The Concept of Karma: How It Differs Buddhism from Other Religions

About 563 BC, Buddhism has begun, which makes it ahead before Christianity even began in about 500 years ago. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama who was born in a small kingdom as a prince in the Himalayan foothills. Gautama’s father kept him within the castle’s wall to avoid the Brahmin’s prophecy that his son would be an ascetic. Hence, Gautama grew up in a luxury life, was shielded from the outside world, and was entertained by dancing girls. At the same time, he was trained in physical activities such as; archery, swordsmanship, wrestling, swimming and running. However, Gautama encountered a sick man, an old man, and a dead man on his way home. He then became aware of the sufferings of humans in this world. As a result, he left his kingdom to become an ascetic and developed the Middle Way—a moderate path between self-mortification and self-indulgence. That will help someone to attain Enlightenment. In consequence, he was named Buddha meaning the “Enlightened One”. But to call it as a religion by itself would do an injustice. It is more a school that teaches moral thoughts and principles as well as a worship religion that preaches the idea of spiritual development leading to kindness and wisdom. For Buddha, everybody should want to follow this in his or her path through life. There are several basic values to be studied and practiced in Buddhism. These teachings revolved from past experiences Buddha has experienced in his life that was used and still using to teach to others.

However, Buddhism is not like any other religion. It is far different from others. For an instance, the “afterlife” beliefs. Some religion, the ultimate goal is to be one or to be together with their creator, the Father Almighty. Along with this, they should follow the commandments, doing good deeds and following what the scriptures say. However, when you did not follow their beliefs and you did not make your stay here on Earth worthwhile and totally do the opposite of what you should do, they believed that you will go to Hell as the punishment and will suffer there in your afterlife.

However, in Buddhism there is no such thing as God, the ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Nirvana it is not a place rather it is a state of mind. only you, yourself can do this. There will be no God in Buddhism that can save you and will help you to reach your goal. To have a nirvana, you should be enlightened. In this state of mind, all the negative traits should be removed such as greed, ignorance, and hatred. Although, if you were not to reach Nirvana, you will enter samsara; the cycle of birth and rebirth. It is all because of your karma, to reap what you have sowed.

Karma is a Sanskrit word that means “action” or “doing”. O’ Brien stated that in Buddhism, karma has a more specific meaning, which is a volitional or willful action. These are the fruits of your gone by actions or decisions in life. It may also predict what will happen to you in your afterlife. Doing wholesome gestures may result in positive karma, but unwholesome gestures may result in bad karma. The idea of Nirvana is to cease suffering through individual liberation.

However, in early Buddhism, there is no concrete belief of rebirth and karma. Instead of showing of being incompetent, the early Buddhist notion of karma focused on what the mind thinks and do every moment. This is when the idea of karma started, they explained it as a domino effect. Whatever we do, it will always go back to us. Our own decisions and every doings have an attached effect, it can also be match up to cause and effect. The actions we do are the causes and the effect of those actions will be our karma. In addition, karma is not a superstitious belief, it is an automatic law of justice. Since karma is the fundamental of Buddhism doctrine. The Buddha has defined three types of karma that a human being can do: (i) The karma of words, (ii) The karma of sarir, and (iii) The karma done by the mind. Just like what Tenzing stated, I agree with what he stated. That the karma of the mind or the intention is the most important thing. Since this is the starting point of our actions. This is where we filter, where we weigh, and where we deeply think the actions that we will do, it will give directions on what we will do whether we will do acceptable actions or not. Specifically, our mind which helps our conscience to determine the consequences of our actions. Geshe Rabten, a modern Tibetan author, thus states that the law of karma as “Just as a seed cannot grow into a plant of a different type, so our actions can only produce actions of their own type.” It stated that, what we plant, it is what will bear. You cannot expect when you plant an apple tree that it will bear a mango tree.

The law of karma helps us to improve the quality of life we live in and into the next life we have. In order to this, Buddha helped us to understand this more through his teachings. Through his teachings, we can avoid things that will lead both ourselves and others to suffer. And may experience immense happiness and may form more pure happiness.

I mentioned that there are other religious beliefs aside from Buddhism. Some of these are Hinduism and Jainism. Hinduism is in fact the well-known religion in the West. They believed in a Supreme Being and committed to following their concepts such as truth, suffering, and karma. And believed in the authority of the Vedas, their sacred scriptures. While Jainism is a religion that teaches salvation by perfection through successive lives and non- injury to living creatures and is noted for ascetics that use three guiding principles also called “three jewels”; the right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct. The three said religions shares a lot of common interest, one of these is the law of karma. In Buddhism, the law of karma is the principle of universal causation. When you do good actions it will give you good results while when you do bad actions it may cause you bad results. But in Hinduism, performing proper and what is correct based on your caste system is the karmic quality of one person. While in Jainism, karmic quality is based on their seven truths also called their fundamental principles also through activities of mind, speech, and body are considered to prompt their karmic quality. Regardless, one stated that the theory of karma and moral justice should not make you confused since “justice” is such a big word and was originated from a Divine Being, a God who makes the law and decides what is wrong and right. While karma is the fruit of your own actions. No one can be blamed but you. It is not an external force, no one ordered that for you to experience it.

Buddhists believe that we make our own fate, it is in our own hands. But since not all of us are aware of this, many leads to suffering. That is why they are helping us to be enlightened to become aware and be conscious of our actions.

In addition, being humans are not measured through the judgment of others through our past decisions and doings we have done. Because through our past mistakes we can learn through it and we can change at any moment through our own free will. Sayadaw stated that the result of our own past actions and our own present doings, we ourselves are the ones responsible for them. this is what the law of karma trying to tell us. We experience suffering and misery because of our own actions. That we create our own heaven and hell. We, ourselves are the own architect of our life. Just like what was stated in one of the teachings of Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, we should be aware of that suffering is part of life. life is not all about fancy and good things. There will be times in your life that you will suffer. Everyone will feel suffering and it should not stop you to feel the happiness once again. Another teaching of Buddha was, there’s a way to cease suffering. Just like what I’ve said, it is not always suffering, you should know how to stop it. Experiencing suffering should motivate you to do good and do something to lessen in experiencing the pain of suffering again. At the same time, people should know that karma is not bondage. Tenzing stated that karma should not be a dead weight lying on the shoulders of a man. It should not hinder someone’s life and his daily activities. Rather it should help an individual to know whether what is right and should have a free choice. The doctrine of karma also explains how our freedom and responsibilities work.

Furthermore, Buddhist have only one meaning of karma and that is the universal meaning. However, Jones identified the meanings of karma into two kinds; the universal and psychological. He explained the psychological meaning of karma, that it is understanding how practicing ethics. It is more on an outcome of the intentional actions of our body, speech, and mind and has good consequences and may lead to a happier life. For an instance, when you review and study well for your exam without a doubt, you will get a good result, or when you helped a charity or even someone, the fulfillment of those most importantly when they say their gratitude cannot be compared on your material goods. While for Jones, the universal meaning of karma is more on universal moral justice. The intentional acts of body, speech, and mind will have a corresponding consequence to it. For example, when you go to church and give a lot of offerings to the needy, those acts will build up. Hence it will never fade, when your time comes your collected merit will help you to have a pleasant rebirth. To sum it up, both have different implications in life, the universal law of karma is more on the religious belief while psychological law is something that we can observe through time.

In this world, most people cannot comprehend that what he experiences is what he deserves. Since many people are not aware of such things, they believed that their karma is what they are experienced in the current life they have but it is not. They should know that the karma they are experiencing is consequences from their previous life, the incident that they occurred are maybe free acts or others are on the environment. Since the theory of karma requires individuals to have a free will, Buddhists suddenly realized it has multiple loopholes. That the past and the present actions were helping us informing for our current situation and at the same time the present actions will help us to figure the current and the future. Bhikkhu compared the nature of freedom to the flowing water. Which the early Buddhist used. That sometimes the flow from our past is so strong that it is hard to withstand it but there are also times when the flow is gentle that it is so easy to go in any almost directions. And instead of going with the flow and doing absolutely nothing, Buddhist Notion of Man, we should do the total opposite of it. we should at least try to do something because everything can change in an instant.

Being aware of karma helps us to live in harmonious life and peace with the people and circumstances that we encounter in our everyday life. It also helps us to learn in accepting the previous happenings in our lives, both good and bad. That we will not be stuck on our past and never question the sufferings we encounter. Moreover, it will assist us in our current and upcoming decisions. Also, acknowledging our attitude helps us to live a meaningful way of life and will strengthen the determination to maintain the views and intentions in our daily life. moreover, it will help us to purify our actions and minds by enriching our actions and our mind. In this religion, ignorance of suffering is the big hindrance for not reaching the liberation. You should do good actions that will surely reward and help you.

Human life is so exquisite, that having spiritual growth was a spectacular chance for one's self. Buddhists suggest that you should not blow that given the opportunity, life is too short and it may be cut anytime. I always remember that good deeds are rewarded in the next life. While doing evil indeed will make you suffer in the next life. iBased ion your moral law it will help you visualize what your next life would be. From an article that iI read, in your afterlife, karma may affect your social status, wealth, intelligence, beauty as well as your longevity. moreover, good immoral actions lead to wholesome rebirths while bad immoral actions lead to unwholesome rebirths.

Whether we believe in karma for it, all living beings—human and non-human—suffer. No matter how much we try to gain comfort, there is no satisfaction, and the limited comfort we again always quickly finishes. There is no indefinite peace and no control over the sufferings of death and rebirth. All this shows clearly that into living being is free of karma and that karma exists in fact. We all know now that the happiness and suffering that we experience are your karma. And all our experiences of happiness and suffering depend on your karma. No matter how much we desire happiness, if we follow ignorance alone, without respecting karma, we'll ihave nothing but into experience suffering. Actually, it is easy to know every single action and to know what is right and what is wrong. For that, we need wisdom and a deep understanding of the mind, seeing clearly the different functions of the mind, recognizing the different negative thoughts. without the wisdom to recognize positive from negative actions, we can think we are perfect and not realize we are in fact ignorant. iThe deeper understanding of karma that we have, the more answers we get. It goes deeper than mere intellectual knowledge, like facts incoming out of a computer printer, we again a deep-seated feeling ifor what is actually true. In this way, your understanding of ourselves iand other beings become more and more profound. We are no longer ion the surface of the ocean but diving down deep, discovering all the different fish and jewels and animals that are down there.