Kamma is an impersonal, natural law
that operates in accordance with our actions. It is a law in itself and does
not have any lawgiver. Kamma operates in its own field without the intervention
of an external, independent, ruling agent.
Kamma or karma can be put in the simple language of the child: do good and
good will come to you, now, and hereafter. Do bad and bad will come to you,
now, and hereafter.
In the language of the harvest, kamma can be explained in this way: if you
sow good seeds, you will reap a good harvest. If you sow bad seeds, you will
reap a bad harvest.
In the language of science, kamma is called the law of cause and effect:
every cause has an effect. Another name for this is the law of moral causation.
Moral causation works in the moral realm just as the physical law of action and
reaction works in the physical realm.
In the Dhammapada, kamma is explained in this manner: the mind is the chief
(forerunner) of all good and bad states. If you speak or act with a good or bad
mind, then happiness or unhappiness follows you just as the wheel follows the
hoof of the ox or like your shadow which never leaves you.
Kamma is simply action. Within animate organisms there is a power or force
which is given different names such as instinctive tendencies, consciousness,
etc. This innate propensity forces every conscious being to move. He moves
mentally or physically. His motion is action. The repetition of actions is
habit and habit becomes his character. In Buddhism, this process is called
kamma.
In its ultimate sense, kamma means both good and bad, mental action or
volition. 'Kamma is volition,' says the Buddha. Thus kamma is not an entity but
a process, action, energy and force. Some interpret this force as
'action-influence'. It is our own doings reacting on ourselves. The pain
and happiness man experiences are the result of his own deeds, words and
thoughts reacting on themselves. Our deeds, words and thoughts produce our
prosperity and failure, our happiness and misery.
Kamma is an impersonal, natural law that operates strictly in accordance
with our actions. It is law in itself and does not have any lawgiver. Kamma
operates in its own field without the intervention of an external, independent
ruling agency. Since there is no hidden agent directing or administering
rewards and punishments, Buddhists do not rely on prayer to some supernatural
forces to influence karmic results. According to the Buddha, kamma is neither
predestination nor some sort of determinism imposed on us by some mysterious,
unknown powers or forces to which we must helplessly submit ourselves.
Buddhists believe that man will reap what he has sown; we are the result of
what we were, and we will be the result of what we are. In other words, man is
not one who will absolutely remain to be what he was, and he will not continue
to remain as what he is. This simply means that kamma is not complete
determinism. The Buddha pointed out that if everything is determined, then
there would be no free will and no moral or spiritual life. We would merely be
the slaves of our past. On the other hand, if everything is undetermined, then
there can be no cultivation of moral and spiritual growth. Therefore, the
Buddha accepted neither strict determinism nor strict undeterminism.
