Do you believe in Karma?

Image: Rooted cour­tesy of noahg.

Yes­ter­day I came across a blog post that related the sad story of a 76 year-old Trishaw dri­ver in Sin­ga­pore who was taunted and abused by 3 young and (obvi­ously) imma­ture men. (link to Youtube video)

In the last sen­tence of the post, the author extols us to “take a good look at those bas­tards and remem­ber their faces. Ever see them around when you travel, don’t hes­i­tate to give them good punches in their faces and kick their crotches between their legs.“It was inter­est­ing to see that he post was enti­tled “I believe inKarma; Do you?”, because with this clos­ing para­graph, the author revealed a very shal­low under­stand­ing of the law of cause and effect, or ‘Karma’.

Just as fas­ci­nat­ing as the post itself was the litany of com­ments that fol­lowed. A few went along the lines of “I am Catholic, so I’m not sup­posed to believe in Karma… “. There were also ref­er­ences to the Bible’s ref­er­ence to “What a man sows, this he will reap” (St Paul’s let­ter to the Cala­tians 6:7). And another one said “These two should get the karma they deserve.”

I must admit it was dis­turb­ing to see 3 young and fit men rid­ing in the back of a trishaw that was pulled by some­one twice their age. To see the lack of respect shown to this man try­ing to earn a decent liv­ing was heart break­ing. And I do believe that sooner or later, what you do catches up with you. I have no doubt these 3 will suf­fer the con­se­quences of their actions.

But the orig­i­nal post reminded me just how mis­un­der­stood is the con­cept of karma. ‘Bud­dhism for busy peo­ple’, by David Michie is one of the best and eas­i­est to under­stand books I have read about Bud­dhism; and has a great expla­na­tion of Karma and its more inter­est­ing details:

You see, it’s not only the big things we do that mat­ter. We don’t have to do any­thing as dra­matic as defraud our employ­ers, or write a large cheque to char­ity, to cre­ate neg­a­tive or pos­i­tive karma. Both of those actions, like all oth­ers, began as ideas in our minds, so that it is here, in our mind, that karma arises.

We all tend to have habit­ual thoughts, or atti­tudes, and we need to be very care­ful about these. Often they build up, and have a cumu­la­tive effect which is immense. As Bud­dha said in the Dharmapadda:

The word man­i­fests as the word;
The word man­i­fests as the deed;
The deed devel­ops into a habit;
And habit hard­ens into char­ac­ter;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
and let it spring from love borne out of con­cern for all beings…
As the shadow fol­lows the body,
as we think so we become.

We can see then how these young men’s actions are already part of their karma. And how they will also con­tinue to shape their future and des­tinies. What is worth high­light­ing is that accord­ing to the pas­sage above the mere thought of vio­lence is some­thing we must care­fully watch and guard against just as much as we guard against vio­lence itself. It is in thoughts that our Karma is born, Bud­dha argued.

Within this con­text, the orig­i­nal writer’s desire to have other peo­ple seek these men and punch them in the face or groin is just as heinous as the act that these 3 com­mit­ted when taunt­ing the old man. I know it sounds extreme, but let’s explore how that could be true. The thought gave rise to the words on the blog. The words on the blog may plant a seed on some Sin­ga­porean vis­i­tors’ minds. And these seeds may ger­mi­nate and develop into actions. And who is to say these actions may not tar­get some inno­cent bystander that ‘looked like’ one of them?

Both Bud­dha and Jesus spoke of love and com­pas­sion. Jesus him­self loved those that were con­sid­ered ‘unlov­able’ by most of his con­tem­po­raries: Pros­ti­tutes; Thieves; Crim­i­nals. Bud­dha teaches us to have com­pas­sion for those that are con­fused and do not yet under­stand the nature of Sam­sara. Jesus teaches us to offer the other cheek. It all comes down to Karma, in a way. Read the words above. Think of the con­se­quences that your thoughts can have. Watch care­fully, and sow the habit (and the char­ac­ter) of love and com­pas­sion in your every­day life.

There is one more mis­con­cep­tion that is evi­dent in the orig­i­nal post and the com­ments that fol­lowed. Karma, as a Bud­dhist con­cept, is closely related to the idea that our cur­rent life is one of many that we have lived, one of many that will be lived. Rein­car­na­tion is a key tenet of the Bud­dhist phi­los­o­phy, as it means that ‘get­ting it wrong’ will sim­ply mean a longer path to Nir­vana (sal­va­tion, in Chris­t­ian terms). Unlike the Chris­t­ian view that we have ‘just one chance’ and will then be judged, with the result of going either to heaven or to hell; Bud­dhists explain that we have an infi­nite num­ber of lives to learn from our mis­takes (Although some would say that get­ting ‘stuck’ in this crazy world for a long num­ber of lives would be the same as being in hell, and that the two views are thus in fact one and the same). Within this con­text, the com­ments made by oth­ers to the orig­i­nal post miss the point: Karma does not dic­tate that these 3 men will be ‘pun­ished’ for their actions. Rather, Karma artic­u­lates that their actions will have a con­se­quence. That is why Karma is also called ” The Law of Cause and Effect”. It does not estab­lish a pun­ish­ment; sim­ply that what­ever thoughts and actions we have and live will have a reac­tion (con­se­quence), and we will have to live with them.

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