Karma II

Karma is both the least and the most important of Buddhist teachings. It is also by far the most misunderstood.

"My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand." ~Thich Naht Hanh

Karma is cause and effect. Any deed you do has a result; negative, positive, or neutral. (There are very few acts, though, with a neutral outcome). Generally speaking, we are aware of what is negative and what is positive in what we do. But there is no cosmic bean-counter keeping track, so we need not fear the ambiguous situations in which we may have done a negative deed with a positive motive or vice versa. A classic example is when we feel it necessary to tell a lie to avoid doing a larger harm. While the Buddha prized honesty, he also advocated against intentional cruelty in truth-telling. In Western philosophy, a theorist who advocated absolute truth in all things was asked this: you are hiding your brother in your house; a man comes to the door asking if your brother is there, and you know that if the man finds your brother he will kill him. What do you say? To the Buddha the answer was clear; the intention of the deed of lying would be to save your brother's life, which would be by far the greater good and therefore would produce positive karma.

Karma arises from intention, not necessarily from action. Though this seems a bit more vague than tallying deeds on each side of a good/bad ledger, when thought about more deeply it clarifies the question because the source of karma is in one's heart, not the body. Of course, the body participates, as does the mind, but the intention comes from the heart. Karma also has the quality of sowing seeds that come to fruition in the future, but this is not some deep mystery, either. If we allow ourselves to be morose and negative all the time, we will tend to find ourselves in negative situations. If we surround ourselves with drunks, drunkenness is more likely to be part of our lives. I have a friend who became a black belt in karate and told me he had to use it to save himself from great harm four different times. I was rather surprised, though I didn't say so, since I have only once in my life been threatened to that degree and he is much younger than I. I had to conclude that his preparation for violence (he had a teacher who emphasized how dangerous the world is) brought violence with it.

"Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in actions; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny." ~Tryon Edwards

Karma is an integral part of the Buddhist teaching of dependent arising. This sounds fancy, but all it really means is that you reap what you sow. I wrote of previous lives in my first post on karma because Buddhist cosmology posits that our conditions in this life are determined by our karma in previous lives and the conditions of future lives are determined by our karma in this and previous lives. But in the end, does this really matter? The reason I said at the beginning that karma is both the least and most important teaching is because, while karma determines what the outcome of our lives will be and is therefore very important, if our actions are done with the motive of getting something (good karma) in return, from a karmic perspective these actions are essentially worthless because they were done selfishly. In other words, if we ignore the idea of karma altogether and simply go forward with the idea of doing good for its own sake, because it is the right and honorable thing to do, we will in the process reap all the good karma we could hope for. Whether something arises from past karma or our current actions becomes entirely irrelevant.

"That's why you are encouraged to work with what happens to you rather than blame it on others." ~Pema Chodron

I consider one of the most vital of teachings on karma to be encompassed in an other quote from Pema: "The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings you need in order to open your heart." What arises as a challenge in our lives is precisely that which we need to confront in order to move on with opening our hearts. This is not magical, but common sense; if we have already dealt with a challenge and surmounted it, when it arises again we can brush it aside. But if we have not yet dealt with something--a fear, a selfishness, a hatred, an addiction--it will arise again and again until we open our heart to it and invite it inside, treat it with lovingkindness, and let it go.

Another of my favorite teachers, Jack Kornfield, likes to imagine from time to time that every being in the world except him is enlightened and every action of theirs he finds difficult is an intentional challenge to him to open his heart so he can join the ranks of the enlightened. In this way, the bitchy co-worker, the inconsiderate driver, the demanding mother, the lazy brother, and the indifferent store clerk can be seen as helpers in our quest to be free. And what better way to view them? Resentment and anger only serve to keep us in chains. Acting and seeing with love can set us free. Recall the Rumi poem I wrote about before; "Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond."

Aside from all this is the self-evident truth that to live with karma constantly in mind is to live in either the past or the future and we know from the practice of meditation that only when we are living in this moment, only then are we entirely free. It may be ephemeral, but this is a fleeting glimpse of what is possible, a brief taste of Nirvana.

"Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds." ~George Eliot