Karma does not explain everything, said the Buddha
BY HARV BISHOP
Many New Agers believe that if you were born a slave, you were once a slave master in another life. That’s karma, baby. In some New Age and related teachings. the doctrine of karma becomes a literal tit-for-tat theory of justice. Many Buddhists reject a linear quid pro quo approach to karma. The view of karma below from a dharma talk transcript by Gil Fronsdal of the Insight Meditation Center is interesting for its resonance to Mitch Horowitz’s perspective on the Law of Attraction. Horowitz holds that the mind is one active force among many physical and spiritual laws that create our lives. Both Fronsdale and Horowitz make space for a reality that can include spiritual transcendence, accidents, randomness and the very real power that our intentions have in our lives.
“Some teachings about karma say that everything that happens to us in this life is the result of our past karma.” says Fronsdal. “Whatever happens to you here is the result of past karma. The Buddha did not say that. What the Buddha said is that there is a big sea of cause and effect, and within that, there is a subcategory of cause and effect which has to do with a cause and effect of intentionality, of the intentions we act on. In the case of sickness, the Buddha did not attribute all sickness to karma. Sickness may happen just by logical conditions or by genetic conditions. You do not have to attribute the sickness to your karma. The Buddha also said that even if someone assaults you, like when you are in a war, it is not necessarily the result of your past karma. In a sense, it may just be bad luck — you happen to be born in certain place and time. …
People want karma to explain everything, but the Buddha did not want karma to explain everything.”
Fronsdal trained under Jack Kornfield and holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford. You can find text and audio for Fronsdal’s full remarks here.
The respected Buddhist teacher Reggie Ray offers a more absolute view.
“Buddhism highlights two types of karma. The first is the karma of result. This addresses the age-old question of why our life is this way and not some other; it shows us that every aspect of our lives is the result of actions we have performed in the past. This includes our body and its physical condition, our parentage and other elements of our history, current friends and relatives, our overall life situation, our general state of mind, and even the thoughts we think and the emotions we feel.
“Nothing is excluded, down to the number of eyelashes we have and the color of our fingernails and whether we are having a good or bad day. All of these come about because of specific actions that we have carried out in the past. They represent what is given in our lives and, as the fruition of past actions, stand beyond our ability to make them other than what they are.”
Ray’s full article can be found here.
This is hugely clarifying and helpful. It’s important that we not casually toss around the concept of karma as a kind of rope bridge to “fix” apparent contradictions in New Thought or LOA philosophy.
There are multiple layers of ’cause’… The idea of ‘information loss,’ as our friend Mitch summarized it so well, that the further back from a micro level we move (or sub, sub, sub micro level) the less information we perceive, applies here. I have come, through experience, to understand a wee bit about that which men call ‘karma.’ The idea that if one hates something, an ethic group, say, that one will be magnetically drawn to that energy, applies. Brian Weiss’ case studies in past life regression have several poignant examples of this. I believe Neville speaks about this, and Mitch also, that what we condemn, we become – a similar principle, and to my knowledge, applies to incarnational experience, as well as day to day.. My own experience has shown me that karma, in the reincarnational sense, is in great part a repetition of patterns, of themes. Exactly like patterns get repeated within a single lifetime. There is great choice in the kinds of purpose and experience available.. Not everyone is interested in getting a PhD, some may find a BA suits their purpose well, others may require no degree for their intentions.. Back to ‘information loss’… There are patterns imprinted on primordial levels – this is what I have come to understand, and that understanding is evolving, needless to say. But since very early childhood I have been consciously dealing with past life material, and have had some unusual avenues of learning made available.. So patterns may be repeated, but not because of actions we have taken as incarnate beings.. Regardless, I do believe that any given event or moment exists in infinite parallel/probable versions, and our frequency at any given moment determines which of these we consciously experience. The factors that contribute to our emitting/vibrating at a certain frequency are many, and I also believe that we can alter that frequency. Momentum plays a profound role, obviously. While it is true that a kid growing up underprivileged in the ghetto could become president, say, it is unlikely – because of the accrued momentum that contributes to ones history. Once a situation becomes acute, it takes a great deal of power and knowledge to alter it. I have also learned through experience that there are, indeed, numerous forces that act in this world. Truth is so much stranger than fiction it cannot be overstated. But I still believe that it is our own attunement – our own vibration – that ultimately lands us on whatever station plays the programs we perceive….
Thanks so much for this perspective Sara. For me a key point is the main section of the talk via the link where he says a pebble in a pond sends out identifiable ripples that can impact a rubber duck, but when multiple rocks are thrown it is much less apparent what is moving the duck this way or that. As you say causation is complex. I don’t see his remarks as denying what Weiss’ work and others describe. I too have dealt with past life bleed throughs since childhood, at times as unpleasant as being squeezed in a vice. I believe habit tracks or patterns can continue across lifetimes, but am undecided rather that plays out as specific events or broader soul themes. If every life event can’t be explained by karma, arguably our response and interpretation would be shaped by past momentum. I like Whitehead’s process view- we inherent a given from previous momentum but are free to reshape in every new moment. Whether we create anew or select from preexisting potentials I cannot say. And yet, there are times when boundaries collapse. I once had a precognitive dream and the next day my wife and I set out to go to a movie and we made a wrong turn and wandered the other side of town unable to find the theater. After a great number of “random” turns and impulsive decisions we ended up at a store. I decided to go in to grab a jar of salsa and I met the person from my dream.