This morning I ran into an article about correct use of the word karma, based on what it says in a standard dictionary. Unfortunately, the article, and the dictionary, are incorrect. Barry Wood of GateHouse News Service wrote,
"Karma" is a Sanskrit word that means "a deed, act, fate." It's an important term in Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions. Webster's distilled definition is "the totality of a person's actions in any one of the successive states of that person's existence, thought of as determining the fate of the next stage."
I don't know how to contact Mr. Wood, but if I could, this is what I would say:
Unfortunately, karma has entered English vocabulary to mean something like "the fate one deserves, usually bad."That's not how a Sanskrit speaker would understand the word, however.
According to Subhamoy Das, About.com's Guide to Hinduism, karma means "volitional action that is undertaken deliberately or knowingly." This is how it is defined in Buddhism, as well. A reference book I have at hand says it is derived from the Sanskrit root word kri, which means "to do" or "to make." In most contexts I don't think it's correct to translate the word to mean "fate."
Doctrines of karma are taught in many spiritual traditions, but not necessarily the same doctrines of karma. It is not understood or "believed in" in exactly the same way by everybody.This is another point that I don't think many in the West yet grasp. However, at a very basic level, it is simply the doctrine that everything we do has an effect.
In Buddhism, the effects of karma are not karma; they are called vipaka, or the "fruit" of karma. So, to a Buddhist, it would be incorrect to say "it was his karma to lose his job."
And then we hear about "good" karma and"bad" karma. Karma is neither good nor bad, any more than gravity is good or bad. Gravity has beneficial and harmful effects -- as a rule we don't go flying off he planet into outer space, which is good, but sometimes we drop things and break them. Just so, karma itself is value neutral.
However, in Buddhism, we say that karma can be contaminated or conditioned by the three poisons of greed, hate, and ignorance, and such karma will very likely cause some nasty vipaka.
There's also a common belief in karma as something like "luck," in that virtuous behavior will bring you good luck (and vice versa). But luck has a connotation of randomness or chance that doesn't really fit karma. Virtuous behavior has its rewards, such as personal satisfaction and the goodwill of others, but it won't help you win the lottery. (And some may disagree with me on that one, but it's how I see it.)
As I've said here in the past, karma is not necessarily linked to a belief in rebirth. In Buddhism, the effects of karma can be felt in one's current life, and many of us who are agnostic about rebirth still have a healthy respect for karma.
The belief in materialism makes it hard to understand rebirth. Clear up the irrational belief in materialism, and rebirth is as natural and logical as waking up today after yesterday.
I thought this definition sufficed for the term “dharma”.
– Could you clarify.
Nicely clarified. I have so much trouble explaining this to non-Buddhists; all the pop-culture understanings of karma get in the way. And so many Westerners seem to conflate the idea of karma with the Christian concept of sin; even atheists and non-Christians seem to make this mistake.
From now on, I’ll just direct them to this article.
Many thanks. CW
Hi Barbara,
Nice article. I too feel karma is poorly understood, especially when it is something so intrinsically obvious in everything we do, see and interact with. For someone to say they don’t believe in karma merely indicates they are lost in thoughts about life rather experiencing life, and are not paying attention to what is before them.
In the simplest sense, karma is Newton’s First Law, cause and effect – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When you push a ball, it rolls. Is it fate that the ball rolls to the other side of the room? It is simple to see that one action set about a certain result. Put simply like this, why do people get so confused about karma? It rolling and hitting the far wall is the result of its conditioning in that moment. Once cause and effect is set in motion there is a propensity for a certain result. In moving forward the ball has an energy propensity and so it is simple to see, and predict, in the next moment it would have gone from here to there and eventually … bump! It hits the wall.
Taking this analogy further, if you take a car tyre and start to push it down the road, the more you push it, the faster it gets. This is the cultivation of karma, we perpetuate the cycle by continuing to push it faster and faster. In the same way we perpetuate our own karma by repeating actions over and over. The faster it gets, the harder it is to knock it off course. This momentum is karma, so there is a propensity for a result to be more certain the faster it gets. But we can also change its course, little by little, by nudging it or slowing it down first. We are no different.
cont …
Hi Barbara,
Nice article. I too feel karma is poorly understood, especially when it is something so intrinsically obvious in everything we do, see and interact with. For someone to say they don’t believe in karma merely indicates they are lost in thoughts about life rather experiencing life, and are not paying attention to what is before them.
In the simplest sense, karma is Newton’s First Law, cause and effect – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When you push a ball, it rolls. Is it fate that the ball rolls to the other side of the room? It is simple to see that one action set about a certain result. Put simply like this, why do people get so confused about karma? It rolling and hitting the far wall is the result of its conditioning in that moment. Once cause and effect is set in motion there is a propensity for a certain result. In moving forward the ball has an energy propensity and so it is simple to see, and predict, in the next moment it would have gone from here to there and eventually … bump! It hits the wall.
Taking this analogy further, if you take a car tyre and start to push it down the road, the more you push it, the faster it gets. This is the cultivation of karma, we perpetuate the cycle by continuing to push it faster and faster. In the same way we perpetuate our own karma by repeating actions over and over. The faster it gets, the harder it is to knock it off course. This momentum is karma, so there is a propensity for a result to be more certain the faster it gets. But we can also change its course, little by little, by nudging it or slowing it down first. We are no different.
Opps, not sure what happened there but I duplicate the first part of my post and lost the second half. Sorry
The point being, if we look upon ourselves and nature we see these comings and goings and the interactions of things in life. We come to deeply understand the nature of karma in simple terms, and get out of the misconceptions and thoughts we hold about life, and look upon it for what it is.
Anyway, enough said for now.
Jagaro