Karma is a habit

[DS Star]

In the Mahanama Sutta, the Buddha said, “Just as oil rises to the top of a pot submerged in water, your virtue, your goodness, your faith, or generosity will rise to the top, and that is what will carry you to your next destination.”

Tenga Rinpoche says, “Even though it may appear to be a worldly activity, if you have the attitude of bodhicitta, then it is the practice of dharma.”

Bodhicitta is the essence of a Buddha. It purifies negative karma and accumulates positive karma. It’s in our best interest to develop as many positive habits as we can.

Karma is the momentum of repeated actions that become habitual. Karma is basically habit.

We need to train our mind to think of others 1st in all situations. Make it becomes a default then it will help us in developing the ultimate Bodhicitta.

So, our karma is also a trained habit... this habit will help us tremendously during our death and bardo...

[Q]

True, can't argue with the logic behind it.

Since karma is generated through our actions (positive or negative) and our actions are based on our habits, it is not strange to think the karma is a habit.

If that's the case, then doing virtuous acts are also a form of habit. The good thing about knowing this is that we can cultivate these habits in us.

[pgdharma]

Yes, I agree that karma is a habit. Karma is a habit cultivated through many lifetimes regardless of whether it is good or bad. If we do something over and over, we get in the habit of doing that thing; we will be better at it and be more natural. Changing our karma depends on our sincerity, how much energy we exert and how strong the habit is. Nobody is responsible of our habits except ourselves, so if we want to have good karma we have to cultivate good habits into our lives.

[yontenjamyang]

Put this way. Karma is a habit is true! Actually, since we have lived since countless lives, we have generated countless karma, white, black and neutral. Karma ripens base on condition. According to the Lamrim the strongest ripens first, the most familiar follows and the oldest last, depending on the condition generated. Since we have all the possible karma due to our countless lives and actions, it is basically the condition that ripens the karma.

So, what are the conditions? If one generate boddhicitta then the best karma that is similar to that motivation ripens. Why? Because, the condition for boddhicitta is the strongest one can generate. Doing Dharma work in the mandala of the Guru and any vows, prayers and work given by the Guru is with boddhicitta as motivation  because we can rest assured that the Guru has boddhicitta as motivation. Even if one does the work with self interest, to look good, it still has boddhicitta as motivation, based on the power of the Guru's motivation because the result is to benefit others. On the hand, broken samaya and schism can be said as the most negative of condition that can cause the most negative of karma to ripen. In the 50 verse of Guru Devotion, it is said that to think negatively of the Guru can lead one to the deepest of hells ie Avichi. It is not the Guru that "sentenced" one to the hells but the our own karma. And we created the condition for that karma to ripen.

If one generally keeps clean samaya with the Guru, then the karma that is the most familiar ripens. If one is lazy, then our "laziness karma" ripens. Karma will ripen to block out practice to keep being lazy. Obstacles will arise that will keep us from needing to work hard and that will cause one to be in danger of breaking Guru samaya by not completing our work. If one is hard working then the karma that is the most familiar with that will ripen and we will work hard and keep our samaya clean.

It these way, karma is a habit.

[diablo1974]

Maybe we can also say Habit is a Karma. Seems appropriate too. But nevertheless both are interconnected and never separated. If we change our habits, our karma will change too and unknowingly we are improving in our body speech and mind.

[brian]

I think one can relate Karma to habit is because it is predetermined by one's thought. I have read from a resource that i have forgotten long ago that mentioned about our karma is determined by our thoughts. How can that be? It is by the logic of one should be careful with their thoughts as it can determine our future because what we think continuously in our mind becomes our speech, what we speak constantly about becomes our action and our regular actions based on our speech will become our attitude/behaviour/habit (??) and that will determine our future which is our karma... correct me if i am wrong.

[RedLantern]

Karma is completely, pointless exercise and excuse not to do something , to some.While others,it's become a main stream belief based solely on complete conjuncture.Karma is viewed as an organic internal judical  system where "its" going to happen to them,and if they deserve it,they're then deemed to receive the due judgement based solely on some past act which they may have committed.
Our implications can potentionally be life altering .It's entirely possible that we can change ourselves regardless of how deep our habits may be. As Buddha has said,"When intending.what does  is karma...."
Therefore,when we intent not to cause harm,we then "do" karma,meaning that we're kind,or becoming kind,generous and compassionate,and vice versa.When practice daily, it becomes a habit.

[psylotripitaka]

Karma is an incredibly complex subject in the Lamrim. It is useful to consider here that there are several causes established by every action of body, speech, and mind. One of the causes is the 'tendency similar to the cause'. As Diablo1974 said, "Habit is a Karma".

The tendencies that ripen in this life depend on contributory causes such as environment, upbringing, experiences, physiology and so on. This makes it clear that we need to consider how our present circumstances are influencing the tendencies we presently carry out, and to assess whether or not those tendencies are contributing to the elevation of our consciousness.

I am very grateful to DS Star for bringing this up. It is very encouraging to be reminded that we can change our habits. The tendency to doubt we can accomplish realization is not founded on this wisdom. Shantideva encourages us that it is simply a matter of familiarity, so what are we becoming familiar with?

[icy]

Karma as the mental factor intention is just one form of karma.  It arises during perception but does not always remain in that state.  After a certain time, when a perception ends, the initial mental factor intention (or karma) does not just disappear leaving no trace.  It changes in nature.  It shifts from an active mental factor into what is called a potentiality, which is another form of karma.  It is like an impression on the mindstream and therefore is called a karmic imprint or habit. 

Once it has been produced by a karma that is mental in nature, a karmic imprint stays with you as a potentiality for as long as it takes for the circumstances causing it to ripen and bear fruit to come together.  When a karmic imprint ripens, it produces a result that you experience.  The result can be pleasant - a feeling of happiness - unpleasant, or neutral. 

[fruven]

Karma is completely, pointless exercise and excuse not to do something , to some.While others,it's become a main stream belief based solely on complete conjuncture.Karma is viewed as an organic internal judical  system where "its" going to happen to them,and if they deserve it,they're then deemed to receive the due judgement based solely on some past act which they may have committed.
Our implications can potentionally be life altering .It's entirely possible that we can change ourselves regardless of how deep our habits may be. As Buddha has said,"When intending.what does  is karma...."
Therefore,when we intent not to cause harm,we then "do" karma,meaning that we're kind,or becoming kind,generous and compassionate,and vice versa.When practice daily, it becomes a habit.

There are people who do blame their behavior on their habits. It becomes an excuse not to change for the better. When you look at behaviors, habits, and karma they are the same thing. All are actions. The literal meaning of karma is 'action'. Behaviors and habits are actions as well. Therefore it comes to the question of are we comfortable with our actions. If we are comfortable with it we do not need to justify or defend our actions excessively unless we want to 'propagate' and 'influence' others with our justifications whether it is negatively or positively.

[Tenzin K]

The word Karma literally means action. It may appear that Karma is happening to us, as if some outside force is causing good things or bad things to come to us. However, it is really our own inner conditionings and processes that are leading us to experience outer effects or consequences in relation to our own actions.

The way we live our life is not a conscious way of living. We live a mechanical life propelled by our habits. It is the easiest way to live, but it makes our life dull.
Sometimes life is very boring for us, but we have no courage to change it or no initiative to alter the pattern of our existence. Just because we're too accustomed to living the way we are, to staying where we live and to having the people we're used to having around us, we can't leave them; we can't leave all these things behind. We feel like we're missing something if we don't stay with them, or if we don't stay there. That's the lot of most sentient beings, and that's the reason we keep reincarnating again and again and again. It's just that we always want something that we don't have, and later we just go back to what we had. That's all.

That's why the world is like this. That's why many people want to do good but can't struggle against these negative traces, which are already born before we even come into this body. They're already there. Now you understand why you must meditate and be vegetarian so that you don't have more of the negative traces adding to your own already bad DNA. You have enough of the bad; there's no need for extra.

[paolorossi]

GREAT!

[RedLantern]

Karma should not be confused with fate. Fate is the notion that man's life is preplanned for him by some external power,and he has no control over his destiny.Karma on the other hand can be changed.Because man is a conscious being he can be aware of his karma and thus strive to change the course of events ,in the Dharmapada we find the following words, "All that we are are the result of what we have thought"
It is founded on our thoughts and made  up of our thoughts consider well then your motives and intentions.He can either lower himself abruptly or gradually into hell or through discipline cultivation and the awakening of rise to the Enlightenment state of the Buddha.

[fruven]

Karma should not be confused with fate. Fate is the notion that man's life is preplanned for him by some external power,and he has no control over his destiny.Karma on the other hand can be changed.Because man is a conscious being he can be aware of his karma and thus strive to change the course of events ,in the Dharmapada we find the following words, "All that we are are the result of what we have thought"
It is founded on our thoughts and made  up of our thoughts consider well then your motives and intentions.He can either lower himself abruptly or gradually into hell or through discipline cultivation and the awakening of rise to the Enlightenment state of the Buddha.

Is believing in fate wrong view?
Can we conclude that fate is nonsensical?
Ultimately we are the one who have decided our own future whether knowingly or unknowingly. Now the question is how much we have in control of our lives? Many times we are out of control. What we thought we have control of doesn't work, and most of the time we have the tendency to control others and external things.

[icy]

To practice moral discipline means to abandon negative actions having understood their dangers. Although there are some negative actions that we cannot abandon immediately due to our strong negative habits of mind, there are some that we can definitely discontinue right now. We need to train our mind gently and steadily, first dealing with the non-virtuous actions we can abandon easily, and then gradually building up the determination, courage, and skill we need to eliminate even our most stubborn bad habits for good karma to arise.