NONDUAL PERSPECTIVES AND KARMA KARMA007.TXT *********************************************************************** SEVERAL MORE BRIEFS ON KARMA: THE THEORY OF KARMA H. H. MAHATAPASWI SHRI KUMARSWAMIJI ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Life is governed by two principles - Desire fulfilment and Law of Karma. Desire is the most potent force in our life and early or late all our desires get fulfilled. We get whatever we desire and work for, but at the same time we have to undergo the good or evil effects of our deeds in accordance with the strict principle of retribution. This principle of retribution is known as the Law of Karma. All our voluntary acts which affect others agreeably or disagreeably are rewarded or punished in accordance with the strict law of justice of Karma. This law of Karma is just and properly maintained; cosmic justice demands that there should be strict and equable retribution in nature since there is an arrangement in it to keep balance of action and reaction. Hence no one can escape or evade the good or evil consequences of his deeds accruing to him. If he does not meet the consequences in life here and now, he can meet them in some other life, for life is vast and varied. The ego also does not die completely. The doer of the deeds does never vanish into nothingness. There would be chaos and rule of injustice in the universe, if one were to cease to exist without having undergone the consequences of his deeds. Death is only a change in our life; it shuts the physical world from us and awakens us into a subtler world. Why are we drawn to this physical world? It is because we have entertained many desires connected with this world which still remain to be fulfilled, and because we have to undergo the consequences of the deeds done in our previous lives on this plane. Our desires and our record of deeds bring us back to the physical plane. Life here presupposes a life there to account for the inequalities of circumstances. Pre-existence and post-existence are implied in the law of Karma. Rebirth or reincarnation is not only a postulate but a fact. Some of the Western thinkers of modern times like Shirley have appreciated these two doctrines of Karma and reincarnation as worthy of acceptance. The law of Karma proclaims that we get what we give, we reap what we sow. Man has power to act but his power ends with the act committed. The effect of the act cannot be altered, annulled or escaped. The theory of Karma is the application of the law of cause and effect to moral experience. The law of Karma means that all actions, good or bad, produce their consequences in the life of the individual who acts, provided they are performed with a desire to the fruits thereof. Now if some good or bad actions are thus found to produce certain good or bad effects in the present life, it is quite reasonable to maintain that all actions will produce their proper effects in this or another life of the individuals who act. The law of Karma is this general moral law which governs not only the life and destiny of all individual but even the order and arrangement of the physical world. But on the psychological level the law of Karma affirms the freedom of the self. Freedom is a real possibility and the individual can control his desires and direct them in a proper channel by virtue of his discrimination and reason. Fatalism or determinism is a misrepresentation of the theory of Karma. Fate or destiny is nothing but the collective force of one's own actions performed in past lives. It can be overcome by efforts of this life, if they are sufficiently strong, just as the course of old habits can be counteracted by the cultivation of new and opposite habits. Not in action but in desire, not in action but in attachment to its fruit lies the binding force of Karma. An action is performed with a desire to enjoy its fruits, the soul is expectant and nature replies to it, it has demanded and nature awards. So every cause is bound to its effect, every action to its fruit, and desire is the cord that links them together. If this could be cut asunder, the connection would cease and when all the bonds of the heart are broken then the soul is free. The wheel of cause and effect may continue to turn but the soul remains unaffected. Our desires are innumerable and unlimited. Many of them conflict with each other. We have to choose some and reject others. Man is a rational being and is endowed with the power of discrimination and control; with the help of this power he should bring about an order in the realm of desires. Some of them are for enjoyment of the pleasures of the world while others are for moral perfection and spiritual freedom. Indian thinkers realised that the whole of human life should not be dedicated to the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, for the real man, the spirit within becomes atrophied by them alone. The Kathopanishad classified all the desires under two heads, namely, the Preya, pleasant ones and the Shreya, good ones. The Upanishad emphasised that the latter should be preferred to the former. The Indian thinkers did not altogether cannive at the accumulation of wealth and enjoyment of pleasures, for they knew that acquisitiveness and sex were very powerful drives of man. But they also knew that unbridled enjoyment of sensual pleasures and social disharmony. Hence they have to be guided and controlled by Dharma, that is by righteous means and moral principles such as truth, honesty, self-control, fellow-feeling and moderation. The Indian thinkers knew that the law of Karma is at the bottom of law of Moral order, the law that makes for regularity and righteousness and works in all times and climes. This idea gradually shaped itself into the Mimamsa concept of Apurva, the law that guarantees the future enjoyment of the fruits of rituals performed now; into the Nyaya-Vaisheshika theory of Adrashta, the unseen principle which sways over the material atoms and brings about subjects and events in accordance with moral principles; into the theory of dependent origination or Pratitya Samutpada of Buddhism and finally into the general concept of Karma accepted by all Indian systems. The law of Karma, that works with all its might on the physical, mental and moral planes, ceases to be all-powerful on the spiritual plane. On the religious level, Karma loses its might and assumes an attitude of surrender to God. Mukti or spiritual freedom would be impossible if divine justice functioned through the mathematical rigour of the law of Karma. Religion therefore requires that the legal concept of Karma should be transformed into the religious concept of Krupa. Krupa or the grace of God transfigures the rigorous law of Karma and becomes the redemptive principle of religion. From this point of view even the law of retribution has redemption as its inner motive, for the law of retribution does not inspire any hope of Mukti or salvation, while the law of redemption leads to salvation. The dualism between Karma and Krupa cannot be overcome by mere ethic or ethical religion. The seriousness of the moral consciousness and the reality of the sinfulness of sin fail to bring out the spontaneity and freedom of the divine life. This defect is removed by the loving nature of God who is the ruler as well as the redeemer. The individual soul achieves his spiritual freedom by immediate contact with God. The whole discussion of the theory of Karma, in its last analysis, amounts to this that Karma is the result of knowledge, that it is the spontaneous expression of real understanding. By knowledge is meant the appreciation of the truth that God is the all-doer, without this appreciation no Karma, no moral activity is worth recognizing. Those who hold that Karma is prior to knowledge on the supposition that it gives purity of mind labour under the false sense of agency. It is the possession of knowledge that makes one morally pure. The thought of individual doership is a case of illusion for God is the all-doer. The appreciation of the all-doership of God does not make an individual inactive but it makes him full of activity. Hence, to think that an individual is the doer is to arrest activity. Karma or activity of the individual becomes free and spontaneous only when he realises that it is the supreme energy which works through him. This does not negate the individual, it only negates the illusion of personal doership which restricts the range of activity. There are some existentialists who separate essence from human existence and assert that there is no God and no objective value. But it is difficult to realise how and to whom I am still responsible especially when there is no standing that I should bear the burden. It is good to be reminded that in our real existence we enjoy an inner subjective being, call it God or Truth which in its depth cannot be reached or represented by any generality. Realistically, there is a perspective from which nothing at all is seen. Empty the mind, and all concepts go out the window. Close the eyes, and all vision disappears. Plug the ears, and all sound vanishes. But from the perspective of the is there karma? I answered yes in the survey, because nothing else explains why death and rebirth occur, or why some specks of this thing we call are born as insects, some as animals, and some as human beings. There is a perspective where gravity is not felt. It is called being out of the Earth's gravitational pull, in outer space. But can it not still be said still that there is gravity? Being in outer space, does this imply that gravity does not exist? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Karma To find happiness and avoid suffering, we should understand the principal causes and conditions that bring happiness, so we can practice them, and perceive those that bring suffering, so we can avoid them. The main cause of all success and happiness is your own mind, it is good karma, a positive, pure, healthy intention, a peaceful attitude toward life, the nature of which is non-attachment, non-ignorance, non-hatred and non-self-centred mind. What is karma ? Karma is a mental factor. Karma is the principal cause of happiness and suffering. It is the inner cause. Karma is the mind. The experience of enjoyment comes from the mind, which in turn comes from karma. Your present good rebirth with many opportunities to achieve happiness comes from good karma, your positive virtuous intention. Your mind is formless, colourless and shapeless and in taking its place in a fertilised human egg, creates the continuity of the physical body. The mind itself comes from its own previous continuity, the life before this one, the past life. And there are many past lives. Good luck depends on good karma. Success and happiness in this life and beyond this life up to the perfect fully completed bliss and peace of full enlightenment all depend on creating good karma, collecting merit, practising Dharma, and keeping your life attitude in pure, positive virtue. To understand karma more clearly, let us examine the explanations of karma given in the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. According to the sutra teachings of Lord Buddha, there are ten non-virtuous actions and ten virtuous actions that have a direct bearing on karma. Therefore, every complete negative action creates four suffering results, while every complete positive virtuous action creates four happy results. The ten non-virtuous actions comprise three of the body, four of the speech and three of the mind. Those of the body are killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. Those of speech are telling lies, engaging in slander, harsh speech and gossiping. Those of the mind are covetousness, having ill will towards others and having the wrong views. The ten virtuous actions comprise abstinence of all the non-virtuous actions. Every complete non-virtuous and virtuous action has four suffering and four happy results respectively. And the sum total of these results is the karmic inheritance that defines the type of rebirths that all sentient beings bring with them in their mental continuum. This is karma. The first of the four results can be described as the fully ripened result; where the suffering of negative karma causes rebirths in the suffering lower realms (hell, the realm of hungry ghosts or animal realms). Here one experiences unimaginable sufferings that are far worse than the sufferings of the human realms. The happy result causes rebirths in the body of a happy migratory being in the human or deva realms instead of rebirths in the suffering realms. The second of the four results is experiencing a result similar to the cause. The suffering result is to be reborn as a human being and suffer the result of the harmful action committed in the past. If one has killed, one will be killed; and if one has stolen, one will be cheated, if one has slandered others, one will be slandered against... The happy result is rebirth in the human realm with a long and happy life. There will be wealth and enjoyment. And if you have practised the right view you will be reborn with a clear mind, be attracted to virtuous actions, good friends, and right philosophies. You will gravitate to people who help develop your wisdom. You will discover great faith in the Four Noble Truths (True Suffering, True Origin, True Cessation of Suffering, and True Path) and the right view of emptiness. Among the four schools of Buddhist philosophy, you will be especially attracted to the extremely subtle Prasangika view, which cuts through the root of samsara, thus eradicating suffering and all its causes. Your strong faith leads you quickly to achieve liberation from samsara. Consequently, you will be able to liberate numberless other sentient beings from all the suffering realms of samsara and bring them to enlightenment with the support of bodhicitta, the pure wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. The third of the four results is the possessed result. The suffering result ripens in a future place of rebirth where food is scarce. There is drought, war and famine. The happy result is a glorified place where food, medicines and crops are plentiful. Your rebirth environment is clean, healthy and filled with beauty. The fourth result creates similar results to the previous cause i.e. continuing to commit the same action in the future, and continuing to create the karma over and over again. All good and bad results of actions can also be experienced in this life. The 10 virtuous actions do not lead only to the happiness of future lives. Most significantly, if the 10 virtuous actions are practised with genuine bodhicitta, the altruistic mind to benefit all others, it becomes the cause of the highest ultimate happiness - Enlightenment. Karma that is repeatedly done becomes very powerful. Karma done in relation to a powerful object such as one's parents, or one's Guru is very powerful. This is as true of the smallest act of disrespect as to the tiniest service or act of love. Karma is definite. It is expandable. Once it is created, good or bad, positive or negative, its results are experienced in many future lifetimes. Sufferings inevitably result from non-virtuous actions for thousands of lifetimes. And negative karma created is irrevocable, unless purified by reading profound sutras, reciting special mantras, or following spiritual practices explained in the holy texts. Practising genuine compassion toward others, what the Buddhists term the bodhicitta mind, can also purify karma. The more compassion one is able to generate toward others, the more one succeeds in achieving powerful purification. Generating compassion has incredible power to purify many eons of negative karma. And it is an especially quick way to collect extensive merit and achieve the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. And if our daily life actions begin with a good heart, then even negative actions can be transformed into virtue. Even if you are not Buddhist now, even if you do not recite Buddhist prayers, if you generate compassion and spend your life serving others, it is the best way of achieving merit. Practising the kind and good heart itself becomes a powerful purification practice; it is also the best cause for your own happiness and success in this life and future lives. Living your daily life with strong compassion, serving others and sacrificing your life for their welfare - this is the way to truly enjoy your life. This is the advice given by the fully enlightened beings. I am offering this advice of Buddha to you. Please take care of your life.< Lama Zopa Soquel, California August 1997 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The four properties of karma: 1.Actions are definite. Virtuous actions definitely bring the result of happiness and never bring the result of suffering. Likewise, non-virtuous actions definitely bring the result of suffering and never bring the result of happiness. Internal causes and results function along much the same principles as external causes and results. An example of an external cause is planting an apple seed in the ground; in accordance with the cause, the apple seed, the result of an apple tree is produced. Instead, if we were to plant a pepper seed the result of a pepper plant would arise. An apple seed cannot give rise to a pepper plant nor can a pepper seed give rise to an apple tree. Internal causes and results function in the same manner; in accordance with the cause, virtuous actions, we definitely experience the result of happiness. Likewise, in accordance with the cause, non-virtuous actions, we definitely experience the result of suffering. Just as the small pleasure if a cool breeze on a hot day is the result of a past virtuous action, similarly, the small suffering of a thorn pricking the sole of our foot is the result of a past non-virtuous action. 2.Actions increase. In the same way that a tiny seed can produce the result of a huge tree, a very small virtuous or non-virtuous action can bring a great result. This is due to the fact that an action continues to increase as long as its antidote is not applied. If a non-virtuous action is purified using an appropriate method, even if we cannot completely avoid experiencing its result, at the very least we will be able to stop it from increasing. Similarly, it is possible to destroy our virtuous actions through becoming angry or developing wrong views. 3.Actions not done will not be experienced. Not having planted seeds in the ground, we will not reap a crop in the autumn. Likewise, if we have not done a particular virtuous or non-virtuous action, we will not experience its respective result of happiness or unhappiness. 4.Actions done will not go to waste. Having done a virtuous or non-virtuous action, if it is not destroyed by its antidote, it will bring its result when the necessary conditions come together. An action will never go to waste due to the passage of time. Just as when we put our money in a bank it is not used up as long as we do not withdraw it, and in the meantime, it continually produces interest; likewise, when we do an action, if it is not destroyed by its antidote, it will not go to waste but will continually increase. In addition to explaining the detailed functioning of actions and results, the Buddha also explained, by way of his clairvoyant powers, why a particular person was experiencing certain problems. He often told how at one time such-and-such a person had taken such-and-such a birth, did such-and-such an action, and was thereby experiencing such-and-such a result. Many examples of these stories can be found in The Sutra of One Hundred Actions (Skrt: Karmashataka, Tib: mDo sde las brgya pa) and The Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish (Damamuko nama Sutra, mDzangs blun zhe bya ba'i mdo). Through understanding that virtuous actions bring happiness and non-virtuous actions bring suffering, we see how important it is to strive continually to develop a good motivation and to engage in virtuous actions. At the same time, we understand that we must completely abandon committing even seemingly insignificant non-virtuous actions so as to avoid experiencing further suffering and problems in the future. However, even though we may intellectually understand this, because our mind is not subdued and is therefore influenced by many types of negative emotions or afflictions, we continue to commit non-virtuous actions. Our negative emotions are very strong while our positive thoughts are generally quite weak; consequently, these two are always in competition. Most of the time the weaker positive side loses and the more powerful negative side wins. Thereby, our mind remains dominated by afflictions that, in turn, cause us to engage in non-virtuous physical and verbal actions. Therefore, just as to clean our dirty clothes we wash them with soap and water, in a similar way we need to wash, or purify, our mental continuum of non-virtuous actions of body, speech, and mind. To avoid experiencing their unpleasant results it is extremely important that we develop the habit of regularly purifying our inner dirt, the impure mind. For this purpose we need to engage in a practice of purification. (Extracted from Everlasting Rain of Nectar Wisdom Publications, 1996, (c) Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa and Geshe Jampa Gyatso. Reprinted by permission of Wisdom Publications, Cambridge, Massachusetts.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramana said, "Until realisation there will be Karma, i.e., action and reaction; after realisation there will be no Karma, no world." (Talks...p. 462) This verse from Mandukya Upanishad appears to cut off Karma at the root: "No individual being, whichsoever, takes birth. It has no source (of birth). This (Brahman) is that highest Truth where nothing whatsoever takes birth." The Bhagavad Gita speaks of freeing oneself from the bondage of karma. Speaking to Arjuna, Krishna says: "Give up all your dharma and adharma and surrender yourself to Me unconditionally. I will save you from all bondage. Do not grieve." And this from the Avadhuta Gita reserves no quarters for Karma: "There are no Vedas, no worlds, no gods, no sacrifices. There is certainly no caste, no stage in life, no family, no birth. There is neither the path of smoke nor the path of light. There is only the highest Truth, the homogeneous Brahman." All that is fine and dandy for those who are realized. It serves those who intuit the nondual state, as well, and may nudge one further. What of those of us who are not realised? Well, Karma can be transformed into Yoga through Karma Yoga, Yoga of intense selfless service. And that brings the discussion back to the existence of Karma! --contributed by J. Katz ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Karma by Thanissaro Bhikkhu Karma is one of those words we don't translate. Its basic meaning is simple enough -- action -- but because of the weight the Buddha's teachings give to the role of action, the Sanskrit word karma packs in so many implications that the English word action can't carry all its luggage. This is why we've simply airlifted the original word into our vocabulary. But when we try unpacking the connotations the word carries now that it has arrived in everyday usage, we find that most of its luggage has gotten mixed up in transit. In the eyes of most Americans, karma functions like fate -- bad fate, at that: an inexplicable, unchangeable force coming out of our past, for which we are somehow vaguely responsible and powerless to fight. I've heard people sigh when bad fortune strikes with such force that they see no alternative to resigned acceptance. The fatalism implicit in this statement is one reason why so many of us are repelled by the concept of karma, for it sounds like the kind of callous myth-making that can justify almost any kind of suffering or injustice in the status quo: From this it seems a short step to saying that he or she deserves to suffer, and so doesn't deserve our help. This misperception comes from the fact that the Buddhist concept of karma came to the West at the same time as non-Buddhist concepts, and so ended up with some of their luggage. Although many Asian concepts of karma are fatalistic, the early Buddhist concept was not fatalistic at all. In fact, if we look closely at early Buddhist ideas of karma, we'll find that they give even less importance to myths about the past than most modern Americans do. For the early Buddhists, karma was non-linear. Other Indian schools believed that karma operated in a straight line, with actions from the past influencing the present, and present actions influencing the future. As a result, they saw little room for free will. Buddhists, however, saw that karma acts in feedback loops, with the present moment being shaped both by past and by present actions; present actions shape not only the future but also the present. This constant opening for present input into the causal process makes free will possible. This freedom is symbolized in the imagery the Buddhists used to explain the process: flowing water. Sometimes the flow from the past is so strong that little can be done except to stand fast, but there are also times when the flow is gentle enough to be diverted in almost any direction. So, instead of promoting resigned powerlessness, the early Buddhist notion of karma focused on the liberating potential of what the mind is doing with every moment. Who you are -- what you come from -- is not anywhere near as important as the mind's motives for what it is doing right now. Even though the past may account for many of the inequalities we see in life, our measure as human beings is not the hand we've been dealt, for that hand can change at any moment. We take our own measure by how well we play the hand we've got. If you're suffering, you try not to continue the unskillful mental habits that would keep that particular karmic feedback going. If you see that other people are suffering, and you're in a position to help, you focus not on their karmic past but your karmic opportunity in the present: Someday you may find yourself in the same predicament that they're in now, so here's your opportunity to act in the way you'd like them to act toward you when that day comes. This belief that one's dignity is measured, not by one's past, but by one's present actions, flew right in the face of the Indian traditions of caste-based hierarchies, and explains why early Buddhists had such a field day poking fun at the pretensions and mythology of the brahmins. As the Buddha pointed out, a brahmin could be a superior person not because he came out of a brahmin womb, but only if he acted with truly skillful intentions. We read the early Buddhist attacks on the caste system, and aside from their anti-racist implications, they often strike us as quaint. What we fail to realize is that they strike right at the heart of our myths about our own past: our obsession with defining who we are in terms of where we come from -- our race, ethnic heritage, gender, socio-economic background, sexual preference -- our modern tribes. We put inordinate amounts of energy into creating and maintaining the mythology of our tribe so that we can take vicarious pride in our tribe's good name. Even when we become Buddhists, the tribe comes first. We demand a Buddhism that honors our myths. From the standpoint of karma, though, where we come from is old karma, over which we have no control. What we is a nebulous concept at best -- and pernicious at worst, when we use it to find excuses for acting on unskillful motives. The worth of a tribe lies only in the skillful actions of its individual members. Even when those good people belong to our tribe, their good karma is theirs, not ours. And, of course, every tribe has its bad members, which means that the mythology of the tribe is a fragile thing. To hang onto anything fragile requires a large investment of passion, aversion, and delusion, leading inevitably to more unskillful actions on into the future. So the Buddhist teachings on karma, far from being a quaint relic from the past, are a direct challenge to a basic thrust -- and basic flaw -- in our culture. Only when we abandon our obsession with finding vicarious pride in our tribal past, and can take actual pride in the motives that underlie our present actions, can we say that the word karma, in its Buddhist sense, has recovered its luggage. And when we open the luggage, we'll find that it's brought us a gift: the gift we give ourselves and one another when we drop our myths about who we are, and can instead be honest about what we're doing with each moment -- at the same time making the effort to do it right. --contributed by Tim Gerchmez ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Trika Shaivism offers a slightly different explanation of karma which you may find interesting. According to Trika, there are 3 types of karma. The first is what you bring into this life from lives before. These are psychic impressions. These are called samskaras. Samskaras are stored in the karmic storehouse called the San Chitta. The San Chitta lines the mystic etheric sushumna canal. These samskaras are burned away with the expansion of the prana shakti (kundalini) in an individual. The second type of karma is called kriyamon (sp?) karma. This is the karma of action which accumulates from good and bad actions. Accumulatation of either good or bad merit and one returns. Good merit improves ones life situation with each lifetime, bad merit the reverse. In the infinite game, both good and bad merit are undesirable because both keep one bound into the finite game. The key is to accumulate no new merits and while dissolving the old. In order to not accumulate good and bad merit, actions must be either performed without doership, or the action must be offered up to the absolute prior to performing it. The third type of karma is called parabdha karma. This is the karma of the individual body. Each body has it's parabdha karma to fulfill. This third type of karma also explains why no two saints or sages act or teach alike, even though the same degree of consciousness lies within. Each must fulfill their parabdha karma of their individual body. The Bhagwan Nityananda had terrible arthritis when he was older. Couldn't even bend his fingers. It is said that just prior to leaving the body and taking mahasamadhi, his entire body relaxed and all the joints were able to be moved. His parabdha karma had been fulfilled. So you see, karma is slightly more complex than just good and bad actions. Samskaras are like seeds. Given the proper situation and context, they sprout. It is endless until all the seeds are all burned by Svatantrya shakti, or Grace and no new seeds are accumulated.