Karma
K
arma is the law of moral causation. The theory
of Karma is a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism.
This belief was prevalent in India before the ad-
vent of the Buddha.
In this world nothing happens to a person that he
does not for some reason or other deserve. Usu-
ally, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend
the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible
cause or causes of the visible effect is not nec-
essarily confined to the present life, they may be
traced to a proximate or remote past birth.
Like many Buddhist concepts, karma
is taught to us as children more by
experience than through books or re-
ligious study. As a child, most every
Tibetan is discouraged from killing in-
sects – “Don’t kill that…you will get
bad karma.” We are told not to treat
people badly, for the same reason.
The basic understanding is that if you
do something bad, it will come back to
haunt you, maybe not in this lifetime,
but in one of your endless lifetime of
lifetimes. Not like a ghost would haunt
you, but more like an undeniable, un-
avoidable consequence of your ac-
tion.
You will see that karma commonly re-
fers to both as one’s actions and the
consequences of those actions. You
might think of it simply as cause and
effect. The karma is both the initial ac-
tion and the eventual result, and the
whole process of cause and effect it-
self.
According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not
only to heredity, environment, “nature and nurture”,
but also to Karma. In other words, it is the result of
our own past actions and our own present doings.
We ourselves are responsible for our own happi-
ness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We
create our own Hell. We are the architects of our
own fate.