Originally posted by Fatum:
but what I'm particularly bothered about, is the associated fatalism and callousness with this theory, firstly, if one's station in this life time is accrued from the actions of previous life-times, then perhaps there's nothing you can do about it then eh ? ... and if this is also thus, then for everything unfortunate happenstance or circumstance that we find ourselves in, in this life time, we'd have no one to blame but ourselves, eh ? ... this doesn't seem a very satisfying explaination to me about why some are born poor and mained and destitute, while others are born rich and fortunate, but heartless and unsympathetic ...
Dear Fatum,
The link you provided seemed to explain Karma from the perspective of Hinduism. While the Buddha borrowed Hindu terms as pple then were already familiar with those terms, the Buddha's teaching and interpretation of these terms were often different. Karma and Dharma as explained in the website are different from the Buddhist Karma and Dharma.
Talking about Karma - the Buddha emphasized its difference from fatalism. The Buddhist idea of Karma is beyond the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. Karma, as the others explained, is not about fixed destiny, it loosely means
cause, condition and effect. It means past causes, together with present conditions (which are also a result of past causes), gather and come to fruition, which in turn become causes and conditions in the future. Karma is a very complex subject, which cannot be fully comprehended by a common person.
Karma is very scientific. It is like... if you place an egg into boiling water, and u pray very hard that it won't be cooked, after 10 min, u check, and it's cooked! that's it - the
cause being u placing the egg into boiling water; the
conditions being there is sufficient gas to ensure the water continues to boil, the pot bearing the water isn't broken, there is sufficient oxygen in the air to ensure u're alive to witness the cooked egg etc; thus the
fruit of the egg being cooked.
U may have certain positive/negative seeds, but without the right conditions, they can't come to fruition. The results may be postive/negative, but depending on how we react to these results, we create positive/negative karma. For eg, both of us may be having headache, but I react to the headache by cursing/swearing at the pple around me or feeling so much self-pity and getting depressed over it; whereas you react to the headache by thinking that just this headache already makes u suffer so much, not to mention the kind of pain and suffering that other pple go thru when they suffer from famines, chronic illnesses, starvation, wars, disasters, when they get killed, etc... and then with that understanding u empathize with these suffering pple and even generate the wish that you could help to bear some of their suffering on their behalf..... Well, same headache, but 2 different reactions, thus 2 different karmic implications.

Once there was a nun Ven Tenzin Palmo who talked about karma. I can't remember all her exact words, but I tried to write down what I recalled. I'll like to share her words with u, but really sorry if I misinterpreted Ven Tenzin Palmo in any ways...
"What we experience now are due to the ripening of past karma. There's nothing we can do about that. However, we have the choice of how we want to react to our current circumstances, which in turn plants the seeds for future ripening. You have the option of reacting skilfully or unskilfully. When you understand this, you are fearless, because no matter what happens, every situation that you face presents to you as an opportunity to plant positive seeds and engage in the spiritual practice."
- based on what I remembered from Ven's talk, may not be exactly what she meant.
Another thing to emphasize, when Buddhism talks about karma, yes it's about accumulating positive karma and eliminating negative karma, but it's NOT just about that. When we do negative deeds, we will not be punished by any being; likewise when we perform good deeds, Buddha will not give us a gold medal.
Why karma is being taught - for us to understand that our actions bear fruits and to be more mindful of it. However, the purpose of engaging in Buddhist practice is for enlightenment, which is beyond the notions and extremes of good, bad, not good not bad, both good and bad. The aim of the Buddhist practice is NOT to become a moral person, but rather to transcend beyond the societal concept of morality and to accomplish the wisdom that liberates.
As Chandrakirti beautifully expressed,
"Those who are unwise will do a lot of nonvirtuous things,
And as a consequence they will go to hell.
Those who are unwise will do a lot of virtuous things,
And then they will go to heaven.
Those who are wise go beyond virtuous and nonvirtuous,
And then they will attain liberation."More reading if u're interested, from http://deerparkgathering.org/introduction.html
Hope those ramblings help, and pls forgive me if they don't.
