For baby boomers, karma became a familiar term in the '60s. But karma is far older than that and far more than any slogan or fad. Originally a Hindu concept, karma is an idea central to that religious philosophy. Basically karma means an action. Ethically it means an action that is morally important. Secondly, karma means the unseen energy believed to be generated by the performance of such morally required or prohibited actions. Long after the visible act has been completed, this energy continues in existence. At an appropriate time it discharges itself upon the doer, causing that person to experience the consequences of the original act. Thus karma can accumulate. Accumulated, is to some persons freedom from disease, sharp minds, good looks, virtuous dispositions, long lives. It brings the opposite of these benefits to others for equally valid reasons. Good karma, bad karma. Thirdly, karma is believed to exert itself with the particular force at those times in our lives when we are about to be reborn into the world. The determination of our rebirth is an important function of karma. At the moment of conception the moral force of our past deeds is believed to move us, with perfect justice, into a new family and a new caste, or class. Thus those who have been born into a family of one of the higher castes are believed to have been brought to their lot by karma, through their own making, and that justifies their ranking in society. Thus the Hindu belief in rebirth according to karma for many years convinced Hindus that their places in society were appropriate and advantageous and indeed the belief in reward and punishment as rebirth appeared at the same time that the classical Hindu society based on caste, or class, was organized. There is an intimate connection between Hindu doctrine and the make-up of Hindu society. As there is often a close connection between any religious doctrine and the character of the society that religion lives in. Karma, rebirth, and the caste system developed in a combination that became the central pillar of classical Indian culture. Now, although the caste system has lost most of its power in Indian culture, the belief in karma as action, as the energy created by the action, and as the determiner of rebirth still holds. Our karma can bring blessings or curses into our lives.
I know you know that Hinduism is not the only religion on the Indian subcontinent. Another is Jainism, whose philosophy seeks to overcome the impermanence of earthly life and to find release from the eternal cycle of existence through asceticism and individual striving for moral perfection through ahimsa, or non-violence. Thus some Jains walk with masks over their noses and mouths so as not to inhale and kill any living beings. Or someone walks before them, sweeping the sidewalks so they will not step on any ants or other insects. Non-violence to all life. In Jainism too, the law of karma determines human destiny.
Buddhism, a third religion born in India, also has a doctrine of karma. It differs from the Hindu ideas though, particularly in its understanding of the relationship between karma and rebirth. The Buddha likened karma to a row of candle flames. Look at the Joys and Sorrows candles. Did you notice how I lit them? I took the first light from the chalice and then lit every one of the oil lamps each from the one before it. So the Buddha said there is a chain of causes and effects threading through each life past and future, the way the flame of one from another threads through all of the candle lights. Each life is because of what was. Throughout the chain of causes there is freedom of human will. People can shape their own destinies. We are not bound by our personal history, and this is where Buddhism differs from Hinduism. Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism asserts that rebirth is not attributable to karma, even though karma exists. The chain of cause becomes effect becomes cause and so on, that chain exists. But it is a permeable chain. At any time we can reweave it through our actions.
Karma, then, is a complex idea. More than simply action and reaction. For me karma has meaning, not as the determiner of rebirth, but as a way of thinking about and understanding our actions and as a way of learning how to make changes in those actions. When asked about the afterlife Henry David Thoreau said, “One world at a time.”
We can think about action on three levels: intention, skillfulness, and consequences. The karma exists on all three levels. Intention. What is our purpose in thinking, or saying, or doing anything? What are we trying to accomplish? What is our motive? Do you know? How often do we articulate our intentions–either to ourselves or others? How often are we even aware that we have an intention? Nevertheless, aware or not, articulated or not, many of us do go around with general intentions. For example, we might wish to do the most good and the least harm with our actions. Or we might wish to spread the light. Or to make people think. Or to raise a healthy, strong and happy child. If you scratch the surface, you could very well find an intention governing much of what we do.
I think intentions are very important because they put us on the path and our actions flow from that path. I have a practice that every morning when I get up I read something and I ask myself two questions. The first one is what is there to be happy about or what is there to be grateful for? The second one is what is my intention for the day? I find that my stating an intention, my thinking about an intention, sets the day on a certain track. That's the karma in our intentions; the energy that our thoughts bring to our actions. The awareness of what it is we’re about puts us two steps closer to getting there. My intention for this service is to touch you: in the mind by offering you something to think about; in the heart through the silence or music; in the spirit through the words of joys and sorrows or this sermon that may move you to action, either to make your own lives richer or to help another. Because I set such an intention I think more carefully and clearly about how to achieve it. Our actions are our true belongings. Our actions are the ground upon which we stand. The Dalai Lama said " It is the motivation behind an act that determines whether it is violent or non-violent. Non-violent behavior is a physical act or speech motivated by the wish to be useful or helpful." One could describe the karma of intention as what goes around comes around. Or, when the student is ready the teacher appears.
The point that our intentions set us on a path, and thereby carry some karma, is a very important one because it means that we make our own reality to a large extent. We make our own reality to a large extent. That’s a very big deal. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” (Shakespeare) Often we are unaware that we make our own reality, that we have so much power. Yet we see as we are disposed to see, we understand as we are disposed to understand. Have you ever noticed that when you are in a bad mood, everyone else seems more grumpy as well? Or when you try to lose weight, the world seems full of tantalizing food ads? Or when you are learning a life lesson, say generosity, it comes to you over and over and you find countless examples of both generosity and stinginess all about. It’s useful to know what intentions, wishes, thoughts are in our minds because we will see them reflected out in our lives. And through such awareness, we learn that by modifying intention, thought, assumption, we can modify our world. Chinese people tell a story about a man who made his living chopping wood lost his axe one day and so was unable to work. He searched high and low but did not find it. In the late afternoon he looked over at his woodshed and noticed his neighbor’s son leaning against it. He thought, “That boy looks shifty to me, standing there leaning on the shed. I bet he stole my axe. That worthless kid.” As afternoon moved into evening his anger continued to mount as he thought about this affront and he determined to approach the boy. As he was storming over from his house to his neighbor’s to demand his axe be returned, he stumbled over something on the edge of the woodpile in the dark. He looked down–it was his axe. He turned around and went home. When he saw his neighbor’s son the very next morning he thought to himself, “How trustworthy that boy is. See how upright he stands and how clear his gaze.” Intention makes its own karma. We create much of the reality we experience. The second part of an action is skillfulness, or how well we accomplish it. It matters how we do things; it matters how we say things. Have you ever received a complement that went like this? Oh, you look so much better since you cut your hair! Or this meal is so much better than the last one you cooked for me! Leaves you wondering just how bad you looked and cooked before, no? The intention was positive–to complement. But the means were such that more than the positive arose. Our skillfulness or lack of it contributes to the karmic energy of an action. If we are surprised or don’t get the results, the responses, we expected and/or wanted, and especially if we notice a pattern of that, we can, of course, blame the other people. We can say they should understand our intentions, or they should just put up with our ways. We can say it, hope for it, but it rarely comes to pass. Or we can use the opportunity to look into our skillful means, or lack thereof. No one is perfect. We all mess up sometimes. We put our feet in our mouths, we speak harshly, we act hastily or thoughtlessly and in doing so bring about outcomes that we do not intend. This is where the karma of our skillfulness intersects with forgiveness.
The Reverend Victoria Safford wrote: "Imagine this. On the days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur every fall, every year, the people make peace with anyone they have wronged or slighted or injured or in any way neglected in the past twelve months. The task is not to patch things up, smooth things over, reach a compromise, or sweep mistakes and uneasy memories under the rug; the task is not to feel better. The task is ownership. The goal is truth for its own redemptive sake. I did this. I said this to you, and it was wrong. I neglected this. I botched this. . . . This is the truth in which both of us are living. I ask you to forgive me. Imagine how many deep breaths you would need to take. Imagine how many doors you’d have to knock on, how many phone calls you’d have to make, how many letters, how many lunches and coffees, how many awkward moments with your children and your parents, and with strangers (that cashier to whom you spoke so sharply). Awkward is irrelevant. The task is not about comfort, it is about truth, about wholeness and holiness. Restoration. Imagine this." Recognizing the karma arising from our unskillful means and turning toward forgiveness.
Actions have consequences even if they don't show themselves immediately. Karma lives in the consequences of our actions. In determining the ethics of an action I believe that to look at intention is not enough; to look at intention and skillful means is not enough; one must also consider the consequences of the actions we take. While we do not have complete control over the results of our actions, we do bear some responsibility for them. If I lie to you to spare your feelings and if I do it well enough so that you don't suspect I’m lying but you find out later that I did lie and you feel that I have broken a trust with you, what responsibility do I bear for those consequences? My intention was to spare you and I did it. I had no control over the fact that you found out. I had no control over your reaction. What responsibility do I bear for the consequences? It can happen that we come from a good-ish place with actions skillful yet the consequences still cause damage and the damage carries on. The consequences have karma. What is my responsibility? What is yours? Perhaps a different intention would have led to a different action and different consequences. With an ethic of consequences one really has to go back and examine one’s motives. “The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.” (David Russell)
This is the essence of karma. Awareness of all three parts of an action: intention, how it is done, and its consequences. Awareness that within each part the energy of karma exists, giving birth to further actions, further causes and effects. May we have the courage to honestly look at our motives and name our intentions. If we do that it will affect the path we are on. It will affect our thoughts, our words, our actions. May we have the humility to honestly look at how we act, how we speak, and own it when we have not been as skillful, as careful, as thoughtful as we might have been. May we have the wisdom to honestly distinguish between what is our responsibility and what is not. May we always learn from our actions.
This is the essence of karma. Its existence gives us the chance to look and to learn. And having learned, to make changes, to try to do better, to change course. It unlocks our power in this world. We are not paralyzed by our personal histories. Nor are we bound. Karma is not some sort of cosmic justice through which we get what we deserve. I wonder if there is such a precise balance of cause and effect for any individual life. Karma, rather, brings opportunity. Because it brings opportunity, it offers hope. Our actions are our true belongings. We do not escape the consequences of our actions. They are the ground upon which we stand. May that ground be solid and healthy, nourished by good intentions, well carried out, and resulting in outcomes strong and positive. May it be so.
Closing words by Robert Frost
Anything more than the truth would be too much.