Karma

Karma?

Karma, also known as Karman is a basic concept common to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The doctrine of Karma states that one’s state in this life is a result of actions both physical and mental in past carnations, and action in this life can determine one’s destiny in future incarnations. Karma is a natural, impersonal law of moral cause and effect and has no connection with the idea of a supreme power that decrees punishment of forgiveness of sins. Karmic law is universally applicable, and only those who have attained liberation from rebirth, called mukti (or moksha) or nirvana, can be transcend it. (The Columbia Encyclopedia)

Fundamental consciousness can be compared to a ground that receives imprints or seeds left by our actions. Once planted, these seeds remain in the ground of fundamental consciousness until the conditions for their germination and ripening have come together... the linking of the different steps of this process, from the causes, the initial acts, up to their consequences, present and future experiences or causation of actions. In the sense that good or positive energy omitted by one individual will transfer that energy among another being until such a time even if that energy has morphed into different forms it will eventually return to the person that created it. This is also true to it’s opposite, such as; if you were to cheat on a significant other breaking their heart while you are left unharmed, in other words something done that is negative towards someone, that energy is then brought back to you in a negative way also.

The theory of Karma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward and punishment. Every volitional action produces good effects, it is not justice, or reward, meted out by anybody or any power sitting in judgment of your action, but this is in virtue of its own nature, its own law. In the Buddhist theory of Karma it has a specific meaning: it means only “volition action” not all action. Nor does it mean the result of Karma as many people wrongly and loosely use it. In Buddhist terminology Karma never means its effects; its effect is known as the “fruit” or the “result” of Karma. (Walpola Rahula , p30)

The doctrine of Karma and rebirth represents perhaps the most striking difference between Western (Judeo-Christian and Islamic) religious thought and the great Indian religious tradition (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain). To be sure, Western theology also makes use of a retributive explanation of evil in which an individual’s suffering is accounted for by his previous wrongdoing. But given the obviously imperfect correlation between sin and suffering in an individual’s lifetime, Western religions have resorted to other explanations of suffering (including, notoriously, that of Original Sin). However, Indian thought boldly combines this retributionism with the idea of multiple human incarnations, so that all suffering in this life can be explained by each individual’s prior wrongdoing, whether in this or a future life. In this way, Indian thought is able to endorse a complete and consistent retributive explanation of evil: all suffering can be explained by the wrongdoing of the sufferer himself. (Kaufman,Whitley R.P p 18)

As Ananda Coomaraswamy declares, in answer to the question “Who did sin, this