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Kamma/ karma
Chance or karma ?
 Consider the following :
I find a £5 in the road
I drop a vase
I win the lottery
What do you think- chance or karma ?
Kamma means action . That is , the law of cause and effect. It is a natural
law , not a moral law . That is – it is what occurs naturally .
‘ Think not triflingly of wrong,
“ It will not come to me ! ”
With falling drops of rain
Even a waterpot is filled .’
(p23 The Dhammaphada )
It can also refer to the fruits of the action. It may be
described as the law of causation with a combination
of primary and secondary causes.
Chance or karma ?
 Consider the following :
I find a £5 in the road
I drop a vase
I win the lottery
What do you think- chance or karma ?What actions
may have led to each of these events happening?
It can be compared to storing seeds . Some
seeds come to fruition quite quickly
Other seeds take much longer
What is necessary for any seed to come to
fruition is the presence of certain causes
and conditions. In
the same way for
kamma to come to
fruition , conditions
must be present
The consequences of karma do not necessarily follow straight
away . Like creating ripples in a pond by throwing a stone
into it , the ripples will continue until the effects of the
impact of the stone cease .
Similarly the effects of our actions will continue until they are
exhausted . Sometimes we can know what the
consequences of an action will be , sometimes we wont.
Sometimes the same action can have different results.
Turn to pg
68 in Issues
Of Buddhism
and read about
Mr Bungle and
Mr Bongle
You are now going to consider some actions
which have immediate consequences and
others which do not . Discuss this with your
group and write down your examples
Immediate
Gradual
One of the main points to realise about kamma is that
we are the agents of our own experiences .
‘The wrong done by oneself
Is born of oneself , is produced in oneself. ’
( Dhammaphada p.30)
Good actions which are often described as skilful
actions will lead to good consequences or results.
Bad actions or unskilful actions will lead to bad
consequences or results .Buddhists would consider
- can we foresee what the consequences will be?
Do we have an idea what might happen ?
Read The moral of the story – Abandon Ship !
What does this say about the difficulty in attempting to
rely on the consequences of the action to judge
whether it is good or bad ?
However , when determining what is a skilful or unskilful
action we must also keep in mind the intention. This is
referred to as skill in means You should read the
Parable of the Burning House from the Lotus Sutra .
(Support material p26)
Discuss and write down your responses to the
following :
1. Why is this an example of skill- in – means ?
2. Explain the symbolism of the story
The focus here is to ensure you use skill
in judging and don’t simply follow rules
– moral or otherwise - blindly.
Buddhists are not suggesting it is not
necessary to ever follow rules , but that
sometimes other things are important.
They would call this skilful means or
upaya kausala. This means knowing
what is the best thing to do in a
particular situation – even if it means
setting aside Buddhist precepts .
For example , in Tibet monks
sometimes gave up their
monastic vows in order to take
up weapons to fight for freedom
. They did this believing terrible
consequences would follow for
them ( they would be reborn in
a hell realm ) , but they
believed this to be the more
compassionate act.
Consider the following scenario and
write down your thoughts : A Dutch
person is helping to hide some
Jewish refugees . An SS soldier
comes along and asks the Dutch
person if he is hiding anyone . Is it
more important that he does not tell
a lie and answers truthfully or that
he tells the truth ?
Another aspect to consider is the
appropriateness of the act to the
person performing the act .
For example ,someone who is
diabetic shouldn’t eat cakes . This
would be an
unskilful action.
These – especially the first two consequences and intention - are generally
speaking ,things that most people are
concerned with when making moral decisions.
Discussion point – What makes an action
good? Is this difficult or easy to work out for all
situations ?
Kamma for a Buddhist means:
K&U
 Actions have consequences
 Natural law of cause and effect
 Not punishment from God-natural
result of previous actions
 Comes from volitional actions that is whether motivated by good / bad ,
positive / negative / skilful / unskilful and all actions of body, speech and mind
will have karmic consequence
 Individual kamma
 Collective kamma – family / national etc
( some Buddhists say it is only in the human realm that conditions are ripe for
enlightenment. The other five realms are still under law of cause and effect but it
is much more difficult for beings to be free from their situation because of the
conditions they find themselves in . One of the conditions for example is life
span. A human has the perfect length of life span to turn towards enlightenment.
Too short ( under 10 years ) leads to grasping caused by fear and panic ( think
of a fruit fly’s life span ) Too long ( more than 120 years) leads to forgetfulness –
like the gods in heaven in bliss, or beings in hell in agony. Neither condition is
conducive to practicing Dharma.
The Buddha talked of the ten certainties and eight endowments necessary for
enlightenment. These are all present in the human realm).
Kamma affects future rebirths:A&E
 Unenlightened actions bind to samsara
 All face the consequences of actions – either this
life or in lives to come if we are not enlightened
 Skilful actions lead to better rebirths or
enlightenment- of body, speech and mind
 Rebirths themselves gather karma which affect
subsequent rebirths – why its known as a cycle
 Fruits of actions condition future actions
 Samsara is of dependent origination
For Therevada Buddhists
Main aim to improve kamma and attain a better
rebirth
For Mahayana Buddhists
Main aim to help improve their kamma, kamma of
others but mainly to overcome it altogether so that
they can attain nibbana and escape the wheel (
believe possible in one life time )
So , Buddhists would say there are three aspects to this :
1.The consequence that arises
as a direct result of the action .
2.The intention behind the
action i.e. compassionate
behaviour driven by
positive intentions
3. Actions are linked to the person who carries them out
For each of the categories below , give appropriate
examples of actions :
Good
Consequences
Good Intentions
Bad Consequences
Bad Intentions
Appropriate to the person
Inappropriate
 Describe how Kamma works. 4 KU
 Explain how Kamma is connected to
Nibbana. 4 AE

Describe how Kamma works.
Where candidates list features of Kamma, a
sentence of explanation is required to gain a
mark.
Kamma is volitional actions – good or bad.

Natural law of cause and effect – good
actions bring good effects, bad actions bring
bad effects.

Results of our actions are visited upon us at
a future time – either immediately, later in
this life, or in future lifetime.
Doesn’t come back in same form.
Impossible to trace back web of actions.
Results of Kamma can’t be avoided.
Welcome Kamma as natural consequence of
previous actions.




 Explain how Kamma is connected to Nibbana.
 Candidates should make a clear connection
between the two concepts.
 One or more connections with expansion is
acceptable.
 Candidates simply repeating information from the
previous two questions without making a
 connection should not be awarded marks.
 Explain how Kamma is connected to Nibbana.
 'Unskilful' actions bind us to Samsara – so
can’t reach Nibbana.
 'Skilful' actions lead towards enlightenment – Nibbana
 • Bad Kamma is result of three root poisons. If we are
unenlightened we will perform greedy actions, hateful
actions, ignorant actions.
 All these lead to rebirth, because we’re not enlightened. So
our Kamma causes us not to reach Nibbana.
 • It’s our Kamma that sparks the new existence on
Samsara.
 • Once Nibbana is achieved we cease to create bad
Kamma.
Punna
A skilful action is called punna which means
fortunate . It is something which will bring merit
and accumulate positive kamma. These actions
will come from love , generosity and wisdom.
Skilful actions are developed by following the
noble eight fold path .
Unskilful actions , on the other hand would spring
from greed , hatred or ignorance , the three mental
poisons .
Roots and Branches
Three forms of bad root – Akusala
Greed
Delusion
Hatred
Three forms of good root – Kusala
Non – attachment
Understanding
Kindness
At the heart of all of this for Buddhists is compassion
– karuna which in turn leads to loving kindness –
metta . This is central to Buddhist thinking as in
the face of life which is suffering – compassion
and loving kindness is crucial .
Loving Kindness is at the heart of Buddhist
teachings. By acting with loving kindness
towards others, you will improve your kamma
and attain nibbana .
Loving kindness goes hand in hand with skilful
actions . That is you must consider intention and
consequence
Discussion : What is the difference between
sympathy , pity ,compassion , empathy ?
Are any of these more desirable qualities than
others?
There are two main aspects to compassion
from a Buddhist perspective –
Compassion is a human quality which helps us in our
relationships with others. To be truly effective , it
should be married with wisdom.
How would we deal with people in our lives with
compassion ? Why is wisdom important ?
The compassionate motivation to free all beings
from the
wheel of suffering. It is generally found in the
Mahayana school.
This is known as the greater vehicle for this reason.
Therevada Buddhism mainly focuses on liberation
for oneself. This is seen as the higher aspect of
the two
as by helping others to realise their own buddha
nature , there will be complete cessation of
suffering . It is seen as the
only effective way of dealing with suffering
ultimately.
Avlokiteshvara , known as the Bodhisattva of
compassion represents this aspect of the Buddha
in Tibetan Buddhism . White Tara is a female
aspect
Discuss the following and write down your thoughts :
Buddhists would say that samsara is a limitless
ocean of suffering.It is therefore more effective to
cut the roots of suffering than to constantly try to
help alleviate suffering itself .
Buddhists believe that in order for compassion to be
effective and to lead to skilful action , wisdom must
be present .
“ The most compassionate act is to free others
from samsara. Buddhists refer to this as
turning the wheel of Dharma. The best thing
an individual can do is to cut the roots of
suffering by freeing their own mind (following
the eight fold path) This is more skilful than
feeding the hungry ”
Discuss
Read the worksheets ‘ Aversion to Samsara’
and write down the examples Princess
Mandarava gives of the effects of karma .
Are these examples of akusala or kusala ?
Punna – Skilful Actions
Three kinds of action which are believed to bring merit
are :

Moral conduct – sila

Meditation – bhavana

Charity – dana
Give 2 examples of each of these
from a Buddhist perspective
The effects of all of these actions
may be experienced
in this life or in a future one
You should now check out the textual sources on
p100 -101 of Issues of Buddhism . You should
also refer to your copy of the Dhammapada and
read it there.
World Religions Buddhism
Read p23-p26
Complete activities p27 ( your pages may differ
slightly . It is the section The Goals - kamma and
skilful actions )
P65- p75
Complete as many activities as possible p76-p78