Q:
I keep hearing the word "karma" these days. Does it mean destiny?
Lama:
Karma is an ancient Sanskrit word that means causation, cause and effect, conditioning,
or action and reaction. In Tibetan, the word for karma is "leh," which
literally means action. In ancient Pali, the language of the earliest Buddhist
texts, the word for karma is kamma, which means deeds.
I define karma as reaction,
or conditioning. The idea is that there are no accidents, that everything happens
for a reason, even if that reason is not immediately perceptible. All major spiritual
traditions rest on the understanding that the universe has a moral dimension,
and some sense of virtue and evil. The law of karma teaches us that we create
virtue or evil, and that we can and do direct our own lives and outcomes--consciously,
unconsciously or, as is usually the case, semi-consciously.
Karma, in other
words, is not mere luck. It is a mistake to imagine that one's karma is somehow
fated, scripted, or predestined; that we have a fixed future, or that we should
feel helpless in the face of karma, somehow imprisoned or victimized by it."Buddha's
teaching is that you are your own master," the Dalai Lama has said. "Everything
depends on yourself. This means that pleasure and pain arise from virtuous and
nonvirtuous actions which come not from outside but from within yourself."
What Buddhists call the universal law of karmic causation reveals that the
steering wheel of karma--or character or destiny--is in our own hands. And although
we cannot control the karmic winds blowing from the past--"winds" such
as psychological and biological conditioning--we can learn how to better adjust
our sails and direct our course through life rather than being blown before the
winds of past karma like a dead leaf in the wind. According to the Shambhala Dictionary
of Buddhism and Zen, " Karma provides the situation, not the response to
the situation."
Where does our karma come from? From past actions and
intentions. Each of us is a composite of countless different experiences: a whirling,
changing composite of interacting memories, energy and habits--what Buddhists
call karmic imprints. These imprints on the mind produce further reactions and
responses in kind, just as electrical impulses pass more easily across synapses
in the brain where they have already passed. An example would be that we tend
to do what our parents did before us, as well as continue behaving, talking and
thinking in ways similar to what we have done before.
In the Buddhist teachings,
karma is broken down into three types: good (positive) karma, bad (negative) karma,
and neutral (indifferent) karma. In other words, virtuous acts bring positive
results sooner or later, as well as positive feelings and beneficent states of
mind. The more loving, kind, patient, generous, and unselfish we are, the more
those qualities surround and come back to us. Likewise, negative acts and intentions
similarly reproduce in kind. There are also different dimensions of karma, such
as individual, group, and collective karma including national and species karma.
The
fact that karma is fundamentally conditioning is the key to improving it. Since
we are conditioned, we can recondition ourselves to act in more satisfying, fulfilling,
and productive ways, eventually liberating ourselves completely. We can retool
ourselves to live wisely and compassionately rather than selfishly sleepwalking
through a life of delusion and confusion.
Indeed, karmic causation depends
more on our intentions than on our mere actions. If you do a good deed by accident,
you don't create as much good karma as if you do it intentionally, mainly because
the action does not reflect a meritorious or wholesome process in your mind-stream.
Similarly, if you harm someone by accident, you don't engender the same negative
karma as if you do it on purpose.
Buddhist texts attribute this to the fact
that karma has four parts: the intention or impulse; the actual action, thought/attitude
or words; the accomplishing of the action, thought or deed; and rejoicing in the
completion of that activity. If any of these parts are missing, the karma is considered
incomplete and the results less profound and powerful. This means that if you
genuinely repent, atone for, and renounce your negative actions--whether they
were committed in the remote or recent past--you do not have to bear the whole
karmic load. Moreover, if you vow not to do execrable deeds again, you have transformed
bad karma into sterling karma, and have begun to fulfill the Buddha's deathbed
injunction to his followers: Work out your own salvation with diligence.
Of
course, we all know that life is not black and white, and that bad things happen
to good people. This is because there are a myriad karmic causes conspiring to
bring about any particular event, which then becomes cause for other effects to
take place. The Buddha himself said that one would have to be omniscient to understand
every karmic cause for why one single feather on a peacock's tail is a particular
color. Grasping the ungraspable is not the point. We serve ourselves and others
best by understanding the general principles of karmic causation and their ethical
implications for all beings, and guiding ourselves accordingly.
Thus we must
pay attention to our intention and deeds, and reflect on them. The first step
is to contemplate whether something you do or say is going to cause harm to yourself
or others. If not, go ahead and do it. If it does end up causing harm despite
your intention, admit it to yourself and vow not to repeat such an action. In
this way, we can learn from our experiences and reform our ways, becoming better
people--more skillful and spiritually successful in all aspects of our lives.