By Chinatu Dunstan Orindu.
I have seen most people define karma as retributive justice or a kind of force that dishes out punishments to people and pays them as they deserve.
This is not karma. Karma is not a deity or any divine being dishing judgements and punishments to wrongdoers. Karma is not a justice system nor a prison house.
Let Us Define Karma in Buddhism.
Karma and karmaphala are fundamental concepts in Buddhism.
The concepts of karma and karmaphala explain how our intentional actions keep us tied to rebirth in samsara, whereas the Buddhist path, as exemplified in the Nobel Eightfold Path shows us the way out of samsara. Karmaphala is the “fruit, effect” or “result” of karma. A similar term is karmavipaka, the “maturation” or “cooking” of karma. The cycle of rebirth is determined by karma, literally “action”. In the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to actions driven by intention. a deed done deliberately through body, speech or mind, which leads to future consequences.
In karma How these intentional actions lead to rebirth, and how the idea of rebirth is to be reconciled with the doctrines of impermanence and no-self, is a matter of philosophical inquiry in the Buddhist traditions, for which several solutions have been proposed.
In early Buddhism no explicit theory of rebirth and karma is worked out, and “the karma doctrine may have been incidental to early Buddhist soteriology.” In early Buddhism, rebirth is ascribed to craving or ignorance. The Buddha’s teaching of karma is not strictly deterministic, but incorporated circumstantial factors, unlike that of the Jains. It is not a rigid and mechanical process, but a flexible, fluid and dynamic process. There is no set linear relationship between a particular action and its results. The karmic effect of a deed is not determined solely by the deed itself, but also by the nature of the person who commits the deed, and by the circumstances in which it is committed. Karmaphala is not a “judgement” enforced by a God, Deity or other supernatural being that controls the affairs of the Cosmos. Rather, karmaphala is the outcome of a natural process of cause and effect. Within Buddhism, 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. The Acintita Sutta warns that “the results of kamma” is one of the four incomprehensible subjects, subjects that are beyond all conceptualization and cannot be understood with logical thought or reason.
Nichiren Buddhism teaches that transformation and change through faith and practice changes adverse karma negative causes made in the past that result in negative results in the present and future to positive causes for benefits in the future.
Understanding Karma in Jainism
In Jainism, karma conveys a totally different meaning from that commonly understood in Hindu philosophy and western civilization. Jain philosophy is the oldest Indian philosophy that completely separates body (matter) from the soul (pure consciousness). In Jainism, karma is referred to as karmic dirt, as it consists of very subtle particles of matter that pervade the entire universe.
Jainism expound that seven tattvas (truths or fundamentals) constitute reality. These are:
Jīva- the soul which is characterized by consciousness
Ajīva- the non-soul
Āsrava- inflow of auspicious and evil karmic matter into the soul.
Bandha (bondage)- mutual intermingling of the soul and karmas.
Samvara (stoppage)- obstruction of the inflow of karmic matter into the soul.
Nirjara (gradual dissociation)- separation or falling off of part of karmic matter from the soul.
Mokṣha (liberation)- complete annihilation of all karmic matter (bound with any particular soul).
The key points where the theory of karma in Jainism can be stated as follows:
Karma operates as a self-sustaining mechanism as natural universal law, without any need of an external entity to manage them. (absence of the exogenous “Divine Entity” in Jainism)
Jainism advocates that a soul attracts karmicmatter even with the thoughts, and not just the actions. Thus, to even think evil of someone would endure a karma-bandha or an increment in bad karma. For this reason, Jainism emphasise on developing Ratnatraya(The Three Jewels): samyak darśana (Right Faith), samyak jnāna (Right Knowledge) and samyak charitra (Right Conduct).
In Jain theology, a soul is released of worldly affairs as soon as it is able to emancipate from the “karma-bandha”. In Jainism, nirvana and moksha are used interchangeably. Nirvana represents annihilation of all karmas by an individual soul and moksha represents the perfect blissful state (free from all bondage). In the presence of a Tirthankara, a soul can attain Kevala Jnana (omniscience) and subsequently nirvana, without any need of intervention by the Tirthankara.
The karmic theory in Jainism operates endogenously. Even the Tirthankarasthemselves have to go through the stages of emancipation, for attaining that state.
Jainism treats all souls equally, inasmuch as it advocates that all souls have the same potential of attaining nirvana. Only those who make effort, really attain it, but nonetheless, each soul is capable on its own to do so by gradually reducing its karma.
There are 8 types of karma but space won’t let me expand on these.
There are eight types of karmas. Depending upon your activities, you
can accumulate one or more of these eight karmas:
1) Jnanavarniya – Knowledge-Obscuring Karma
2) Darshanavarniya – Perception-Obscuring Karma
3) Antarya – Obstructive Karma
4) Mohniya – Deluding Karma
5) Nam – Body-determining Karma
6) Gotra – Status-determining Karma
7) Vedniya – Feeling-Producing Karma
8) Ayushya – Age-Determining Karma
We must take deeper understanding that karma isn’t what most people define it to be.
The theory of karma explains how, why, and what happens to us. It also
explains the role that karmas play in our lives, how we accumulate
karmas, and how we get rid of them.
Eckankar has a different definition of karma but since they’re not the original religion that propounded karma, Eckankar’s definition ends at cause and effect which isn’t what karma is.
We must take greater pains to enlighten people who use certain spiritual terms wrongly. Spiritual terms are like A and B. If you place B before A in the alphabetical spiritual order, it won’t work. So when you understand karma from its original concept, you’d rather live a sublime and calmer life.
