Karma

Karma (Sanskrit, also karman, Pāli: kamma) is a Sanskrit term that literally means "action" or "doing". In the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to action driven by intention (cetanā) which leads to future consequences. Those intentions are considered to be the determining factor in the kind of rebirth in samsara, the cycle of rebirth.

Karma and karmaphala are fundamental concepts in Buddhism.[12][13] The concepts of karma and karmaphala explain how intentional actions keep one tied to rebirth in samsara, whereas the Buddhist path, as exemplified in the Noble Eightfold Path, shows us the way out of samsara.[14]

Rebirth

Rebirth,[note 2], is a common belief in all Buddhist traditions. It says that birth and death in the six realms occur in successive cycles driven by ignorance (avidyā), desire (trsnā), and hatred (dvesa). The cycle of rebirth is called samsāra. It is a beginningless and ever-ongoing process.[15] Liberation from samsāra can be attained by following the Buddhist Path. This path leads to vidyā, and the stilling of trsnā and dvesa. Hereby the ongoing process of rebirth is stopped.

Karma

The cycle of rebirth is determined by karma,[15] literally "action".[note 3] In the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to actions driven by intention (cetanā),[21][22][6][quote 1] a deed done deliberately through body, speech or mind, which leads to future consequences.[25] The Nibbedhika Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya 6.63: Intention (cetana) I tell you, is kamma. Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & intellect.[web 1][note 4]

According to Peter Harvey,

It is the psychological impulse behind an action that is 'karma', that which sets going a chain of causes culminating in karmic fruit. Actions, then, must be intentional if they are to generate karmic fruits.[26]

And according to Gombrich,

The Buddha defined karma as intention; whether the intention manifested itself in physical, vocal or mental form, it was the intention alone which had a moral character: good, bad or neutral [...] The focus of interest shifted from physical action, involving people and objects in the real world, to psychological process.[27]

According to Gombrich, this was a great innovation, which overturns brahmanical, caste-bound ethics. It is a rejection of caste-bound differences, giving the same possibility to reach liberation to all people, not just Brahmanins:[28]

Not by birth is one a brahmin or an outcaste, but by deeds (kamma).[29][note 5]

How this emphasis on intention was to be interpreted became a matter of debate in and between the various Buddhist schools.[30][note 6]

Karmaphala

Karma leads to future consequences, karma-phala, "fruit of action".[33] Any given action may cause all sorts of results, but the karmic results are only those results which are a consequence of both the moral quality of the action, and of the intention behind the action.[34][note 7] According to Reichenbach,

[T]he consequences envisioned by the law of karma encompass more (as well as less) than the observed natural or physical results which follow upon the performance of an action.[36]

The "law of karma" applies

...specifically to the moral sphere[.] [It is] not concerned with the general relation between actions and their consequences, but rather with the moral quality of actions and their consequences, such as the pain and pleasure and good or bad experiences for the doer of the act.[36]

Good moral actions lead to wholesome rebirths, and bad moral actions lead to unwholesome rebirths.[15][quote 3][quote 4] The main factor is how they contribute to the well-being of others in a positive or negative sense.[41] Especially dāna, giving to the Buddhist order, became an increasingly important source of positive karma.[42]

How these intentional actions lead to rebirth, and how the idea of rebirth is to be reconciled with the doctrines of impermanence and no-self,[43][quote 5] is a matter of philosophical inquiry in the Buddhist traditions, for which several solutions have been proposed.[15] In early Buddhism no explicit theory of rebirth and karma is worked out,[18] and "the karma doctrine may have been incidental to early Buddhist soteriology."[19][20] In early Buddhism, rebirth is ascribed to craving or ignorance.[16][17]

In later Buddhism, the basic idea is that intentional actions,[44] driven by kleshas ("disturbing emotions"),[web 3] cetanā ("volition"),[21] or taṇhā ("thirst", "craving")[45] create impressions,[web 4][note 8] tendencies[web 4] or "seeds" in the mind. These impressions, or "seeds", will ripen into a future result or fruition.[46][quote 6][note 9] If we can overcome our kleshas, then we break the chain of causal effects that leads to rebirth in the six realms.[web 3] The twelve links of dependent origination provides a theoretical framework, explaining how the disturbing emotions lead to rebirth in samsara.[47][note 10]

Complex process

The Buddha's teaching of karma is not strictly deterministic, but incorporated circumstantial factors, unlike that of the Jains.[49][50][51][quote 7] It is not a rigid and mechanical process, but a flexible, fluid and dynamic process,and not all present conditions can be ascribed to karma.[50][note 11][quote 8] There is no set linear relationship between a particular action and its results.[51] The karmic effect of a deed is not determined solely by the deed itself, but also by the nature of the person who commits the deed, and by the circumstances in which it is committed.

Karma is also not the same as "fate" or "predestination".[web 6] Karmic results are not a "judgement" imposed by a God or other all-powerful being, but rather the results of a natural process.[54][26][6][quote 9] Certain experiences in life are the results of previous actions, but our responses to those experiences are not predetermined, although they bear their own fruit in the future. Unjust behaviour may lead to unfavorable circumstances which make it easier to commit more unjust behavior, but nevertheless the freedom not to commit unjust behavior remains.[60]

Liberation from samsāra

The real importance of the doctrine of karma and its fruits lies in the recognition of the urgency to put a stop to the whole process.[61][62] The Acintita Sutta warns that "the results of kamma" is one of the four incomprehensible subjects,[63][web 7] subjects that are beyond all conceptualization[63] and cannot be understood with logical thought or reason.

According to Gombrich, this sutra may have been a warning against the tendency, "probably from the Buddha's day until now", to understand the doctrine of karma "backwards", to explain unfavorable conditions in this life when no other explanations are available.[67] Gaining a better rebirth may have been,[68][69] and still is, the central goal for many people. The adoption, by laity, of Buddhist beliefs and practices is seen as a good thing, which brings merit and good rebirth,[72] but does not result in Nirvana,[72] and liberation from samsāra, the ultimate goal of the Buddha.

The Pāli term Kamma, literally, means action or doing. Any kind of intentional action whether mental, verbal, or physical is regarded as Kamma. It covers all that is included in the phrase: “Thought, word and deed”. Generally speaking, all good and bad actions constitute Kamma. In its ultimate sense Kamma means all moral and immoral volition (kusala akusala cetanā). Involuntary, unintentional or unconscious actions, though technically deeds, do not constitute Kamma, because volition, the most important factor in determining Kamma, is absent.

The Buddha says:— “I declare, O Bhikkhus, that volition (cetanā) is Kamma. Having willed one acts by body, speech and thought.” Every volitional action of persons, except those of Buddhas and Arahants, is called Kamma. An exception is made in their case because they are delivered from both good and evil. They have eradicated both ignorance and craving, the roots of Kamma. “Destroyed are their (germinal) seeds (khīna-bijā), selfish desires no longer grow,” states the Ratana Sutta. This does not mean that the Buddhas and Arahants are passive. They are tirelessly active in working for the real well-being and happiness of all. Their deeds, ordinarily accepted as good or moral, lack creative power as regards themselves. Understanding things as they truly are, they have finally shattered their cosmic fetters – the chain of cause and effect.

Some religions attribute this unevenness to Kamma, but they differ from Buddhism when they state that even unintentional actions should be regarded as Kamma. According to them, “the unintentional murderer of his mother is a hideous criminal. The man who kills or who harasses in any way a living being without intent, is none the less guilty, just as a man who touches fire is burnt.”2 “This astounding theory undoubtedly leads to palpable absurdities. “The embryo and the mother would both be guilty of making each other suffer. Further the analogy of the fire is logically fallacious. For instance, a man would not be guilty if he got another person to commit the murder, for one is not burnt if one gets another to put his hand into the fire. Moreover unintentional actions would be much worse than intentional wrong actions, for, according to the comparison, a man who touches fire without knowing that it would burn is likely to be more deeply burnt than the man who knows. In the working of Kamma its most important feature is mind. All our words and deeds are coloured by the mind or consciousness we experience at such particular moments. “When the mind is unguarded, bodily action is unguarded; speech also is unguarded; thought also is unguarded. When the mind is guarded, bodily action is guarded; speech also is guarded; and thought also is guarded.”3 the wheel, the hoof of the draught-ox.”4 “If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows one as the shadow that never departs.”5 Immaterial mind conditions all Kammic activities. Kamma does not necessarily mean past actions. It embraces both past and present deeds. Hence, in one sense, we are the result of what we were, we will be the result of what we are. In another sense, it should be added, we are not totally the result of what we were, we will not absolutely be the result of what we are. The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the parent of the future, but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future – so complex is the working of Kamma. For instance, a criminal today may be a saint tomorrow, a good person yesterday may be a vicious one today. It is this doctrine of Kamma that the mother teaches her child when she says: “Be good and you will be happy and we will love you. But if you are bad, you will be unhappy and we will not love you.” Like attracts like. Good begets good. Evil begets evil. This is the law of Kamma. In short Kamma is the law of cause and effect in the ethical realm, or as some Westerners prefer to say, “action influence.”