strangers come across each other in a restaurant or

a cafe, they could share the same situation but may not react the same to it. We call this non-

shared karma within individual karmas.11

The Four Types of Karma that Operate at the Time of Death

Peck asserts that weighty karma, proximate karma, habitual, karma, and random karma

could operate at the moment of death and for that play a pivotal role in determining the

circumstances of rebirth. Weighty karma refers to either skilful or unskillful deeds that were

done during one’s lifetime and generate a very powerful karmic force that makes them take

precedence over other deeds in conditioning the nature of the next rebirth. Among those actions

on the unskillful side are killing one’s mother or father. On the skilful side, the realization of

nirvana. If there is no weighty karma, then, proximate karma takes precedence; it is the karma

that was remembered or performed in the last moments before dying.

However, if no one of the two aforementioned types of karma exist, then, rebirth is

determined by the habitual karma which refers to the actions that one has done frequently.

During the moment of death these habitual actions come naturally to the mind. These three kinds

of karma are the predominant karmic force. However, if none of these three kinds of karma is

operating, then, any act that one has done during his lifetime may come to mind in the dying

moment. The latter is called random karma.12 Thus, we can say that the past karma could become

operative, or inoperative, in a given situation, depending on the appropriate conditions and the

11
Ibid, 43-44.
12
Alexander Peck “Insights into Karma - The Law of Cause and Effect by,” Free-eBooks.net, accessed April 30, 2016,
http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Insights-Into-Karma-The-Law-of-Cause-and-Effect, 254-255.
 7

right time. Goldstein and Kornfield wrote about a narrative from the time of the Buddha that

explain the proximate karma,

There was a man who had killed many people during his life. He was eventually caught
and condemned to be executed. Just as he was about to be killed, he saw some monks
walking by and remembered that he had once offered food to the Buddha’s foremost
disciple Sariputra. Because his last thought was the remembrance of that act of generosity
(proximate karma), he was born in one of the heaven realms. […] That fortuitous
remembrance in his last moment before being executed allowed him to free himself from
the net of suffering in which he would otherwise have been caught.13
Karma and the Differences between People

In this life, it is obvious to notice that we, human beings, have extreme differences

between every one of us. Though we may be born in the same area, in similar circumstances, or

even in the same family, everything happens to us is totally different; we have distinct qualities,

talents, social statues, destinies, tendencies, characters, and traits. Who, or what dictates that this

person should be rich and that should be poor? Who, or what makes a person healthy and another

sick? Is it God; is it some kind of mysterious force manipulating and regulating the universe. For

Buddhists, it isn’t God, or a god who makes these choices because even gods themselves are

under its law. It is karma, the law of cause and effect which controls and regulates everything.

Hanson and Stewart state that, the Buddha was asked by a man about the reason behind

the distinct circumstances, qualities, and characteristics amidst sentient beings. What makes a

person dies old and another young? Why some people are foolish and others are wise. What

makes some ugly and some beautiful. Why some are rich and some are poor? The Buddha

responded to these questions saying that it is people’s previous actions that explain their current

situations. The abstinence from killing results in enjoying a long life; thus, taking a life results in

having a short life. Abstaining from hurting other beings results in being healthy. Ugliness comes
13
Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom (Shambhala Publications, 2001), 147.
 8

from hatred and anger, while beauty comes from love and kindness. Wealth comes from being

generous in previous lives, while poverty is a result of being greedy and mean. Besides, being

wise comes from the fact that a person in one of his previous lives used to seek knowledge and

wisdom, while the foolish didn’t.14

If one asks this question, when the Buddha gained this knowledge about karma. Rinpoche

answered this question saying,

In the second watch of the night when Buddha attained enlightenment, he gained
(knowledge) of karma, the natural law of cause and effect. The Buddha said, with the
heavenly eye, purified and beyond the range of human vision, I saw how beings vanish
and come to be again. I saw high and low, brilliant and insignificant, and how each
obtained according to his karma a favorable or painful rebirth.15
Supporting what is said before, Chodron asserts that, when we look around the world and

see that untruthful people are wealthy and powerful, while honest people are suffering and

always in pain and agony, we may doubt the law of karma. The reason for that is that we are

looking just at this life. However, we should understand that, the situations and the

circumstances that we are living under in our current time are the results of our deeds in previous

lives. Besides, several actions that we have done in this life may bear fruit or ripen in future

lives.

The fortune and the abundant money that cruel people are enjoying currently is the result

of their generosity in preceding lives. If these rich people are mean or cruel toward the poor

today, then, they are planting the seed to experience poverty in the next life. The people who

have power and influence, but they misuse them are constructing the cause for future suffering.

14
Virginia Hanson and Rosemarie Stewart, Karma, Rhythmic Return to Harmony (Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2001),
63-64.
15
Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller
(HarperCollins, 2009), 111.
 9

Moreover, genuine people who aren’t living a happy life, or who die young are experiencing the

results of their past lives, but their positive actions in this life will make them happy in the next

one.16 Rinpoche wrote that, the Buddha said “What you are is what you have been, what you will

be is what you do now. Padmasambhava went further and said, if you want to know your past

life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present

actions.”17

Karma and Predetermination

Many people mistake karma for fatalism and believe that all the things that occur to a

person are due to his previous karma However, this is not the case because karma and

deterministic fate are utterly different concepts. Gowans says that, although the current state of a

person or the circumstances that one may live under are determined by his past actions, the

actions that one may carry out at a given time is not determined by his karma. The Buddha was

in a complete disagreement with some of his contemporaries, who believed that whatever befalls

a person is due to some previous actions, and emphasized the freedom of sentient beings in terms

of choosing the morally better or worse course. He stressed that human beings have the capacity

to differentiate between right and wrong and the capacity of a free choice; they can resist the past

conditioning and start behaving in a new pattern. If karma is equivalent to fate and one’s present

life is totally controlled and conditioned by his previous actions, then, this belief will encourage

inaction and more importantly will diminish the belief that humans could become morally

better.18

16
Thubten Chodron, Buddhism for Beginners (Shambhala Publications, 2012), 126.
17
Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller
(HarperCollins, 2009), 110
18
Christopher Gowans, Philosophy of the Buddha: An Introduction (Routledge, 2004), 105.
 10

Tenzlng says, “If the doctrine of Karma were to advocate complete determinism it would

have gone against the very spirit of the scriptures, which enjoin certain prescriptions and

prohibitions, because if one is bound to do what one does all prescriptions and prohibitions

would be rendered useless.”19 Regarding the same point Peck also states that, “Not everything

that happens in the present, or that affects us, is the result of karma. Many physiological and

environmental factors influence us. These include physical laws, biological laws, spiritual laws,

and laws of mental activity. Karmic causality is only one variable among others.”20

Mindfulness

First of all, mindfulness means that to be completely aware and mindful of every thought,

word, and action. Mindfulness plays a pivotal role in understanding the working of karma.

Goldstein and Kornfield state that, clear understanding and the suitability of the purpose are two

aspects of mindfulness. The former means that one should be mindful and fully aware of the

things that he is doing; when he walks, he knows he is walking; when he eats, he knows he is

eating. Being aware of every action one makes in the moment leads him to regard the suitability

of the purpose. These two aspects help one to know whether the action is wholesome or

unwholesome and whether they will bring the results that one seeks and desires, or not.21

However, when one’s awareness of the things that he does is weak, that means, he has

little, or no sense of clear understanding and suitability of purpose; for that, one may not be

19
Thupten Tenzlng, Bulletin of Tibetology (Namgyal Institute of Tibetology., 1996), 13.
20
Alexander Peck “Insights into Karma - The Law of Cause and Effect by,” Free-eBooks.net, accessed April 30, 2016,
http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Insights-Into-Karma-The-Law-of-Cause-and-Effect, 202.
21
Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom (Shambhala Publications, 2001), 143.
 11

aware of his intention as well as may not pay attention even to the action itself. That means he is

driven by the habitual pattern into certain deeds that may result in undesirable consequences. The

understanding that, results are conditioned by actions makes Buddhists interested in what they

do. Buddhists believe that every action even the insignificant ones bear results and condition the

future of its doer along with his mind. If one becomes angry, or greedy even for few moments,

he cultivates negative thoughts, for unskillful thoughts leave their marks in the mind, and when

they are experienced again and again, they become habitual and they start conditioning the mind;

The is how it works also for skilful thoughts. It is like this example, drop by drop a bucket gets

filled by water though each drop may seem insignificant.22

Acording to Lhundrup,

By practicing mindfulness we can become discerning about the thoughts we let into our
mind. We can check our motivation for carrying out an action. What are the
consequences of the action? Is it an action that will create happiness or suffering for
others and myself? If we can develop mindfulness, we begin to take control of our mind
rather than be controlled by it.23

Conclusion
To sum up, Karma is a Sanskrit word that means action; Buddhists believe that the law of

karma is a natural law similar to the law of gravity; it isn’t a law that is controlled by gods

because the gods themselves are under its control. The law of karma, cause and effect, works in

this way; “You get what you give. What goes around comes back around.” Karma deals mainly

with volitional acts; skilful actions bring skillful results; unskillful actions bring unskillful

results. When one gives charity or provide help for others, he plants the seed of happiness that he

could experience in the present life, the next one, or a future one, and when one hurts or kills

22
Ibid, 144.
23
Thubten Lhundrup, Practical Meditation with Buddhist Principles (Hinkler Books, 2004), 45.
 12

other beings, that person plants the seed of a painful and miserable life that may also ripen in the

present, or the future.

Karma could be generated by the mind, body, and speech. It could be divided into good,

bad, or neutral karma. The latter is the actions that are unintentional which generate no results

such as involuntary behaviors: walking, sleeping, eating, and others. Karma could be divided

also into individual, or collective karma. The former is the karma that is generated by a person

and only he experiences its results, while the latter is a collective karma that everybody feels and

experiences; for example, when an earthquake strikes a city, all people who live there experience

that natural disaster though the damage that sustained by everyone may not be the same.

The law of karma explains the differences between everyone on this earth in terms of

beauty, wealth, wisdom, and health. The law of karma tells us that some of us poor because they

weren’t generous in their past lives, some are sick because they used to harm other beings, and

some are beautiful because they were kind and gentle to others. The law of karma tells us that if

we want to know how our past lives were, we should look at our present conditions, and if want

to know how our future will be, we should look at our present actions. Moreover, Buddhists

suggest a way that could help us deal with our karma, mindfulness. To be mindful of every

thought, word, and action. When you are mindful of every action, thinking about its consequence

whether it is good, or bad before carrying it out, then, you could overcome and tame your mind

and as a result you could control your karma.

 13

Bibliography

Chodron, Thubten. Buddhism for Beginners. Shambhala Publications, 2012.

Goldstein, Joseph and Jack Kornfield. Seeking the Heart of Wisdom. Shambhala Publications,
2001.
Gowans, Christopher. Philosophy of the Buddha: An Introduction. Routledge, 2004.
Hanson, Virginia, and Rosemarie Stewart. Karma, Rhythmic Return to Harmony. Motilal
Banarsidass Publ., 2001.
Harvey, Peter. An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices. Cambridge
University Press, 2012.
Keown, Damien, and Charles S. Prebish. Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Routledge, 2013.
Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. OUP Oxford, 2013.
Lhundrup, Thubten. Practical Meditation with Buddhist Principles. Hinkler Books, 2004.
Peck, Alexander “Insights into Karma - The Law of Cause and Effect by,” Free-eBooks.net,
accessed April 30, 2016, http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Insights-Into-Karma-The-
Law-of-Cause-and-Effect.
Rinpoche, Sogyal. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International
Bestseller: Revised and Updated Edition. HarperCollins, 2009.
Shangari, Himanshu. Heaven and Hell within - Part II: Karmic Personality Development. Notion
Press, 2015.
Tenzlng, Thupten. Bulletin of Tibetology. Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, 1996.
 14

Yun, Hsing, Pey-Rong Lee, and Mu-Tzen Hsu. The Core Teachings. Buddha’s Light Publishing,
2008.