Do you believe in karma?

Question

Do you believe in karma? Why do you and have you ever experienced anything that supports your believe?

Answer 1

*Karma - from a Theravada Buddhist perspective:

According to Buddhism, there are five orders or processes (niyama) which operate in the physical and mental realms.

They are:

Utu Niyama - physical inorganic order, e.g. seasonal phenomena of winds and rains. The unerring order of seasons, characteristic seasonal changes and events, causes of winds and rains, nature of heat, etc., all belong to this group.

Bija Niyama - order of germs and seeds (physical organic order), e.g. rice produced from rice-seed, sugary taste from sugar-cane or honey, peculiar characteristics of certain fruits, etc. The scientific theory of cells and genes and the physical similarity of twins may be ascribed to this order.

Karma Niyama - order of act and result, e.g., desirable and undesirable acts produce corresponding good and bad results. As surely as water seeks its own level so does Karma, given opportunity, produce its inevitable result, not in the form of a reward or punishment but as an innate sequence.

Dhamma Niyama - order of the norm, e.g., the natural phenomena occurring at the advent of a Bodhisattva in his last birth. Gravitation and other similar laws of nature. The natural reason for being good and so forth, may be included in this group.

Citta Niyama - order or mind, e.g., processes of consciousness, arising and perishing of consciousness, constituents of consciousness, power of mind, etc., including telepathy, telaesthesia, retro-cognition, premonition, clairvoyance, clairaudience, thought-reading and such other psychic phenomena which are inexplicable to modern science.

Every mental or physical phenomenon could be explained by these all-embracing five orders or processes which are laws in themselves. Karma as such is only one of these five orders. Like all other natural laws they demand no lawgiver.

Of these five, the physical inorganic order and the order of the norm are more or less mechanistic, though they can be controlled to some extent by human ingenuity and the power of mind. For example, fire normally burns, and extreme cold freezes, but man has walked scatheless over fire and meditated naked on Himalayan snows; horticulturists have worked marvels with flowers and fruits. Buddhist training aims at control of mind, which is possible by right understanding and skilful volition. Karma law operates quite automatically and, when the Karma is powerful, man cannot interfere with its inexorable result though he may desire to do so; but here also right understanding and skilful volition can accomplish much and mould the future. Good Karma, persisted in, can thwart the reaping of bad Karma, or as some Western scholars prefer to say ‘action influence’, is certainly an intricate law whose working is fully comprehended only by a Buddha. The Buddhist aims at the final destruction of all Karma.

What is Karma?

The Pali term Karma literally means action or doing. Any kind of intentional action whether mental, verbal, or physical, is regarded as Karma. It covers all that is included in the phrase "thought, word and deed". Generally speaking, all good and bad action constitutes Karma. In its ultimate sense Karma means all moral and immoral volition. Involuntary, unintentional or unconscious actions, though technically deeds, do not constitute Karma, because volition, the most important factor in determining Karma, is absent.

The Buddha says:

"I declare, O Bhikkhus, that volition is Karma. Having willed one acts by body, speech, and thought." (Anguttara Nikaya)

Every volitional action of individuals, save those of Buddhas and Arahants, is called Karma. The exception made in their case is because they are delivered from both good and evil; they have eradicated ignorance and craving, the roots of Karma.

"Destroyed are their germinal seeds (Khina bija); selfish desires no longer grow," states the Ratana Sutta of Sutta nipata.

This does not mean that the Buddha and Arahantas are passive. They are tirelessly active in working for the real well being and happiness of all. Their deeds ordinarily accepted as good or moral, lack creative power as regards themselves. Understanding things as they truly are, they have finally shattered their cosmic fetters – the chain of cause and effect.

Karma does not necessarily mean past actions. It embraces both past and present deeds. Hence in one sense, we are the result of what we were; we will be the result of what we are. In another sense, it should be added, we are not totally the result of what we were; we will not absolutely be the result of what we are. The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the present of the future, but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future; so complex is the working of Karma.

It is this doctrine of Karma that the mother teaches her child when she says "Be good and you will be happy and we will love you; but if you are bad, you will be unhappy and we will not love you." In short, Karma is the law of cause and effect in the ethical realm.

Karma and Vipaka

Karma is action, and Vipaka, fruit or result, is its reaction.

Just as every object is accompanied by a shadow, even so every volitional activity is inevitably accompanied by its due effect. Karma is like potential seed: Vipaka could be likened to the fruit arising from the tree – the effect or result. Anisamsa and Adinaya are the leaves, flowers and so forth that correspond to external differences such as health, sickness and poverty – these are inevitable consequences, which happen at the same time. Strictly speaking, both Karma and Vipaka pertain to the mind.

As Karma may be good or bad, so may Vipaka, - the fruit – is good or bad. As Karma is mental so Vipaka is mental (of the mind). It is experienced as happiness, bliss, unhappiness or misery, according to the nature of the Karma seed. Anisamsa are the concomitant advantages – material things such as prosperity, health and longevity. When Vipaka’s concomitant material things are disadvantageous, they are known as Adinaya, full of wretchedness, and appear as poverty, ugliness, disease, short life-span and so forth.

As we sow, we reap somewhere and sometime, in this life or in a future birth. What we reap today is what we have sown either in the present or in the past.

The Samyutta Nikaya states:

"According to the seed that’s sown,
So is the fruit you reap there from,
Doer of good will gather good,
Doer of evil, evil reaps,
Down is the seed and thou shalt taste
The fruit thereof."

*Metta to all.

Answer 2

As a Wiccan, I believe in an intensified view of Karma - known as the Threefold Law. The law states that whatever you send out - positive or negative - will come back to you three times stronger...
This doesn't necessarily mean that if you rape someone - you are going to be raped 3 times to compensate.. the punishment is undetermined by the act, you never know what will happen, when it will happen, whether it will all happen at once or at different times.
We don't believe in the one-time forgiveness or damnation scenario.
As for experience - yes. When I have done good things, I have good things happen to me.. When I have done negative things, then I have paid for it. Even if it was just having to live with that overwhelming sense of guilt.

Answer 3

this galaxy and earth fall under the law of cause and effect. Karma is a soul only law. what goes around comes around, we reap what we sow, karma exists whether we believe it or not. we may be paying a price for an action in a previous life. that is karma. karma is not good or bad it just is.

Answer 4

I do believe in karma. I know this example will sound goofy, but one time I helped an elderly gentlemen into my apartment building and up three flights to get to his friends' apartment and then went down to do my laundry and actually was able use both laundry machines at the same time, something that had never happened to me, one was always in use so it took longer to do laundry. I have to admit, I felt that I was being rewarded for my kindness to the gentleman. This event is one that really stands out in my memory as a happening that reaffirmed my belief in karma.

Answer 5

Describing KARMA as "What goes round comes back" is an attempt to dilute its potency.Karma is indepedent of one's likes or dislikes-beleifs or no beleifs.Every action -both conducive or non-conducive to the individual, family, county, community,City country,Universe etc has a Positive or Negative marking and is AUTOMATIC(it is not based on "One's" will)- it superimposes(Adhyaasa) the Aathman(Soul)-like more air makes a fire on a piece of coke to "glow" or and less air make it covered with ash-when the ash is blown off by air-conducive actions remove the the ash and makes it glow again-.Air is only an "aid",-likewise prayers are only aid to help to improve the glow.--Air (having religious beleifs) per se is not "fire"(Karma)-- Karma Phalam (the Fruit of action ) accumelates on and influences the Soul.--Ultimately it is the "Fire"(Karma) only influences the coke(Aatman-the Soul) to Glow or to be dull. Meemaamsa (as propagated by sri.Jaimini,sri.Kumarila Bhatta and sri.Mandan Mishra and their students) is of the view that "KARMA CAN EVEN bind GOD".In sri Bhagavad Geetha.Lord Krishna says " It is your duty to do your Karma--you should have NO expectations on the fruits of your Karma".It is why sri.Mahathma Gandhi after having worked for 28 years with several imprisonments under British rule for India's freedom, refused to accept the Cheif of Free India's Government,unlike Janaab Mohamed Ali Jinnah in Pakistan--sri.Gandhi asked sri.Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to take over the Power.

Answer 6

im mormon, i dont believe in Karma literally like some people, but i agree with the idea, or spirit of karma.

some times i dont get good karma returned to me, but i do my part and think about how actions affect other people...

Answer 7

H3LL Yeah i believe in Karma
because something i did one time to that
person came right back at me n got me good so yeah i believe in it...

i learned a lesson too becareful with what i say

Answer 8

Hmmm.. Yes, in a way. I believe in the Christian version of karma. Doing good deeds will usually result in good done to you but doing evil will get you punishment sooner or later in one way or another.

Answer 9

Mosaic Law reveals this; but everyone sins. Grace is the absolution from the justified law, or forgiveness provided by the sacrifice of Christ.

Satan returns the favor in his own time and we are left confused when we get 'belted' for doing somthing decent.

IT's a tricky spiritual world.

Answer 10

Yes. I'm going to keep it simple 'good actions usually get good results and bad actions usually don't'. Karma is a complicated subject so I won't go into everything. To steal a phrase 'you reap what you sew'.

Answer 11

yes, i believe in karma. i have not personally experienced it, but i've witnessed it happen to others. everything does indeed happen for a reason