Karma Theory in Buddhism

[alantjost]

Without craving you would not exist. So stop telling people to be dead inside. Like if fine the way it is. Suffering is part of life, just like joy, and hard work and all the rest of it. You cannot have life without suffering. So live out your life, and do what you want and need to do, and stop following these useless teachings with these useless gurus!

[kamalawhite]

@alantjost You have a point there and maybe you'd be surprised to hear the Dalai Lama said something similar, i.e., desire is necessary to have the drive for life. There is a misunderstanding here : desire should not and cannot be suppressed, rather if a seeker attains a certain level of awakening, desire will leave him, much in the same way, for example, as the desire for chilhood play leave naturally as a person becomes adult.

[Opetlao]

I would like people to challenge the ideas that our past karma is the result of how our life is in this life time. I don't think Karma is the case here, Karma doesn't effect how our next life going to be. But instead I say that Karma are embed into the mind of being that our next life we will continuing our old habbits action or karma. .We can see this in the present moment how if we have a bad habbits of killing, trancended through mind even in dreams our mind continue this habbits.

[mudikripto]

@Opetlao well im a buddhist from Sri lanka i might not able to explain my thoughts and ideas in my mind in English because my mother language is Sinhala. well i don't agree for the the idea of yours. lord buddha said that everything we do is based on karma or the things we do intentionally. even a bad or a evil thought can be a sin. exaple of the evil thoughts result is the death of king Ashoka.

[Opetlao]

I don't expect anyone to agree with my ideas instead I suggest people to test it out for themselves ain't that what's count. I do agree with you that Karma is base on our intentions. But I don't believe that a sick poor boy in Africa or in south east Asia lives have anything to do with predetermine by his or her karma in his or her past life. However some actions in his or her mental state might be the result of his or her past Karma. The Buddha clearly said that's he is not a Lord but awake.

[TenTonTommy777]

are you theravada or mahayana buddhist?? just curious

[ss77ss]

you have really explained things well. Greetings from Sri Lanka. most of the people in Sri Lanka believe in Karma principle.

[IdaSputum]

In the last few minutes of vid the narrator talks of how the 'weight'' of Karma depends on who did the deed and who they did it to

Does this refer to the personal living conditions of each person?

i.e. - if a fat rich, greedy person steals food off a tiny hungry baby, the fat person will pay more Karmatic debt than say -

if a tired hungry desperate person stole food from a shop?

As the latter had good reason to steal, but the greedy fat one was just being selfish.

Thank you.

Anothe e.g.

[1543fiitl]

You're very accurate on your description about the karma in buddhism. I'm very pleased with your altruistic wisdom and I too hope to one day benefit all of motherly beings. I recommend you read "Becoming Enlightened" Thank you! May all beings be happy.

[agnostoatomo]

@fntime If we see Karma as an extended understanding of the scientific understanding of cause&effect,then the Prince Siddharta Gautama couldn't had overcome Karma,at least during his lifetime in a human Body and become known as the fully awakened one,the Buddha.We can understand Karma as a the result of cause&effect that builds up the illusion of a biographical me someone is addicted with and feeds&defends that "me"( "i" believe "i" truly "am").

[agnostoatomo]

Karma is more like the result of the causes and effects of the Person i see as myself in a Dream & act accordingly.In the moment we wake up and recognize that it was all part of the dream,the Story,me,the other figures in that dream,we are freed from the illusory tension of the dream so we can relax in understanding that.It doesn't mean there's only dreaming & there is nothing,therefore Buddha didn't teach nihilism at all & also didn't say the dream was created by an eternal creatorgod.

[agnostoatomo]

In fact Buddha didn't care about metaphysical speculations!

Another analogy is to understand & enjoy all kinds of movies,because you know it's all movielike after having researched the Screen,traced back the lightbeams,have found a projector,found the source,a lightbulb & recognised that this light is a phenomenon that depends on circumstancial factors like "electricity","tungsten wire",glas etc.

If one understands that the movie isn't seen as real anymore.

[opensourcebuddhism]

@agnostoatomo I get your point Agnosto, when one traces back the movie to the source, the projector, one realizes the illusory nature of it all. The point of the last few of the ten oxherding pictures in Zen though, is that after the mountains no longer seem like mountains, we return to the illusory world with a new perspective and act again with the world as if it were real.

[agnostoatomo]

@opensourcebuddhism Exactly.That is what i meant when i wrote "..to understand & enjoy all kinds of movies".We can share everything to it's fullest,even to that point,that we are able to give our body away,if it helps lessen Dukkha,like the Buddha in many previous lifes as a Bodhisattva in the Jataka stories.This is the deep beauty of compassion that comes out of wisdom instead of attachment.

[Achilles9924]

Go study some scriptures. Be aware that some of his words were meant to be metaphorical. Buddha never mentioned anything supernatural and from his teachings it can actually be concluded that he never believed in anything supernatural. His idea of Karma is actually the basic idea of morality and social order.

[agnostoatomo]

Since the Buddha taught that all Phenomena are empty of inherent existence the Buddha did not find a socalled 3rd kind of Karma!The socalled good&bad Karma is what is encountered by the "ego"distorted mind dividing into subject&object & therefore encounters Karma.Karma is a volitional impulse,the 4. Skandha,as taught in Abhidarma and that's a part of the illusion.If Karma would be real,than there's no chance 2 actualize Buddhahood.There is no REAL Karma,please understand that !

[opensourcebuddhism]

@agnostoatomo I know that there is no "real" karma, but my student did not. She is just a beginner learning a new concept and did a nice job conventionally explaining that. You are quite right though, it is a conventional designation like all others. Nice insight!

[keeyk118b]

@opensourcebuddhism according to buddhist teaching, if someone committed certain sins and died, his soul will be punished in hell right? then he will be re born and still has to suffer in the next life for the sins of his previous life?

[fntime]

@agnostoatomo Could you explain to me, the statement,

'there is no Real Karma'. I always looked at karma

as the result, of cause and effect.

Burn sodium and clorine and you get salt.

Thanks for your reply!

[agnostoatomo]

I hope i could serve your question well & support Freedom & the expanding Qualities of a good Heart.

May you and all sentient beings enjoy Happiness and it's causes and be free from discontentment and it's causes.

[1543fiitl]

@agnostoatomo You were a bit confused dear friend. All karma and the seed of karma: ignorance which is in the existence of phenomena and entities + afflictive emotions causes us sentient beings to revolve around the samsara in the infinity. So, once that cessation is reached on destructive emotions, one'll attain enlightenment. You can further study with the famous tibetan yogi + awakened being = Milarepa.

[agnostoatomo]

@1543fiitl Who is the one that "attains" enlightenment?

Since all phenomena are circumstancial and inherent empty of ownership(as equivalent of an ego or inherent self),who is "the owner" of Karma?

If we study Milarepas teachings & life,it depends on which understanding level we study...there's a difference in the understanding of the same teachings,wether we see it out of the Shravaka or the Mahamudra view or the views in between.

[dizasha1]

Giving mighty thanks for this one. Do good. Is it so hard?

[buddhasknowbest]

There is no evidence that karma transfers into a fetus, a newborn baby, or into another world. Karma is just volition and is probably the most misunderstood term in all of Buddhism. The Buddhist "doctrine of karma" implies that an intentional action (karma) is a cause that gives a result. The karma becomes a seed that bears fruit (an effect or result). This karmic process (Karma Niyama) can be instant. Buddhism boldly claims it can also extend into another life. This last part is based on faith.

[mrtrkdlite]

but i dont understand if i face problems now because i make karma that doesnt make sense at all. i wasnt the the one that did bad things it was another person. why should i pay for what some other guy did. i dont believe in past life as its not fair at all. again it wasnt me that built the bad karma

[opensourcebuddhism]

@mrtrkdlite that is just the point. you have no "me" apart from a flowing stream of consciousness, one of infinite numbers of such, flowing through the universe. you raise a point many critics, but the buddhist answers, there is no ego. you are infinitely related and though have apparent freedom in the fifth dimension, from the fifth and on, you are large governed by even higher realities, e.g. mega-strings at the tenth dimension. all of this entire thing is the karma of the universe.

[NasirellieSpice]

wow, so interesting!!! thank you!

[poopypantsism]

growing up in chrstianity, totally turned my off, budddism makes the most sinse to me, but to have no attachments to this world? I love my son,but i like the fact that thers no dogma, just philosphy. and unfortunitly reincarnation makes most since to me. although i NEVER want to back to this plane of exesistence

[impermanentoo]

It's nothing wrong with loving your son. To attach means you want to control your son's every single move and can't live without him

The more we're attached to something or someone, we'll suffer more

[jwachter95206]

"How could such an infinitely complex system be even considered to exist without embracing the notion of a 'higher power'? referred to by many as a 'god'.

or maybe we need a few thousand years

more for our brain to overcome present

mental limitation, by then, what we thought this square earth is round after all

[joeluisa31272]

it's very hard to define what karma really is,but once u understand it does make sense,i think buddhism is the only thing that comes close to revealing true reality when u start working with the mind and consciousness u see things in a whole new way.....

[Trance4mer24]

I guess it would be foolish to entirely 100% discount the possibility of a higher power existing, but I certainly don't subscribe to any belief in one. Actually I believe it would be the worst case scenario, as assuming it was omnipotent and omniscient, I could never bring myself to respect it. Like you said it should have to power to at least help reduce suffering.

[Trance4mer24]

I do have respect for, and feel warmth towards many elements of Buddhist Philosophy. At the same time I also take many of these teachings with a pinch of salt, and recognise them simply as 'possibilities'.

However, I'm less taken with certain aspects of the idea of karma.

If bad things happen to people because of an accumulation of negative karma in a previous life, then an incredibly complex and intelligent justice system (of some sort) must be in place to influence real world events....

[Trance4mer24]

...but a intelligent force capable of influencing and ordering real world events is vastly more complex than Newton's third law of motion (To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction).

How could such an infinitely complex system be even considered to exist without embracing the notion of a 'higher power'? referred to by many as a 'god'.

Another problem I see is that such a system would interfere with an individual's free will.

[Trance4mer24]

...consider the case of child abuse. If a little girl gets raped and beaten, such a system would imply that she deserved it because of her accumulation of bad karma.

How about the rapist? are they acting out of free will, or are they being manipulated like a puppet in accordance with the law of karma, simply to teach her a lesson?

Apologies for the harsh example there, but I would have a hard time embracing this idea as a reality.

Peace.

[opensourcebuddhism]

Once more, why didn't the higher power intervene if it could've? It is like a good swimmer who lets a kid drown in the river 'cuz, we told him not to swim there - disobedience deserves punishment.

I don't like that idea much....

[Trance4mer24]

"I don't like that idea much.... "-opensource

Neither do I, and since there isn't one scrap of proof for the existence of any such higher power, I hold no belief in any god either.

Sorry, I wasn't arguing for the existence of a god, rather just saying how close in nature the idea of such a 'natural law' as karma sounds to me, to be more like that of a 'god' and less like a natural law.

[fntime]

@Trance4mer24 Good questions!!! I think, that in the end, we must experience being the rapist and the little girl. I believe life is a 'simulation program', nothing that happens is of any importance, BUT, in order for the 'program' to work, it must feel 'real'. We are not here to win or lose points, based upon our actions, but rather to gain complete understanding, which means, all of life, the good, bad, ugly, hopeless etc must be understood, we through 'experience' understand!

[justalittledust]

The point in the video I most disagree with is at 3:45 where the Buddha is quoted as saying some might be short-lived for killing in previous lives. This contradicts what was said about karma not being predetermination. The Buddha pointed out that full understanding of the dharma can undo all that. This seems to be what you're saying also, fntime.

[justalittledust]

@Trance4mer24. I have never found anywhere in the suttas where the Buddha said that EVERYTHING is caused by karma.  Everything arises from causes, but not all causes are the result of karma.

[opensourcebuddhism]

Biggest problem with the "divine" or h"higher power" idea is that why doesn't it intervene to save people from genocide and the like?

If it can save people and voluntarily does not, how is it a "higher" or "divine" power. Big problem of theodicy or good and evil issues with the monotheisms....

[opensourcebuddhism]

I don't see a need for such a system anymore than for a system required to make gravity keep planets in line etc.

Maybe gravity is intelligent, but i don't see that. I do see a universe of evolving consciousnesses for sure. In that sense, my decision to punch a cop or not is based on my own level of wisdom.

[AlaskanSky]

I think a truly compassionate person does good deeds for others without expecting anything in return.

[opensourcebuddhism]

actually,

you are the one with the western understanding. you think like a christian. your credit score is in fact governed by your karma. pay your bills, good, don't then its bad. the idea of "sin" is western and loving your enemy still results in good karma, but it is a different idea than you're thinking.

[AlaskanSky]

I can accept karma as a viable theory for why things happen, but I still have some doubts.

If all things are essentially empty, then the same must be true for karma and volition.

[opensourcebuddhism]

by Jove! I think you've got it! You are right sir, both are empty of self-existence, they depend upon "other" than themselves for existence. Nice insight!

James

[jea740]

westren way of tinking is verry dualistic

[jea740]

thats true instead of being scared to got to hell/bad karma.

[AlaskanSky]

The Western understanding of karma makes it sound like one's credit score.

[KarmicDrifters]

Wonderful video. How real is this though? Really.. Karma exists?

[magebaba]

great video. thanx.

[Laowest]

There are 31 planes of existance where we can be born to. They are : 4 planes of suffering, 1 human, 6 heavens, 16 fine materiel or Brahma worlds and 4 formless or pure consciousness world.

[Tien1185]

very interesting video. LOVE IT. 5 STARS.

[joeluisa31272]

thank you.

[idonaj]

thank you for this video

[EdwardGabrielsen]

This is excellent. Very complete. Thank you for your work. May all beings be happy.