Karma in Buddhism
In the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to action driven by intention (cetanā) which leads to future consequences.
"[5]The metaphor is derived from agriculture:[6][11] One sows a seed, there is a time lag during which some mysterious invisible process takes place, and then the plant pops up and can be harvested.
It says that birth and death in the six realms occur in successive cycles driven by ignorance (avidyā), desire (trsnā), and hatred (dvesa).
[note 3] In the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to actions driven by intention (cetanā),[20][21][6][quote 1] a deed done deliberately through body, speech or mind, which leads to future consequences.
[web 1][note 4]According to Peter Harvey, It is the psychological impulse behind an action that is 'karma', that which sets going a chain of causes culminating in karmic fruit.
It is a rejection of caste-bound differences, giving the same possibility to reach liberation to all people, not just Brahmanins:[27] Not by birth is one a brahmin or an outcaste, but by deeds (kamma).
[31][note 7] According to Reichenbach, [T]he consequences envisioned by the law of karma encompass more (as well as less) than the observed natural or physical results which follow upon the performance of an action.
[43][quote 6][note 9] If we can overcome our kleshas, then we break the chain of causal effects that leads to rebirth in the six realms.
[web 3] The twelve links of dependent origination provides a theoretical framework, explaining how the disturbing emotions lead to rebirth in samsara.
[44][note 10] The Buddha's teaching of karma is not strictly deterministic, but incorporated circumstantial factors, unlike that of the Jains.
[55] The real importance of the doctrine of karma and its fruits lies in the recognition of the urgency to put a stop to the whole process.
[note 12] According to Gombrich, this sutra may have been a warning against the tendency, "probably from the Buddha's day until now", to understand the doctrine of karma "backwards", to explain unfavorable conditions in this life when no other explanations are available.
[67][61] According to the Buddhist tradition, the lord Buddha gained full and complete insight into the workings of karma at the time of his enlightenment.
[69][note 14] In AN 5.292, the lord Buddha asserted that it is not possible to avoid experiencing the result of a karmic deed once it has been committed.
The concept of karma originated in the Vedic religion, where it was related to the performance of rituals[77] or the investment in good deeds[78] to ensure the entrance to heaven after death,[77][78] while other persons go to the underworld.
[15] Buswell too notes that "Early Buddhism does not identify bodily and mental motion, but desire (or thirst, trsna), as the cause of karmic consequences.
"[87] Bronkhorst disagrees, and concludes that the Buddha "introduced a concept of karma that differed considerably from the commonly held views of his time.
[92] Another important exposition, the Mahāvibhāṣa, gives three definitions of karma: The 4th century philosopher Vasubandhu compiled the Abhidharma-kośa, an extensive compendium which elaborated the positions of the Vaibhāṣika-Sarvāstivādin school on a wide range of issues raised by the early sutras.
[94] The Dārṣṭāntika-Sautrāntika school pioneered the idea of karmic seeds (S. Bīja) and "the special modification of the psycho-physical series" (S. saṃtatipaṇāmaviśeṣa) to explain the workings of karma.
"[97] This involved debate with the Pudgalavādin school, which postulated the provisional existence of the person (S. pudgala, P. puggala) to account for the ripening of karmic effects over time.
[97] The Kathāvatthu also records debate by the Theravādins with the Andhakas (who may have been Mahāsāṃghikas) regarding whether or not old age and death are the result (vipāka) of karma.
[98] The Theravāda maintained that they are not—not, apparently because there is no causal relation between the two, but because they wished to reserve the term vipāka strictly for mental results--"subjective phenomena arising through the effects of kamma.
"[98] In the canonical Theravāda view of kamma, "the belief that deeds done or ideas seized at the moment of death are particularly significant.
"[99] The Milindapañha, a paracanonical Theravāda text, offers some interpretations of karma theory at variance with the orthodox position.
The rebirths of bodhisattvas after the seventh stage (S. bhūmi) are said to be consciously directed for the benefit of others still trapped in saṃsāra.
[subnote 3]The Mūlamadhyamakavṛtty-Akutobhayā, also generally attributed to Nāgārjuna,[110] concludes that it is impossible both for the act to persist somehow and also for it to perish immediately and still have efficacy at a later time.
[111] In the Vajrayana tradition, negative past karma may be "purified" through such practices as meditation on Vajrasattva because they both are the mind's psychological phenomenon.
The story of the koan is about an ancient Zen teacher whose answer to a question presents a wrong view about karma by saying that the person who has a foundation in cultivating the great practice "does not fall into cause and effect."
"[121] Dale S. Wright, a scholar specializing in Zen Buddhism, has proposed that the doctrine be reformulated for modern people, "separated from elements of supernatural thinking," so that karma is asserted to condition only personal qualities and dispositions rather than rebirth and external occurrences.
[122] Loy argues that the idea of accumulating merit too easily becomes "spiritual materialism," a view echoed by other Buddhist modernists,[note 19] and further that karma has been used to rationalize racism, caste, economic oppression, birth handicaps and everything else.
