When Hindus and Buddhists use the word karma, the basic meaning of it is action, from the Sanskrit word kree - 'to do', and therefore there is some error in the common translation of karma as a law of 'cause and effect', or of cosmic retribution - "as a man sows, so also shall he reap" has a Western flavour, which is a little causal. The way the Buddha put it, was slightly different: "this arises, that becomes, because between this and that, there is a polar relationship". The full explanation of karma in Buddhist philosophy is called Pratītyasamutpāda, which means the inter-dependant origination of all the forms and phases of life, and there are 12 links in the chain of inter-dependant origination, constituting a circle, and the existence of the circle depends on the presence of every one of the links. From one point of view in Buddhism the chain of inter-dependant origination is looked upon as a chain, that's to say it's a form of bondage.
The constituents, as it were, of the vicious circle in which most people and beings are living, which they call Saṃsāra - the round of birth and death, the bhavacakra, the wheel of bhava, which is becoming, and so going round and round and round in the endless game of hide and seek, is from one point of view, bondage. Bondage to karma, and if you study the Bhagavad Gita, which is not a Buddhist book, but Hindu scripture, Krishna, the spokesman of the Gita, explains that the wise man is one who does what is called niṣkāmakarma, meaning passionless activity in the sense that he acts without seeking a result, without being motivated by the fruits of action, and therefore is not bound by his own action. You can be bound to Saṃsāra, the wheel of birth and death by iron chains or gold chains. In terms of popular Hinduism, if you do bad deeds in this life, you will get bad results next time. If you do good deeds in this life, you may be reborn as an angel or a monk in which you'll get a better chance of liberation, but still, so long as you're looking for results, be they good or evil, you are still bound.
Now the way in which one becomes free of karma, involves another Buddhist point of view, which is a different way of looking at the chain of inter-dependent origination. It's the way which the Japanese call Jijimuge, that is to say the mutual interpenetration of all things and events, so that you could say that actually in fact the at deepest level of reality, this entire cosmos is a completely harmonious and blissful manifestation of everything in a state of total enlightenment and mutual compassion, and therefore the task of the Buddhist or the Hindu discipline of meditation, the way of spiritual development, is to realise that, and therefore cease from the illusion that the universe is a fragmented process of conflict.
But first of all, karma is not to be understood in the Western sense of a law of cause and effect, or of a sort of retribution system, or a law. The word law is most unsuitable for concepts is Eastern Indian and Chinese philosophy. The word dharma, sometimes meaning the Buddhist doctrine or a certain way of life, never means law, although it's often translated that way. You don't get the idea of law until you move to a culture where order is based on the idea of obedience. In the West the origins of law spring from where? The laws of the Medes and Persians, the laws of Hammurabi, the laws of Moses, and later Roman law.
The constituents, as it were, of the vicious circle in which most people and beings are living, which they call Saṃsāra - the round of birth and death, the bhavacakra, the wheel of bhava, which is becoming, and so going round and round and round in the endless game of hide and seek, is from one point of view, bondage. Bondage to karma, and if you study the Bhagavad Gita, which is not a Buddhist book, but Hindu scripture, Krishna, the spokesman of the Gita, explains that the wise man is one who does what is called niṣkāmakarma, meaning passionless activity in the sense that he acts without seeking a result, without being motivated by the fruits of action, and therefore is not bound by his own action. You can be bound to Saṃsāra, the wheel of birth and death by iron chains or gold chains. In terms of popular Hinduism, if you do bad deeds in this life, you will get bad results next time. If you do good deeds in this life, you may be reborn as an angel or a monk in which you'll get a better chance of liberation, but still, so long as you're looking for results, be they good or evil, you are still bound.
Now the way in which one becomes free of karma, involves another Buddhist point of view, which is a different way of looking at the chain of inter-dependent origination. It's the way which the Japanese call Jijimuge, that is to say the mutual interpenetration of all things and events, so that you could say that actually in fact the at deepest level of reality, this entire cosmos is a completely harmonious and blissful manifestation of everything in a state of total enlightenment and mutual compassion, and therefore the task of the Buddhist or the Hindu discipline of meditation, the way of spiritual development, is to realise that, and therefore cease from the illusion that the universe is a fragmented process of conflict.
But first of all, karma is not to be understood in the Western sense of a law of cause and effect, or of a sort of retribution system, or a law. The word law is most unsuitable for concepts is Eastern Indian and Chinese philosophy. The word dharma, sometimes meaning the Buddhist doctrine or a certain way of life, never means law, although it's often translated that way. You don't get the idea of law until you move to a culture where order is based on the idea of obedience. In the West the origins of law spring from where? The laws of the Medes and Persians, the laws of Hammurabi, the laws of Moses, and later Roman law.
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