WHAT IS KAMMA?

(by Dr. K Sri Dhammananda from his book : "What Buddhists Believe")

Our Own Experience

To understand the law of kamma is to realise that we ourselves are responsible for our misery. We are the architects of our kamma. Buddhism explains that man has every possibility to mould his own kamma and thereby influence the direction of his life. On the other hand, a man is not a complete prisoner of his own actions; he is not a slave of his kamma. Nor is man a mere machine that automatically releases instinctive forces that enslave him. Nor is man a mere product of nature. Man has within himself the strength and the ability to change his kamma. His mind is mightier than his kamma and so the law of kamma can be made to serve him. Man does not have to give up his hope and effort in order to surrender himself to his own kammic force. To off-set the reaction of his bad kamma accumulated previously, he has to do more meritorous deeds and to purify his mind rather than by praying, worshipping, performing rites or torturing his physical body in order to overcome his kammic effects. Therefore, man can overcome the effect of his evil deeds if he acts wisely by leading a noble life.

Man must use the material with which he is endowed to promote his ideal. The cards in the game of life are within us. We do not select them. They are traced to our past kamma; but we can call as we please, do what suits us and as we play, we either gain or lose.

Kamma is equated to the action of men. This action also creates some karmic results. But each and every action carried out without any purposeful intention, cannot become a Kusala-Kamma (skilful action) or Akusala-Kamma (unskilful action). That is why the Buddha interprets kamma as volitional activities. That means, whatever good and bad deeds we commit ourselves without any purposeful intention, are not strong enough to be carried forward to our next life. However, ignorance of the nature of the good and bad effect of the kamma is not an excuse to justify or avoid the karmic results if they were committed intentionally. A small child or an ignorant man may commit many evil deeds. Since they commit such deeds with intention to harm or injure, it is difficult to say that they are free from karmic results. If that child touches a burning iron-rod the heat element does not spare the child without burning his fingers. The karmic energy also works exactly in the same manner. Karmic energy is unbiased; it is like energy of gravity.

The radical transformations in the characters of Angulimala and Asoka illustrate man’s potential to gain control over his kammic force.

Angulimala was a highway robber who murdered more than a thousand of his fellow men. Can we judge him by his external actions? For within his lifetime, he became an Arahanta and thus redeemed his past misdeeds.

Asoka, the Indian Emperor, killed thousands and thousands to fight his wars and to expand his empire. Yet after winning the battle, he completely reformed himself and changed his career to such an extent that today,’Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Asoka shines and shines almost alone, as a star,’ says a well-known world historian H.G. Wells.

Other Factors Which Support Kamma

Although Buddhism says that man can eventually control his kammic force, it does not state that everything is due to kamma. Buddhism does not ignore the role played by other forces of nature. According to Buddhism there are five orders or processes of natural laws (niyama) which operate in the physical and mental worlds:

1. seasonal laws (utu niyama) physical inorganic order eg. seasonal phenomena of winds and rains, etc.

2. the biological laws (bija niyama) relating to seasonal changes etc.,

3. the kammic law (kamma niyama) relating to moral causation or the order of act and result,

4. natural phenomena (Dhamma niyama) relating to electrical forces, movement of tides etc., and

5. psychological laws (citta niyama) which govern the processes of consciousness.

Thus kamma is considered only as one of the five natural laws that account for the diversity in this world.