Karma Theory in Buddhism

by Hoang through Professor Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Powell II, opensourcebuddhism.org
This clear explanation of the complex notion of karma as the ethical undergirding for Buddhist ethics will aid the beginner to enter an understanding of Buddhism in a general way.

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• humanities
• religion
• philosophy
• Buddhism
• Buddha
• Buddhist
• psychology
• karma
• ethics
• sin
• cause
• effect
• Hinduism
• Jainism
• India
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• Rev.
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• opensourcebuddhism.org

[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]

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!

[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.

[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.

[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. 

[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.

[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!

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.