What is the Definition of Karma? How does Karma Work?

[dsiluvu]

Since we often hear this world and we often talk about this....

What is the Definition of Karma?
How does Karma Work?


The Four Laws of Karma

The First Law of Karma - If you want positive results in your business and life, you need to cause others to have positive results.

The Second Law of Karma - To make up for bad karma, you don't need to be Ghandi or Mother Theresa. Just have nice thoughts and do simple acts.

The Third Law of Karma - If you never do good things, you'll never have good things done to you.

The Fourth Law of Karma - All the mean, self-serving things you do will come back to get you. Even if nobody witnesses them.

[dsiluvu]

Some good reads and definitions....


Seeds & Weeds - The Karma Definition Explained

The main lesson offered by the seeds & weeds metaphor for the karma definition is quite simple. If you want to live your life in accordance with the karma definition and enjoy the fruits of your labor, you need to practice persistence, patience, and discipline in planting good seeds of karma everyday. By the way, these are all principles that I try to encourage with my coaching clients.

You Choose What Kind of Life You Want

Your life is like a garden. There are some nice plants and some awful weeds. Your garden constantly changes with the seasons and yet with the right structures and discipline, you can manage your garden to produce wonderful, consistent results.

Some people like to produce rock gardens because they generate stability. Other people like to plant many varieties of fruit and vegetables that keep coming back year after year. Some people want perfectly manicured gardens that are works of art.
It's up to you to determine what kind of life you want by planting the right kind of seeds. Applying the karma definition is quite easy.

If you want to see a world that is a nice place, plant seeds of kindness. If you want to have a successful business, plant seeds of prosperity by continually creating value for others. If you want be a respected leader, plant seeds of integrity by sticking to your convictions and doing the right thing at all times.

An Apple Seed can only Produce an Apple Tree

In a garden, it makes perfect sense. An apple seed can only produce an apple tree. With this karma definition metaphor, a good action can only produce a good result. If you negotiate a win-win deal with a supplier, good results must be generated from that deed.
The only difference between garden seeds and karma seeds is that it is much easier to identify which seed produced which plant (the cause and effect relationship) because they are both physical objects. Meanwhile, seeds of karma ripen in your mind and are much more difficult to observe. (AND, I won't get into all the details of this right now because is a topic for a future article.)

This cause and effect relationship between the seed and the tree is explained by the first law of karma.

An Apple Tree can only be Produced by an Apple Seed

You can't expect to grow an apple tree from the seed of an orange. It just doesn't work that way.  The same applies for karma. You can't expect to grow trees of prosperity if you have been planting seeds of greed and deceit.
This is explained further by the third law of karma.

The Karma Defintion & Tempting Weeds in Disguise

Even though they may not look like it, some plants are poisonous or potentially harmful in other ways. For example, even the most precious rose has dangerous thorns.
This concept can be applied to life and business. Some of the most tempting and enticing opportunities are injurious traps. Like most people, at one point or another, you have probably been tempted to tell a white lie or misrepresent yourself to make an immediate, short term gain.

The same is true for some unethical business opportunities like click fraud, sending out spam to potential customers, or failing to pay bills on time. In the short-run, they may bring you some financial benefit but in the long run, you will suffer. You will never, in the long run, benefit by stealing, being misleading, or misrepresenting yourself. Nor will you prosper by falling for get-rich-quick schemes that are great at creating money but terrible at creating value for people.

In all these examples, the benefits you will experience, if at all, will be short lived. As tempting and enticing as they seem, beware of the poisonous weeds in your garden.

Good Results Take Time & the Right Conditions to Grow

Does a gardener plants seeds and then step out into the garden and expect a wild garden to be growing the next day? Of course not. This metaphor for the karma definition requires that you take action everyday to grow the plants you want to have. You need to provide your seeds water, the right amount of sun, good soil, protection from inclement weather and so on.
This issue is particularly relevant in today's internet age where we have instant everything. We want overnight results for everything from weight loss to becoming financially free. Except for rare exceptions, it's just not realistic to expect results to happen that quickly.

And if they do, they won't last. Just look at the dot-com bubble of the late nineties, early 2000s. Or the real estate bubble of 2007 and 2008.

Some Seeds can Take Years to Grow

You just can't use will power to force a seed to grow. Seeds take time and some seeds ripen faster than others. Some seeds can lay dormant for years until the right conditions arise. For example, in Death Valley, the hottest desert in the world, some flower seeds can remain in the ground for 30 years or more until just the right conditions arise.
The same can happen for karma. It is believed that the karma you experience can come from actions you performed when you were a child or even from a previous life hundreds of years ago.

http://www.youngbloodcoaching.com/karma-definition.html

[dsiluvu]

The same can happen for karma. It is believed that the karma you experience can come from actions you performed when you were a child or even from a previous life hundreds of years ago.

This seems to make logical sense since most of the things we experience now in this life sometimes you wonder how come if you have been nurtured to do good and you are good this life yet you still suffer some consequences that are negative... for example people who have contracted HIV AIDS, CANCER, ABUSE, DYING YOUNG... and the list goes on.

This proof of our experience in this life may not have necessary come from this life but it is the result of what we did in the previous life... hence the need to be extra cautious in this life so as not to collect the seed for a negative outcome for the next life. 

[dsiluvu]

I particularly thought the fourth law of karma was quite interesting to look in to... and the author wrote;

The Fourth Law of Karma

Let's take a closer look at karma again. The fourth law of karma is like the inverse of the third law of karma.

But first, I'd like to add that the work I do as a business and life coach, is all about helping you become consciously aware of your thoughts and actions and to translate that awareness into creating the business and life you want. I believe that the good you put out to the world will come back to you. All it takes is a little faith, patience, and diligence.

Also, thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate it and it gives me energy to continue my work.

If the third law of karma states that no experience can be had unless a previous imprint for that experience was planted, the fourth law of karma states that every imprint planted must produce a corresponding experience. As stated by Geshe Michael Roach in "The Diamond Cutter':

Once an imprint is planted in the mind, it must lead to an experience: no imprint is ever wasted.

Now I understand better why Gurus always find so many ways to always expose us to positive imprints of "Enlightenment" through Buddha statues, Books, Teachings, Images of Enlighten beings, etc...

This reminds me of high school physics. I recall my teacher telling us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. With karma, it's not exactly the same but the key, with respect to the fourth law, is that every time you produce a thought or action (good or bad), the experience will come back to you. It must.

Consider that the jerks in your life are producing bad karma by being jerks. Therefore, the karma will come back to them and they will suffer, whether or not you react. It's like there are "Karma Police" (a song title by the band Radiohead) who are out there catching the perpetrators and making them pay for their harmful acts.

This month I encountered an aggressive pedestrian while bicycling on the bridge. The man purposely stepped into my path nearly causing me (and other cyclists) to fall into the automobile traffic. When I explained that what he was doing was dangerous, he said in a threatening voice, "move along before I push you into the traffic."

Shortly after the incident, I noticed a couple things.

First, I realized that I had caused anger and frustration to others to be experiencing it in this moment. It had nothing to do with the way I was riding my bike.
Second, I noticed that this man had experienced a lot of bad karma to be creating even more bad karma and threatening my life. Imagine what it takes to threaten another's life! That dude has got it rough.
Tips to Incoporating the Fourth Law of Karma Into Your Business & Life

The next time you experience a jerk in your life, try not to react. Take a deep breath and let the anger and frustration pass. It always does.
Interesting side note: I was reading about some old meditation gurus and it stated that not reacting when someone is pushing your buttons, I mean really pushing your buttons, is more difficult and more powerful for creating good karma than meditating for 5 years in a cave.

Then remind yourself that the jerk will suffer for his/her wrong-doings. You may even feel contented or somewhat righteous by this. But to really make a difference, feel for the other person. Know that he will suffer. Know that he is creating bad karma that will come back to him. Know that he is simply reacting to his circumstances, which is the opposite of what I am urging you to do.

Do this once every day. Feel for the jerk. And if you get caught up in the moment and react, forgive yourself and feel for the other person afterwards. The more you do this, the less you will experience jerks. Your compassion will help others so they don't need to get upset and take it out on you. It's preventative.

Interesting perspective we can apply whenever we come across a jerk situation

Remind yourself by writing it down or giving away a dollar every time you feel for someone who has created bad karma in your life. Or, transfer a stone from one pocket to the other as a reward (as described in the tips from the Third Law of Karma ). Do whatever works for you. And keep passing along the good karma.

Karma is like the salt and pepper shakers at a huge dinner table. Pass it along!

[dsiluvu]

I wonder what is the karma for this boy who shot, and those children and teachers who was shot dead by him... he also his own mother and took his own as well...

Connecticut school shooting victims   
A gunman forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children and six adults before committing suicide at the scene. Authorities have said the shooter, identified by law enforcement sources as Adam Lanza, 20, also killed his mother at their home prior to his rampage at the school.

Photos and details about the victims will be added as The Times learns more about their lives.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — When he was a student at Newtown High, Adam Lanza would sometimes have what a school employee referred to as "an episode."

No one knew what might bring it on. The shy teenager "would just shut down," said Richard Novia, a former advisor to the school tech club. He said Lanza would get together with other technology-minded students to play fantasy role-playing video games and for sleepovers at school. The thin, gangly boy would take part with enjoyment.



At school, Lanza would shuffle through the halls, clutching his briefcase to his chest and avoiding eye contact. At times, no one could predict when, he would simply shut down. He'd sit staring at the ground, refusing to talk to anyone.

"It would be total emotional withdrawal," Novia said. "He wouldn't hurt anyone or yell. He wouldn't speak or talk; he would walk away. Not in a defiant way, but in a scared way. Like, 'Leave me alone.'"


Acquaintances of the family on Sunday drew a sharper picture of Lanza, 20, as investigators attempted to retrace his path last week from the 4,000-square-foot home where he shot his mother multiple times to a nearby elementary school. There, he fatally shot 26 students and staff members and then killed himself.

When Lanza would have one of his episodes, Novia said, he would telephone Nancy Lanza. She was "a great parent," he said, and would often come within minutes, sitting with her son and making him feel better.

"She could pull him back in line," Novia said.

Lanza appears to have left high school early, and at age 16 began taking classes at Western Connecticut State University in nearby Danbury, where he earned a B average.

He dropped out of German as he was about to fail the class, but earned an A-minus in American history and a B in macroeconomics. He took his last class at the university in summer 2009, the year before he would have been a senior in high school.

Starting college at 16 would have been jarring, Novia said, especially as Lanza's older brother left for college and later for a job in Manhattan, and their parents separated, leaving Lanza at home with his mother. The couple divorced in 2009.

"If I was to read the situation, he found himself so far disconnected from the world with no possibility of interaction. I'm sure he did not make friends well in a college setting," Novia said.

Lanza, at least in high school, was fond of joining "LAN parties" — short for Local Area Network — in which students would gather at someone's house and hook up their computers into a small network. They played not hard-core shooter games but strategy games such as "World of Warcraft" and "Mario Party."


"We were not in favor of first-person shooter games," said one of those who played with Lanza, Joshua Milas.

Lanza's older brother, Ryan Lanza, 24, was also a member of the tech club.

"There was a clear disconnect. Ryan was outgoing, energetic, well-respected, recognized for his talents," Novia said. Ryan took care of his brother, but Novia said he heard they had become estranged in recent years.

"There's obviously dysfunction between the siblings," Novia said. "I could very easily see Ryan saying, 'Enough is enough. I've been your caregiver when I was supposed to be a teenager. I've got a life to live.'"

Nancy Lanza struggled to take care of her son and live a life of her own, friends said.

More on Lanza http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-connecticut-school-shooting-autism-20121215,0,4319311.story

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[Tenzin K]

Karma means "intentional action" and refers to the universal law of cause and effect. Karma is created not only by physical action but also by thoughts and words.

Just as action causes reaction, karma causes effects that come back to the original actor. Karma also tends to generate more karma that reaches out in all directions. We bear the consequences of the karma we create, but everyone around us is affected by our intentional acts as well, just as we are affected by theirs.

Buddhists do not think of karma as "destiny" or as some kind of cosmic retribution system. Although the fruits of "good" karma might be pleasant and beneficial, all karma keeps one entangled in the cycle of death and rebirth.

Actions free from desire, hate and delusion do not create karma. The enlightened being ceases to create karma and thus is liberated from rebirth.

[buddhalovely]

The Pali term Karma literally means action or doing. Any kind of intentional action whether mental, verbal, or physical, is regarded as Karma. It covers all that is included in the phrase "thought, word and deed". Generally speaking, all good and bad action constitutes Karma. In its ultimate sense Karma means all moral and immoral volition. Involuntary, unintentional or unconscious actions, though technically deeds, do not constitute Karma, because volition, the most important factor in determining Karma, is absent.

The Buddha says:

"I declare, O Bhikkhus, that volition is Karma. Having willed one acts by body, speech, and thought." (Anguttara Nikaya)

Every volitional action of individuals, save those of Buddhas and Arahants, is called Karma. The exception made in their case is because they are delivered from both good and evil; they have eradicated ignorance and craving, the roots of Karma.

"Destroyed are their germinal seeds (Khina bija); selfish desires no longer grow," states the Ratana Sutta of Sutta nipata.

This does not mean that the Buddha and Arahantas are passive. They are tirelessly active in working for the real well being and happiness of all. Their deeds ordinarily accepted as good or moral, lack creative power as regards themselves. Understanding things as they truly are, they have finally shattered their cosmic fetters – the chain of cause and effect.

Karma does not necessarily mean past actions. It embraces both past and present deeds. Hence in one sense, we are the result of what we were; we will be the result of what we are. In another sense, it should be added, we are not totally the result of what we were; we will not absolutely be the result of what we are. The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the present of the future, but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future; so complex is the working of Karma.

It is this doctrine of Karma that the mother teaches her child when she says "Be good and you will be happy and we will love you; but if you are bad, you will be unhappy and we will not love you." In short, Karma is the law of cause and effect in the ethical realm.

[pgdharma]

Karma is the law of moral causation. It is action and reaction in the ethical realm. It is natural law that every action produces a certain effect. So if one performs wholesome actions such as donating money to charitable organizations, happiness will ensue. On the other hand, if one performs unwholesome actions, such as killing a living being, the result will be suffering. This is the law of cause and effect at work. In this way, the effect of past karma determines the nature of one's present situation in life.

The Buddha said,

"According to the seed that is sown,
So is the fruit you reap
The door of good of will gather good results
The door of evil reaps evil results.
If you plant a good seed well,
Then you will enjoy the good fruits."

Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward, but a reaping of the harvest we ourselves have planted. Through our thoughts and behaviors, we sow seeds that are later harvested.