Karma

Karma in the Eastern religions

Hindouïsme

The Hindus believe in the Réincarnation. They grant credit to the belief of a continuation of the existence after death and think that our actions in this life will determine our next life. The actions of last lives constitute the karma . The current life is to be considered, according to this point of view, like the radiation of the actions of the last lives. Just as one sows a field, it is the quality of the seeds which ensures the capacity of harvest to come, according to a ancient Proverbe.

For the hindouïsme, death is as a change of clothing because the heart changes body in a similar way after the Mort. The supreme goal of the Hindu is the union of the individual heart or atman , with the cosmic heart or paratman .

An important incident of Indian mythology is told in the Mahabharata . The day before the great battle, Arjuna, bravest of the Five Pandava brothers, starts to doubt the need for fighting, because in the other camp his/her own cousins are held. Krishna is on the battle field like the aurige of Arjurna and it holds a sublime speech to him which constitutes the Bhagavad-Gîtâ . The gasoline of this speech, familiar with all the Indians, is that the karma generates the dharma : your good deeds constitute your Religion, or, in other words, your duties , your destiny , your existence. The karma is the reflection of our former actions which appears in our current life. It is constantly necessary to seek to improve its karma , literally its actions , by good deeds and by respecting the dharma . The ultimate goal is to rise above the cycles dead and the rebirths and to reach the state of eternal bliss called moksha .

This concept thus brings, for the Hindu, with a deep belief in the Destin, that what must arrive will arrive. However, that should not be confused with Paresse or Fatalisme, because these are the preceding lives which carry their shades on the present one, and the way in which we will react will influence the next one.

The Hindus believe in the cycle of dead and the rebirths; one needs fifty-two million births before reappearing like human. Ones time the acquired human birth, it should not be wasted by being made bad karma , because that would generate a retrograde reincarnation: leprous or animal for example. You collect what you sow is thus the gasoline of the law of the karma . The karma of each one is well to make its owe without seeking the fruits of them, known as the Bhagavat Gita . The human life, in the hindouïsme, gives opportunity of being released from the cycle of dead and the rebirths. This state of release is called Nirvāna or Moksha .

The realization of this eternal truth is extremely difficult because the illusory materialism of the world veils us true knowledge. This illusion is called Mâyâ : a world where the richness, prosperity, selfishness, the jealousy and the relations are sources of temptations. The hindouism says that nothing is permanent in this world. What has a beginning has necessarily an end. Just like the flower of lotus which rises above the stagnant water which surrounds it, the individual must rise above the world of the desires of mâyâ . The recognition of this aspiration and the efforts to deviate some form the base of Eastern philosophies of which that of the hindouism, the Jaïnisme and the Bouddhisme.

There is thus no tension, stress, in the lifestyle suggested by the hindouism. Because if something could not be finished during this life, the next life will give the opportunity to supplement this task. It is an aspect which is unknown Western philosophies.

Buddhism

For the Buddhist , the karma that one creates while acting, that it is with the body, the word or the spirit, is primarily favorable or unfavourable, positive or negative ( kusala or akusala in Sanskrit ; these terms do not have exact translation in French: total direction for kuçala : just, suitable, suitable, good, benevolent, and for akuçala : their opposite), according to the frame of mind which underlies the action.

Thus, if one gives something to somebody in a satisfied way, one creates positive karma. It is not the case, on the other hand, if one gives because one awaits something in return. Lastly, the karma created can give its fruits in this life or a future life.

In old Buddhism, to produce a karma, it is necessary to join together the intention to act, the act itself and to have acted satisfaction. Apart from these conditions, the act does not produce a karma.

Jainism

For the jainists, the action is not the only criterion, and the frame of mind underlying it can also enter counts of it, especially if it is about a layman jaïn, because contairement with the monks and nuns to which he is interdict to make all violences (accidental, professional, defensive and intentional), the laymen are obliged to avoid intentional violence at least, by the thought, the word and the body. It is for that, for example, that some jaïna (monks and nuns of unquestionable sects, laymen at the time of a ceremony…) often fabrics relate to the mouth; doing that, they avoid killing out of the insects by swallowing them by inadvertency.

See with “fundamental Doctrines of the jainism”: The theory of the “karma”.

Karma in the Western designs

Cabal

For the modern kabbalists, the karma is not a burden which one carries coming from his former lives, but a series of tests that one chose right before his birth; the goal of the life being to make a success of these tests. Thus, each one chooses the great tests of its life, the remainder belonging to the free will and which can be lived as the individual wishes it. This is summarized by the history of the three travellers.

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