The Law of Karma

The Law of 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 r...

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...ant or unpleasant according as its cause was skilful or unskillful. A skilful event is one that is not accompanied by craving, resistance or delusions; an unskillful event is one that is accompanied by any one of those things. Therefore, the law of Karma teaches the responsibility for unskillful actions is born by the person who commits them. In the Buddhist view, evil is not sin but ignorance.

Works Cited

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001- 05

Coomaraswamy, Ananda. 1964. Budda and the gospel of Buddhism. New York: Harper and Row

Kaufman, Whitley R.P. Karma, Rebirth and the Problem of Evil: Philosophy East and West; Jan 2005, Vol. 55 Issue 1, pg 15-32,

Walpola, Rahula. What the Budda Taught. Broadway: New York :NY. 1959

Weber, Max. 1947. Essays in Sociology. Translated by Gerth and Mills. London: K.Paul, Trench, Trubner