Karma (Part 2)

                                                             Karma (Part 2: Misconceptions)

 In part one; I talked about the common idea of Karma. But this idea is not the reality of what is believed and taught about Karma by Buddhists. To them karma is the accumulated effects of all your present and past actions upon the person that you are today. If you do or have done evil things, those acts of volition will taint your existence both now and in the future. Likewise if you have done good things. But there is no idea of being punished now or in the future for this behavior.  You just are what you are. But they believe that you can overcome bad Karma by always choosing to do good going forward. I’ve read things that sound very familiar when it comes to not being allowed in the presence of the Lord because your raiment is stained by sin and has to be washed clean by the blood of the Lamb before you can do so. Only in Buddhism there is no God who will judge you. Here is an interesting analysis from an article on Buddhism by Mahasi  Sayadaw:

“For instance, the table we see is apparent reality. In an ultimate sense the so-called table consists of forces and qualities. For ordinary purposes a scientist would use the term water, but in the laboratory he would say H 2 0. In this same way, for conventional purposes, such terms as man, woman, being, self, and so forth are used. The so-called fleeting forms consist of psychophysical phenomena, which are constantly changing not remaining the same for two consecutive moments. Buddhists, therefore, do not believe in an unchanging entity, in an actor apart from action, in a perceiver apart from perception, in a conscious subject behind consciousness. Who then, is the doer of Karma? Who experiences the effect? Volition, or Will, is itself the doer; Feeling is itself the reaper of the fruits of actions. Apart from these pure mental states there is no-one to sow and no-one to reap.”

 What I get out of all this is that what they are basically saying is that you are ultimately responsible for your own actions and by them receive your rewards or misfortunes. And that these rewards and misfortunes accrue over many lifetimes. Bottom line is that this philosophy doesn’t sound all that great to me and, except for the recurring lifetimes, not very different from what the atheists would have us believe. And furthermore, it is overall pretty pointless if the ultimate goal is just to become a spotlessly perfect human being who is always doomed to die and gets to do it all over again.

  So no, I’m not buying into the idea of Karma. And as I said before, the idea of reincarnation may be tempting, but I’m not selling the farm just yet to invest in that one either. I believe something else may be at work here that we don’t fully understand. I will keep my jury in the box and await further evidence. For now my faith in God will have to do. And with that comes the feeling that his plan is so much more and better than anything we can even imagine.