Karma in Buddhism

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Karma (Sanskrit karman) or Kamma (Pāli) means "action" or "doing"; whatever one does, says, or thinks is a karma.

In Buddhism, the term karma is used specifically for those actions which spring from :

mental intent (Pali: cetana)
mental obsessions

which bring about a fruit (Pali, phala) or result (vipāka), either within the present life, or in the context of a future rebirth. Karma is the engine which drives the wheel of saṃsāra for each being.

1 Karma in Buddhism
2 Wrong Understandings of Karma
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Karma in Buddhism

In a discourse (Anguttara Nikaya Nibbedhika Sutta) the Buddha said :

“Intention (cetana) , monks, is kamma, I say. Having willed, one acts through body, speech and mind”.

Every time a person acts there is some quality of intention at the base of the mind and it is that quality rather than the outward appearance of the action that determines the effect. For example, a man walking in a forest encounters a deer that runs past him in distress. Subsequently, a man dressed in hunting gear with a gun also passes him asking which direction the deer went. The man misinforms the hunter sending him in a direction other than that in which the deer went. Although he has told a lie, he has acted out of compassion for the deer which forms the underlying intention behind his action. That volition (cetana) behind the action will be a cause for his own future well-being. On the other hand if a person professes piety and virtue but nonetheless acts with greed, anger or hatred (veiled behind an outward display of well-meaning intent) then the fruit of those actions will bear testimony to the fundamental intention that lay behind them and will be a cause for future unhappiness. In this sense the Buddha spoke of wholesome actions (kusala-kamma) and unwholesome actions (akusala-kamma).

Karma is thus used as an ethical principle, rather than a cosmological explanation for the world. Buddhists believe that the actions of beings determine their own future, and because of this there are no private actions: all actions have a consequence.

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 dependent on sufficient conditions.

There is a further distinction between wholesome kamma that leads to more exalted and rarefied forms of samsāric happiness (birth in higher realms), to neutralizing actions (called in Sanskrit and Pali Kriya - see Kriya Yoga) which lead to enlightenment: (nirvana). Therefore there is samsāric good karma, which leads to more fortunate rebirths (such as the human realm), and then there is liberating karma - which is supremely good. Nonetheless, the Buddha advocated the practise of wholesome actions: "Refrain from unwholesome actions/Perform only wholesome ones/Purify the mind/This is the teaching of the Enlightened Ones." Dhp v.183.

Samsāric karma 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). Likewise, liberating karma is divided into three: according to whether it will mature the being as a śrāvakabuddha, pratyekabuddha, or a samyaksambuddha.

In Buddhism, the term karma is often used to refer only to samsāric karma, as indicated by the twelve nidanas of dependent origination.

The 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]}

Because of the inevitability of consequence, Karma entails the notion of Buddhist rebirth. 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 saṃsāra.

Some people have problems with the teaching on karma, often of what exactly the Buddha is asking them to believe in when asking them 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.

A very good example of the working of karma in real life is recorded by Mr. Yuan Liao-Fan, a sixteenth century high ranking government officer in China. He wrote the Liao-Fan Four Lessons with the hope that it would teach his son, Yuan Tian-Qi, how to understand the true nature of destiny.

[edit] Wrong Understandings of Karma

In Buddhism, Karma is not pre-determinism, fatalism or accidentalism, as all these ideas lead to inaction and destroy motivation and human effort that a human being can change for the better no matter what his or her past was and are designated as "wrong view" in Buddhism.

Pubbekatahetuvada: The belief that all happiness and suffering arise from previous karma (Past-action determinism).
Issaranimmanahetuvada: The belief that all happiness and suffering are caused by the directives of a Supreme Being (Theistic determinism).
Ahetu-apaccayavada: The belief that all happiness and suffering are random, having no cause (Indeterminism or Accidentalism).

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"Bhikkhus, adhering to previously done kamma as the essence, there are neither motivation nor effort with what should be done and what should not be done ... Not upholding ardently what should be done, nor abandoning what should be abandoned, those ascetics and Brahmins are as if deluded, lacking a control, incapable of having any true teaching. (Buddha)

In Buddhism, Karma is simply there as a guide and an indication of what your present is and how one's future can be made better by self effort, otherwise, fatalism and pre-determinism is the anti-thesis of the notion of perfection or self-conquest - which is the primary aim of Buddhism.

The Buddha asserts effort and motivation as the crucial factors in deciding the ethical value of these various teachings on kamma.(P.A. Payutto).