Enlightening Comments About Karma

You can't escape karma ... It is what it is. It doesn't judge, it's neither good nor bad like most people think. It's the result of all the actions, positive and negative--a constant balancing act of events--cause and effect--tit for tat--reaping and sowing--what goes around comes around ... However you phrase it, it's the same in the end.

(ALYSON NOËL, Shadowland)

Your believing or not believing in karma has no effect on its existence, nor on its consequences to you. Just as a refusal to believe in the ocean would not prevent you from drowning.

(F. PAUL WILSON, The Tomb)

Karma isn't fate. Nor is it a punishment imposed on us by some external agent. We create our own karma. Karma is the result of the choices that we make every moment of every day.

(TULKU THONDUP, Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth)

Karma is like the fruit of a mango tree. The mango will yield the tree and the tree will yield the mango and the cycle continues.

(NIRUBEN AMIN, The Science of Karma)

The law of karma is neither fatalistic nor punitive; nor is man a hapless, helpless victim in its bonds. God has blessed each one of us with reason, intellect and discrimination, as well as the sovereign free will. Even when our past karma inclines us toward evil, we can consciously tune our inclination towards detachment and ego-free action, thus lightening the karmic load.

(J. P. VASWANI, What Would You Like to Know about Karma)

When we cross the gates of death, our karma is all we take with us. Everything else that we enjoyed in this life we leave behind.... Our karma is the only thing that will count in determining our rebirth, for our next life is nothing but the effects of our karmic tendencies that materialize in our perception.

(TULKU THONDUP, Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth)

When we begin to understand the concept of Karma, we will never ever blame God for anything that happens to us. We will realise that we are responsible for all that happens to us. As we sow, so shall we reap. Rich or poor, saint or sinner, miser or philanthropist, learned or illiterate ... This is the Universal Law that applies to individuals, to whole communities, societies, nations and races. As we sow, so shall we reap.

(J. P. VASWANI, What Would You Like to Know about Karma)

Karma is not fate, for man acts with free will, creating his own destiny. The Vedas tell us, if we sow goodness, we will reap goodness; if we sow evil, we will reap evil. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determines our future.

(SATGURU SIVAYA SUBRAMUNIYASWAMI, Dancing With Siva)

Karma is a key that we may use to organize our lives, rather than endlessly agonizing over the seemingly unexplainable and often unexpected events forming the fabric of our lives.... Karma is not about fate, fatalism, or destiny; nothing is pre-ordained--rather everything is a sequential happening emerging logically from antecedents. Karma is a way of viewing existence that brings about a harmony of both fatalism and free will, resulting in increased mental health and self-responsibility.

(JONN MUMFORD, Karma Manual)

As no cause remains without its due effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your hand, and as like produces like, Karma is that unseen and unknown law which adjusts wisely, intelligently, and equitably each effect to its cause, tracing the latter back to its producer.

(H. P. BLAVATSKY, The Key to Theosophy)

Karma is justice. It does not reward or punish. It shows no favoritism because we have to earn all that we receive. Karma doesn't predestine anyone or anything. We create our own causes, and karma adjusts the effects with perfect balance.

(MARY T. BROWNE, The Power of Karma)

Karma applies itself in the most exacting and clever of ways. If we deprived another human being of freedom in a previous life, we'd probably have our freedom curtailed in this life. This experience would give us time to reconsider our views and learn the Law of Love.

(TODD CRAMER, Eckankar: Ancient Wisdom for Today)

What brings the karmic result from the patterns of our actions is not our action alone. As we intend and then act, we create karma: so another key to understanding the creation of karma is becoming aware of intention. The heart is our garden, and along with each action there is an intention that is planted like a seed. The result of the patterns of our karma is the fruit of these seeds.

(JACK KORNFIELD, A Path with Heart)

One has to reap the fruits of his karma. The law of karma is inevitable and is accepted by all the great philosophies of the world: 'As you sow, so shall you reap.

(SWAMI RAMA, Living with the Himalayan Masters)

Something of the feeling expressed by the poet is experienced by every soul when it first realizes the depth and grandeur involved in the idea of Karma, or the law of Cause and Effect; for this is all that Karma is--the law, or the truth (law and truth are synonyms in nature) that each cause is inevitably followed by its appropriate effect. Our very familiarity with this law has blinded us to its majesty; we lightly assign it as an explanation for the most inscrutable mysteries, because it is such an absolutely necessary corollary to all we conceive of life or nature, without recognizing that it itself is beyond all comprehension. Yet it contains the beginning and the end of all philosophical speculation; it demonstrates a causal relation between the Infinite and the finite, for Karma is that Infinite Power which adjusts each effect to its originating cause.

(JEROME A. ANDERSON, Karma: A Study of the Law of Cause and Effect)

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

(Luke 6:37-38)

They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up.

(Hosea 8:7a)

And about the law of karma, the noble Buddha provided a thorough elocution of the exact karmic consequences that arise from particular transgressions. To the four Devarajas, The noble Buddha declared:

O Devarajas, to those who kill, Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha would speak about the retribution of early, untimely death for such misdeeds. To those who steal, he would talk about the retribution of distress, destitution and indigence. To those who indulge in perverted lust, he would talk about the retribution of being born as peacocks, pigeons and mandarin ducks in future lives.

To those using harsh words, he would speak about the retribution of quarrels and fights in the family. To those who defame, he would speak about the retribution of dumbness or ulcer-sores in the mouth. To those who are angry and hateful, he would talk about the retribution of ugliness in the form of a hunchback or a cripple. To those who are niggardly, he would talk about the retribution of unanswered prayers. To those who eat or drink to excess, he would talk about the retribution of thirst, starvation or throat diseases. To those who indulge in hunting, he would talk about the retribution of death from fright or mental derangement.

To those disobedient to their parents, he would talk about the retribution of calamities and destruction from the sky or the earth. To those who commit arson by setting forests ablaze, he would talk about the retribution of death or crazy delusions. To those who abuse their stepchildren, he would talk about the retribution of being likewise abused in future lives. To those who trap and catch live fledglings with nets, he would talk about the retribution of separation from their blood relatives.

To those who defame the Three Jewels, he would talk about retribution in blindness, deafness and dumbness. To those who slight the Dharma and religion, he would talk about the retribution of permanent banishment to the evil paths of existence. To those who abuse the properties of the Sangha establishment, he would talk about the retribution of transmigration in hell for millions of kalpas. To those who blemish religious practices and wrong the Sangha, he would talk about the retribution of permanent existence as animals.

To those who harm lives by boiling, fire, cutting or chopping, he would talk about appropriate retributory repayment in transmigration. To those who violate the precepts and break abstinences, he would talk about the retribution of thirst and starvation as fowls and beasts. To those who destroy things or spend money unreasonably, he would talk about the retribution of the deficiency or the complete extinction of the necessities they seek. To those who are haughty and self-conceited, he would talk about the retribution of being lowly and mean. To those who use double tongues to instigate trouble, he would talk about the retribution of dumbness or having one hundred tongues. To those with perverted views, he would talk about the retribution of rebirth in the hinterland.

Such are the results yielded by evil deeds-the physical, verbal and mental karmas of the sentient beings in Jambudvipa, as well as the hundreds of thousands of ways of encountering their proper retribution. I have talked about them only roughly and briefly. The sentient beings in Jambudvipa, such as those described, will induce various and different karmic response and results. Those sentient beings will first receive such different sorts of retribution as described and afterward fall into hell, most probably remaining there for quite a number of kalpas without a date for acquittal or release. However, Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha will resort to hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of expediencies to teach, convert, deliver and liberate them. Therefore, you protectors of people and of countries, help him and do not let those various causes and results of sin lead sentient beings astray.

(The Sutra of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha's Fundamental Vows; Chapter 4: The Karmic Retribution of Sentient Beings in Jambudvipa): Translated into English by Upasaka Tao-tsi Shih and Edited by Dr. Frank G. French: http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/clubs/buddhism/ksitigarbha/chap4.html

...Now when we look at our human stand-point, the laws are made by humans. But when we look from a transcendental view, which is above human capacity, then we see sometimes, even though laws are made by people, they are governed by some other kind of invisible force. This invisible force we call in Sanskrit "karma." Karma is the Sanskrit name for the law of causes and retributions. Like we say in the Bible, in Christian terminology, "As you sow, so shall you reap." So when some Christian people question me that only the Buddhists believe in karma, I smile and tell them the Christians also believe in karma…. Then now we consider that when we live in every nation, we have to follow that nation's law. So now when we are in the universe, we must also follow our universal law.

That law will protect us from degrading into a lower grade of existence. For example, when we are in a country, and we commit some crimes or transgress some law, we will be put in jail or have some kind of fine. No? (Audience: Yes.) Now if we live in this universe and we commit something that is not suitable to the law of the universe, then we also have to be put in some kind of other existence, which is not very pleasurable for us. That is what we call karma, the law of retribution, "As you sow, so shall you reap.

Therefore, when we want to live in harmony and do not incur displeasurable situations for ourselves, we should study some universal law. Universal law is not made by man, and is not changeable like human's law. When we see the human's law, it varies from country to country. And even the standard of morality varies from country to country. So it is hard to tell people in one country to accept the other country's law. But the universal law is always and always the same. For example, in the Bible it is stated that, "Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not commit adultery. Thou shall not steal. Thou shall love thy neighbour; love thy enemy, etc...." These will never change.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: the ETERNAL LIFE AND THE LAW OF THE UNIVERSE; Harvard University, Boston, U.S.A. October 27, 1989: http://godsdirectcontact.us/com/teachings/LECTUREeternal1.html

This law of karma also constitutes a governing principle in inter-human transactions and other social phenomena; for instance; in trade by barter, it amounted to the underpinning for the square deal; in contemporary commercial transactions, it is depicted as fair trading; in jurisprudence, it improvises the parameters employed by judges in meting out penalties or consigning recompenses; within the employment arena, it’s paraphrased as fair pay.

While one might deem it bewildering to imbibe the justification as to why living entities are so helplessly subjected to this very astringent and fatiguing mandate of karma, it would be compelling to capture the veracity that the universe is a very orderly and harmonious sphere, with intrinsic mechanisms for the preservation and restoration of that orderliness and harmony.

So, when an individual exerts a thought, an emotion, a speech or a deed, the corresponding content thereof is discharged into the spiritual ecology of the universe. If the content there discharged is concordant with the intrinsic harmonious rhythm of the universe, then favourable consequences would be generated from such a thought, emotion, speech or deed. Nonetheless, more often than not, the content of human exertion is mostly in dissonance with the intrinsic harmonious rhythm of the universe; and following that dissonance, the universe’s self-regulatory mechanisms are activated and geared towards the restoration of its intrinsic harmony, by ejecting the object of discord. The ultimate result of that ejection is that, the individual who generated the object that induced such dissonance in the spiritual atmosphere, must then be the legitimate recipient of the content thereof, which manifests upon him as consequences. Upon his full assimilation of the consequences thereof, the intrinsic harmony of the universe is restored. In so doing, the universe upholds justices among its citizens, while enforcing its sustainable welfare.

This account is just as factual and scientific as can be stated that the sum total of energy within a closed system always remains unalterable; and should there arise a displacement within that enclosure, this would occasion a displacement of an equal and opposite effect in the other parts of the system. When the venerable Masters such as Jesus, Buddha and Supreme Master Ching Hai construct their moral code of practice, which is then prescribed to their disciples, they do so, taking full cognisance that the precepts so prescribed are compatible with the preservation of the intrinsic rhythm and natural order of the universe; such that through adherence to these ethical prescriptions or moral recommendations, the disciples would effectively refrain from summoning upon themselves, calamities and other distressful scenarios, which might otherwise arise from a rather careless way of life, which disregards the established natural order of the universe; prompting the culprit to reap bitter consequences.

 Everyone will harvest the consequences of their deeds, as certainly as one cannot fail to wet one’s feet upon stepping into a swimming pool. For example, the Spanish philosopher, Spinoza, posited that the ego-ordained and slavish pursuit of self-interest constitutes the foundation of human state of puzzlement and discontent, in which they permit their passions and imaginations to be blended with their perceptions, and gives everything false colour and perspective. He continued that it is therefore imperative for humans to meticulously exterminate such unwarranted shackles, which impinge upon truth, even as a scientist endeavours to eliminate all sources of error, to enable the realisation of a fruitful experiment with legitimate and satisfactory results. For more writings by this author, please click here.