Karma

A brief exposition on the Nature of Karma

Taken from- Ahimsa; Buddhism & The Vegetarian Ideal.
(B.Balsys, Ahimsa, Buddhism & The Vegetarian Ideal, pp 86-96, New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 2004) 

Translated literally the Sanskrit term karma means action, which then produces reaction. It is the great Law of cause and effect, for no matter what actions (or non-actions, when one should have acted) one sows in the three worlds of human livingness, one must reap the consequence of their effects.
One reaps the consequence of not only one's physical actions, but also of one's emotional and mental life, and of his non-action and non-involvement when he had the ability to help. One's karma is one's destiny, and beings with interrelated karma from another earlier epoch of existence incarnate together in order to work out their karma. This means that there are certain actions from the past that must be rectified or cleansed by the perpetuators. If someone caused harm or pain to another in the past by not acting when clearly they should have, then there is karma created. An example is if a person who cannot swim has fallen into deep water and is in danger of drowning, and someone who can swim is in the vicinity, then the situation has been karmically designed for him to jump in and save that person. If the person does not act to save the drowning man, which he could so easily have done, then the karma is great, as the sum of the prospective future actions of the person drowning, the chance to possible enlightenment, if he lived, weighs upon the one who did not act to save.
Another way at looking at this is thus: What would be the consequences of a great one, such as Milarepa, or the Buddha, who clearly had the karma and spiritual gift waves from past actions to gain the enlightenment they did, indeed, whose karma necessitated they did, however who at a crucial moment decided that the going was too tough and decided to be a fisherman instead? Certainly in such a case the sum of those they did not help, and indeed who had the good karma with these great beings to have incarnated precisely so that they could be taught by them, could also not gain their enlightenment, falling thus also into a cycle of doing unmeritorious deeds. So then the sum of the karma of all of their wrong actions, rippling out through to the many they could have helped, becomes the karma of the one who was destined to be Buddha, Milarepa, in that life. As it is for great ones, so similarly for those not so highly attained. There are always certain actions that one is predestined to do, and one is impelled to do so according to the way one's conscience, or voice of silence, dictates. People have to learn to rightly listen to that voice throughout their lives.
Karma, however, is not absolutely fixed, ie, one can consciously choose to not act in accordance to the way they should have and thus create new karma, a new score to cleanse through reciprocal action in a future time.
Karma is concerned with the means by which consciousness evolves, and is gauged on the objective and subjective motives underlying the actions of the being, as well as the consequences of his actions. It is the Law of perpetual fulfilment. The being, through the consequences of his action, and the resultant suffering or happiness, is eventually impelled to transmute his grosser tastes into the refined and subtle; his desires into aspirations; his petty and selfish ambitions into the selfless expression of the Dharma; ignorance into wisdom; and darkness into (a resplendent vehicle of) Love and Light.
Karma is primarily a group Law and affects civilisations, nations, races, and all Kingdoms of Nature. Nobody lives separate from anyone else, their thoughts, emotions and physical actions happen in context with their relationship to others. Indeed, the very way they think, the language they use, is as a consequence of being part of a society in a particular country, of a particular era of human history. Everyone in that society conditions the way the other thinks and feels, and consequently the karma is interwoven, thus is a group law. People come into and out of incarnation according to the karma of their subjective group. It prompts masses of people toward certain events. People live in a sea of conditionings that constitutes their karma, and it is this that urges them towards fulfilment.
Karma therefore, is the cause and effect of the purpose for the existence of any evolving entity. It's real nature is thus inexplicable to the thinking minds of people. They can be considered as atoms constituting a grain of sand karmically propelled in the immense duration of cosmos.
In conjunction with cyclic law, karma is the prime cause of all natural disasters, wars, and yet also causes the beneficial effects of, for example, rain and sunshine. This is because all aspects of manifest life are expressions of karma.
The prime objective of karma in its seeming destructive aspect, is the disintegration of an old form and the birth of a new form that can adequately and effectively wield a higher type of energy, a truer or more comprehensive aspect that would have been distorted by the old, rigid, or limited expression.
A 'liberated being' is one who has no more karma left associated with the material world, the three realms of perception where humanity has its being (the qualities of which we must learn to perfectly control and express):
the dense physical realm,
the emotional realm,
and the mental realm. (With it’s dual aspect of the concrete and abstract mind.)
When liberated beings continue to be involved with the material world it is entirely due to compassionate reasons and to the "new" type of karma (which may be termed planetary karma) that now manifests through him.
All of a person's pain (or joy) can thus be viewed as self-caused. Basically, the formula is - if a person thinks only of himself and thus is separative, taking from all others to satisfy the desires of the self, then inevitably karma rebounds upon that person to take from him that which he cherishes as "him". (With the consequent pain that frustrated personality ambitions produces.)
If a person thinks of others as himself, and gives to them with his heart, then his link with the Source of all Light and Love is increased, with consequent joy. Thus as his heart grows, with Love and Light, so too does his karma expand affecting groups, nations, and eventually the entire world with the power of his light; as many great enlightened beings have shown.
Karma can also be viewed in terms of the point of view of two of the basic postulates of physics, which are:
a. Energy can be neither created nor destroyed but is only transmuted from one state to the next.
b. Newton's third law states - mutual reactions between two bodies produce equal and opposite reactions; or, to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.
The "equal and opposite reaction” therefore, is the karma that we incur for ourselves by our actions. It is "opposite" in that the consequences are relayed back to us in a similar fashion as that of a mirror image. There is nothing created or destroyed, only the forms are changed or modified to suit the needs of the various evolving external conditionings, or environment.
The consequences of the actions of an entity unfailingly manifest in such a way that the entity grows in experience, allowing him to mature spiritually. For this reason, he is made to realise the extent of those consequences by living them fully in consciousness.
No one can evade these consequences, nor can any compassionate being relieve another person from experiencing the weight of them until such a time as that person realises the cause of these sufferings for himself, and takes the first step towards Light. Then, and only then, can he be helped, for only that which a person has experienced for himself can be known by him and become an integral part of his being.
Ahimsa 
 
Karma and the reirth of Consciousness 

 
Ahimsa- harmlessness 
 
Is animal rebirth possible? 
Merit or no merit? 

Sangskaras 
 
THE  DHARMAKAYA WAY 
 
Vajrayana 
The Council of Bodhisattvas 
 
Shambhalla 
Mahamudra 

Mantras 
Dakinis, Devas, Sky Dancers 
 
Awakening the Heart 
Skillful means 

Chakras 
The Bodhisattva vow 

Karma 
Women in Buddhism 

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES 
 
 
Vegetarianism