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Wednesday 1 February 2023

Law of karma cause & effect Buddhism






Law of Karma - If the moral order is bad or good it is because man does Akushal or Kushal Karma (Kamma). This is Buddha's Law of Karma.



Law of Karma - Moral order is maintained by Karmait is called law of karmaKarma means action, work or deed. Karma is not punishment. Karma is not rewardKarma is Bad or good Karma .


Karma(Kamma) is the result of a person's actions as well as the action themselves. 

Karma(Kamma) makes a person responsible for their own life. Karma(Kamma)  means action, work or deed. 

The moral order of the universe may be good or it may be bad. But according to the Buddha the moral order rests on man and on nobody else. 

Karma (Kamma ) means man's action and Vipaka is its effect. 

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Karma Life


Karma Life



There is an order in the physical world. This is proved by the following phenomenon. 

There is a certain order in the movements and actions of the starry bodies.

There is a certain order by which seasons come and go in regular sequence. 

There is a certain order by which seeds grow into tree and trees yield fruits and fruits give seeds.


In Buddhist terminology these are called Niyamas, laws which produce an orderly sequence such as Rutu, Niyam, Bija Niyam. 

Similarly is there a moral order in Human Society. How is it produced?  How is it maintained ?


Those who believe in the existence of God have no difficulty in answering the question. And their answer is easy. 

Moral order, they say, is maintained by Divine dispensation

God created the world and God is the supreme Governor of the world. 

He is also the author of moral as well as of physical law.

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Moral law, according to them, is for man's good because it ensures from Divine will. 

Man is bound to obey God who is his maker and it is obedience to God which maintains the moral order.


Such is the argument in support of the view that the moral order is maintained by Divine Dispensation.



The explanation is by no means satisfactory. 

For if the moral law has oriented from God, and if God is beginning and end of the moral order and if man cannot escape from obeying God, why is there so much moral disorder in the world.


What is the authority of Divine Law?
  

What is the hold of the Divine Law over the individual  ? 

These are pertinent questions. 

But to none of them is there any satisfactory answer from those who rely on Divine Dispensation as the basis for the moral order.


To overcome these difficulties the thesis has been somewhat modified

It is said : no doubt creation took effect at the command of God. 

It also true that the cosmos entered upon its life by his will and by his direction. 

It is also true that He imparted to the cosmos once for all the energy which served as the driving power of a stupendous mechanism.

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But God leaves it to Nature to work itself out in obedience to the laws originally given by him. 

So that if the moral order fails to work out as expected by God, the fault is of Nature and not of God.


Even this modification in the theory does not solve the difficulty. 

It only helps to exonerate God from his responsibility

For the question remains, why should God leave it to Nature to execute His laws. 

What is the use of such an absentee God ?


The answer which the Buddha gave to the question, -How is moral order maintained?  is totally different. 

His answer was simple. " It is the Kamma Niyam and not God which maintains the moral order is the universe. "  

That was the Buddha's answer to the question.


The Buddha was not content with merely speaking of Kamma. 

He spoke of the law of Kamma which is another name for Kamma Niyam. 

By speaking of the law of Kamma what the Buddha wanted to convey was that the effect of the deed was bound to follow the deed, as surely as night follows day. 

It was like a Niyam or rule.


Types of Karma 



No one could fail to benefit by the good effect of a Kushal Kamma and no one could escape the evil effects of Akushal Kamma. 


Therefore the Buddha's admonition was:  Do Kushal Kamma so that humanity may benefit by a good moral order which a Kusala Kamma helps to sustain, do not do Akushala Kamma for humanity will suffer from the bad moral order which an Akushala Kamma will bring about.


It may be that there is a time interval between the moment when the Kamma is done and the moment when the effect is felt. 


It is so, often enough. From the point of view, Kamma is either 
  1. Immediately Effective Kamma (Ditthadamma Vedaniya Kamma , 
  2.  Remotely Effective Kamma (upapajjavedaniya Kamma, and 
  3.  indefinitely Effective Kamma (Aporaoariya Vedaniya Kamma.


Kamma may also fall into the category of Ahosi Kamma, i. e. Kamma which is non - effective. 

This Ahosi Kamma comprises all such Kammas which are too weak to operate, or which are counteracted by a more Kamma at the time when it should have worked. 

But making allowance for all these consideration, it does not in any sense derogate from the claim made by Buddha that is the law of Kamma is inexorable.


The theory of the law of Kamma does not necessarily involve the conception that the effect of the Kamma recoils in the doer of it and there is nothing more to be thought about it. 

This is an error. Sometimes the action of one affects another instead of the doer. 

All the same it is working of the law of Kamma because it either upholds or upsets the moral order.


Individuals come and individuals go. But the moral order of the universe remains and so also the law of Kamma which sustains it. 

It is for this reason that in the religion of the Buddha, Morality has been given the place of God.

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Buddha's Law of Karma


Thus the Buddha's answer to the question - How the moral order is the universe is sustained ? 
Is so simple and irrefutable

And yet its true meaning is scarcely grasped Often, almost always, it either misunderstood or misstated or misinterpreted. 

Not many seems to be conscious that the law of Kamma was propounded by the Buddha as an answer to the question -

How the moral order is maintained?


That, however, is the purpose of Buddha's Law of Kamma. 

The Law of Kamma has to do only with the question of general moral order. It has nothing to do with the fortunes or misfortunes of an individual.


It is concerned with the maintenance of the moral order is the universe. 

It is because of this that the law of Kamma is a part of Dhamma.


The Law of Karma was enunciated by the Buddha. He was the first to say : " Reap as you sow. "  

He was so emphatic about the Law of Kamma that he maintained that there could be no moral order unless there was a stern observance of the Law of Karma.


Conclusion -


The Buddha's Law of Karma applied only to Karma and its effect on present life. There is however, an extended doctrine of Karma. According to it Karma includes Karma done in the past life or lives.
  1. I changed my thinking and it changed my life.
  2. Your problem isn't the problem. Your reaction is the problem.
  3.  Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching.