[无量香光 · 显密文库 · 手机站]
fowap.goodweb.net.cn
{返回首页}


Karma
 
{返回 Buddhist Article 文集}
{返回网页版}
点击:1613

KARMA

Karma is an action or a combination of actions performed by us and which invariably produces results. These actions may be good, bad, or pure. Good karma leads to favorable results and rebirth in the higher realms of samsara. Bad karma leads to bad results and rebirth in the lower realms of samsara. Pure karma leads to enlightenment and enables one to transcend samsara.
 
Karmic actions can be created by an individual or jointly by a group. The consequent results can be good or bad and help to determine the future of the individual or individuals who created them. While the cause will always produce a result, when that result will occur cannot be predicted. If the right conditions do not manifest for a while, the result will lie dormant for as long as it takes those conditions to mature.
 
Regardless of the time frame involved, the causal link is clear. Thoughts of greed, animosity, closed-mindedness, and of pleasing ourselves at the expense of others will result in adverse consequences. Thoughts of selflessness, consideration for others, and understanding will lead to good results. Our goal is to eliminate the selfish and negative actions, and to increase the positive ones. At every instant in our lives, we can decide what we will think, say, or do in the next moment. But unfortunately, most of the time we do not consciously make such decisions, either because we remain unaware that we can or are not used to doing so, or, all too often, we are simply too lazy.
 
Our every action is preceded by a thought, but we are so preoccupied with ourselves and so distracted by the ceaseless bombardment of our thoughts that it would seem that we act without thinking. Too late we realize that, once again, we have acted automatically out of negative habits and, consequently, planted another harmful seed.
 
Everything we do plants a seed in our most subtle consciousness. All the seeds lie dormant, waiting for the proper conditions to mature. If we, as gardeners, plant a seed in rich soil where it will receive lots of sunlight, water it properly, and take care of it, that seed will grow. If we place the seed in a bag and store it in a cellar, nothing will happen. Likewise, all of the seeds in our consciousness are waiting for the right conditions—karmic versions of the soil, sunlight, and water—to mature. When the seed matures, the cause brings forth a result. But it does not end there.
 
Cause and effect is a continuous cycle. A cause triggers a result. That result then becomes a new cause, which will trigger another result, and on and on it goes. This chain not only affects us but others as well. We do some­thing and it affects someone around us. In their response to our action, they affect someone else. This creates a wave-like response of cause and effect that moves outwards in an ever-widening circle, just like what results when a single drop of water splashes in the ocean: The ripple effect results in all the other drops of water in the ocean moving.
 
Each of us has planted a combination of good seeds and bad seeds. Thus, within each of us lies the seeds for both loving-kindness and treachery, for both goodness and unwholesomeness, and for both tolerance and animosity. Which ones mature today will depend on our individual conditions. It would be helpful to remember when we are tempted to criticize another for her disloyalty that it could have just as easily been us in her place. We have all planted the seeds for deception and aggression. If we had encountered similar conditions, we probably would have acted like those we were about to criticize. So while we do not condone or dismiss their behavior, we must realize the need to have wisdom, to practice compassion, and to keep everything in a proper perspective.
 
This can also help us to value our "good karma," that which makes us intelligent, skillful, and wholesome, and to not deplete it. If we keep enjoying the wholesomeness we created without accumulating any more, we will eventually use it all up. Since goodness brings goodness, it becomes even more logical to practice what we learned of discipline, concentration, and wisdom. This is where we can use the standard of what is correct, honest, and beneficial.


{返回 Buddhist Article 文集}
{返回网页版}
{返回首页}

上一篇:Rebirth
下一篇:Pain and Proliferation
 The Mind and The Five Mental Hindra..
 Rebirth
 Tenfold Recitation in Pure Land: Re..
 Buddhist Approach to Friendship..
 Four Noble Truths
 Buddhism and Science
 The Effects of Chan Meditation
 About Buddhism
 108 Adages of Wisdom II
 A Pilgrimage to Pu Tuo Mountain..
全文 标题
 
【佛教文章随机阅读】
 Upali - Foremost in Keeping the Precepts[栏目:Ten Great Disciples of the Buddha]
 相应12经 有因缘经[栏目:相应部 14.界相应]
 依金刚萨埵之上师供养仪轨[栏目:修法仪轨]
 沙门本色的果经[栏目:巴利语佛经选译]
 我之佛教观[栏目:太虚法师]
 三十五、地藏菩萨神通力感应录[栏目:地藏菩萨灵感记]
 阿弥陀经疏钞演义 第六十九集[栏目:阿弥陀经疏钞讲记·净空法师]
 放生的来源[栏目:放生心得]
 佛法修证心要 下[栏目:元音老人]
 不怕慢,就怕站[栏目:清净法师·都市茅棚]


{返回首页}

△TOP

- 手机版 -
[无量香光·显密文库·佛教文集]
教育、非赢利、公益性的佛教文化传播
白玛若拙佛教文化传播工作室制作
www.goodweb.net.cn Copyrights reserved
(2003-2015)
站长信箱:yjp990@163.com