Karma

"Karma (Sk.) Physically, action: metaphysically, the LAW OF RETRIBUTION, the Law of cause and effect or Ethical Causation. Nemesis, only in one sense, that of bad Karma. It is the eleventh Nidana in the concatenation of causes and effects in orthodox Buddhism; yet it is the power that controls all things, the resultant of moral action, the meta physical Samskâra, or the moral effect of an act committed for the attainment of something which gratifies a personal desire. There is the Karma of merit and the Karma of demerit. Karma neither punishes nor rewards, it is simply the one Universal LAW which guides unerringly, and, so to say, blindly, all other laws productive of certain effects along the grooves of their respective causations."

"To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings."

"What kind of life a person is reborn into depends on Karma. Karma refers to all the deeds, words, and thoughts of one’s life. Buddhists believe karma is the deciding factor in one's fate in his or her next life."

"I'm a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it's bad or good."

"A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode."

"How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours."

"This is the Law of Karma—the Law of the Deed—the law of causality in the spiritual world; and it is the highest and most terrible law of all... Good Hindus do not kill insects if they can possibly avoid it; “even those whose aspirations to virtue are modest treat animals as humble brethren rather than as lower creatures over whom they have dominion by divine command.”"

"Samsara is the belief that we are stuck in a karmic wheel of suffering and, until we realize our full spiritual potential, we keep returning to learn and understand our ultimate being. Karma plays a huge part in this belief because it is your Karma that decides whether you evolve or devolve at your next birth, Samsara is symbolized as the endless knot."

"Endless knot: The intertwined lines symbolize that all phenomena are interdependent and joined together in a closed cycle of karmic cause and effect. The endless knot also represents the infinite wisdom of the Buddha - without beginning and without end - and the union of compassion and wisdom. And it signifies the illusory character of time, because it is endless."

"If thou deemest that (the path of) understanding is more excellent than (the path of) action, O, Janaradhna (Krishna), when dost thou urge me to do this savage deed, O, Kesava, Krisna?"

"In Hinduism, the Law of Karma is viewed as a divinely sustained and revealed universal Law. The law of karma encourages us to rely on ourselves."

"In non-theistic traditions, such as Buddhism, everything is due to its own causes. Karma may come from this lifetime, but it may even come from previous lifetimes. From the Buddhist point of view, we must make forceful positive karma, which can be stronger than the previous negative karma. This can reduce or even eliminate the previous negative karma. So look forward. Lead some kind of new life, full of determination. Lead your life in an honest way, a truthful way. By truthful acts, by compassionate acts, increase positive karma."

"Only by spiritual practice can we break through our karma and the effects of the causes we have made. Only then can we escape from them. It matters not whether you have acquired any merit. Merit is merit. Karma is karma. Nonetheless, if one practices the Quan Yin Method, one can be liberated regardless of having any merit or not. It is so logical, so scientific."

"The world is transitory. You will achieve stability only on the path of karma yoga. Only action can take a man to God and give him liberation. The law of karma is so deep that no words are great enough to describe it. The day karma stops on this earth will be the day of its dissolution (pralaya)."

"Karma Yoga is also beneficial for your health; you will sleep well and have a good appetite. A man with good appetite and sound sleep is always a healthy man and with good health he can achieve anything in life."

"John phoned me up one morning in January and said, "I've written this tune and I'm going to record it tonight and have it pressed up and out tomorrow — that's the whole point: Instant Karma", you know." So I was in. I said, "OK, I'll see you in town." I was in town with Phil Spector and I said to Phil, "Why don't you come to the session?" There were just four people: John played piano, I played acoustic guitar, there was Klaus Voormann on bass, and Alan White on drums. We recorded the song and brought it out that week, mixed — instantly — by Phil Spector."

"Karma has two unique attributes: first in quantity and quality it provides for like-for-like (i.e good for good, bad for bad, more for more, less for less), Second the fruits of one’s actions are non-transferable. We enjoy the fruits of our good actions and suffer the consequences of bad actions in this life or future life."

"Since the karmic time is cyclic, karma works through many lives. What we are suffering (or enjoying) now at least in part due to the consequences of what we have done in the past lives. The Upanishad says ’You are what you desire is. As is your desire so is your deed. As is your deed is so is your destiny.' Because of karma, one is reborn again and again until the effects of all accumulated karma are dissipated and one reaches ‘the other shore’ Moksha. When the physical body is annihilated by death, the Karmic seeds remain embedded in the subtle body and determine the course of future life."

"Hindus view the Law of Karma as a divine law, without which cosmic justice is neither achievable, nor imaginable."

"The Vedic seers discovered the Law of Karma over eight thousand years ago and immortalized in the Vedas."

"The past karma of an individual consists of two parts, prarabdha karma and sanchita karma. The prarabdha karma is the part of one’s past karma which is to bear fruit in the present life of the individual. The sanchita karma is the accumulated karma of the previous births, which is to bear fruits in the future. The karma, which is being done now will produce results in the future and is called the agami karma (other names are kriyamana karma and vartamana karma). In Hindu tradition these karmas are compared to an archer and a bow. The arrows that have been shot by the archer, which are already on their way to the target and the archer has no control over them are akin to prarabdha karma. The arrows he is about to shoot are akin to the agami karma and the arrows lying in his quiver are akin to the sanchit karma. This illustrates the Hindu view that one has no control over prarabdha karma, but full control over sanchit and agami karmas."

"You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime."

"What appears to us to be an accurate definition of justice does not also appear to be so to the Gods. For we, looking to that which is most brief, direct our attention to things present, and to this momentary life, and the manner in which it subsists. But the Powers that are superior to us know the whole life of the Soul, and all its former lives."

"To desire and make a display of clothing is karma for the path of beasts. To greedily Crave food is karma for the path of famished ghosts."

"Jivas (souls) are either caught by karma (action) in the world of reincarnation (samsara) or liberated (mukta) and perfected (siddha)."

"In Jainism, this term has two meanings. 1)Action or activity in the sense of karma-bhumi lands and karmans. 2) a type of extremely subtle matter (pudgala) that is attracted to the soul (jiva) by actions of body, speech and mind. It is bound with the soul whenever actions are motivated by passions (Kasayas)."

"Most Indian systems employ the term karma to designate certain traces (vasanas) or seeds (bija) left behind, as it were by one’s deeds. These residual factors will someday bear fruit in the sense of generating or conditioning experience; thus it is said : Every action must eventuate in an appropriate reward or retribution to the performer of that action. Jainas adhere to the general outlines of this view. But they stand alone in asserting unequivocally that karma is itself actual matter, rather than the sort of quasi-physical or psychological elements envisioned by other schools."

"Jainism conveys a totally different meaning of Karma as commonly understood in the Hindu philosophy and western civilization. According to Tatvartasutra, karma is a mechanism that makes us thoroughly experience the themes of our life until we've gained optimal knowledge from them and until our emotional attachment to these themes falls off."

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

"Karma is a beneficent law wholly merciful, relentlessly just, for true mercy is not favor but impartial justice... With reincarnation the doctrine of karma explains the misery and suffering of the world, and no room is left to accuse Nature of injustice."

"Karma is an unfamiliar word for Western ears. It is the name adopted by Theosophists of the nineteenth century for one of the most important of the laws of nature. Ceaseless in its operation, it bears alike upon planets, systems of planets, races, nations, families, and individuals. It is the twin doctrine to reincarnation. So inextricably interlaced are these two laws that it is almost impossible to properly consider one apart from the other. No spot or being in the universe is exempt from the operation of Karma, but all are under its sway, punished for error by it yet beneficently led on, through discipline, rest, and reward, to the distant heights of perfection. It is a law so comprehensive in its sweep, embracing at once our physical and our moral being, that it is only by paraphrase and copious explanation one can convey its meaning in English. For that reason the Sanskrit term Karma was adopted to designate it. Applied to man's moral life it is the law of ethical causation, justice, reward and punishment; the cause for birth and rebirth, yet equally the means for escape from incarnation. Viewed from another point it is merely effect flowing from cause, action and reaction, exact result for every thought and act. It is act and the result of act; for the word's literal meaning is action."

"It is... the universal law of harmony which unerringly restores all disturbance to equilibrium. In this the theory conflicts with the ordinary conception about God, built up from the Jewish system, which assumes that the Almighty as a thinking entity, extraneous to the Cosmos, builds up, finds his construction inharmonious, out of proportion, errant, and disturbed, and then has to pull down, destroy, or punish that which he created. This has either caused thousands to live in fear of God, in compliance with his assumed commands, with the selfish object of obtaining reward and securing escape from his wrath, or has plunged them into darkness which comes from a denial of all spiritual life. But as there is plainly, indeed painfully, evident to every human being a constant destruction going on in and around us, a continual war not only among men but everywhere through the whole solar system, causing sorrow in all directions, reason requires a solution of the riddle. The poor, who see no refuge or hope, cry aloud to a God who makes no reply, and then envy springs up in them when they consider the comforts and opportunities of the rich... Turning to the teacher of religion, they meet the reply to their questioning of the justice which will permit such misery to those who did nothing requiring them to be born with no means, no opportunities for education, no capacity to overcome social, racial, or circumstantial obstacles, "It is the will of God.""

"Karma is often wrongly confused with the notion of a fixed destiny. It is more like an accumulation of tendencies that can lock us into particular behavior patterns, which themselves result in further accumulations of tendencies of a similar nature... But it is not necessary to be a prisoner of old karma."

"Understanding the law of karma is known as the light of the world because through this understanding we can take responsibility for our destinies and be truly more guided to greater fulfillment in our lives."

"... innumerable ages ago and now because of faults and sins in that lifetime I was being degraded to a more grievous domain of existence and my karma was to be born in America where nobody has any fun or believes in anything, especially freedom."

"Brahman/Achheram word is the immutable self on which all that lives, moves and has its being rests. Self is the spirit in man and nature. Karma is the creative impulse out of which life’s forms issue. The whole cosmic evolution is called karma."

"Karma means work/activity/deed. It refers thought, action, and devotion. It is believed that a s/he’s Karma accumulates past and present years, with wrong deeds increasing the negative side, and good deeds such as help, kindness, soberness, and ascentism, increasing the positive."

"The soul continuously undergoes modifications as per the Karma/work it attracts and hence reincarnates in the [following] four states of existence: As a Demi God in Heaven, or as Tormented (tortured soul in hell, or as Human Beings on Continents, or as an Animal, or Plant or as a microorganism."

"The soul is always found to be in bondage (with its Karma) since the beginingless time and hence continuously undergoes the cycle of birth and death in these four states of existence until it attains liberation."

"Urusvati grows indignant when she hears about war... and We are all saddened by the barbarism of humanity. The most negative manifestation of free will is seen in outbursts of war. People refuse to think about the terrible currents they evoke by mass murder and the consequences it will bring. The ancient Scriptures correctly warned that he who lives by the sword will perish by the sword. There is a difference between the karma of aggression and that of defense. It can be shown how aggressors suffer the most grievous consequences and how terrible their condition is in the Subtle World. People delude themselves by thinking that great conquerors do not reap bad karma during their earthly lives. But karma has its own timely approach, and does not show itself immediately. Life is continuous, and the wise ones understand their lives as a single necklace. Aggressors burden their karma not only by killing but also by polluting the atmosphere, which occurs during war. The poisoning of Earth and of the other spheres is long-lasting. You who intrude into the lands of your neighbors, has no one told you the consequences of your fratricide? Our Abode has witnessed many wars, and We can testify how this evil is increasing in the most unexpected ways. People know that explosions can cause rain, but what about poison gas and its possible effects? How sad We are to see free will, which was bestowed as the Highest Gift, manifested in this horrible, uncontrolled way. 88."

"On earth it is still the physiological and mental defects, the sins of the progenitors which are visited upon the issue: in that land of shadows, the new and yet unconscious Ego—foetus becomes the just victim of the transgressions of its old Self, whose karma—merit and demerit—will alone weave out its future destiny."

"The present mankind is at its fourth round (mankind as a genus or a kind not a race nota bene) of the post-pralayan cycle of evolution; and as its various races, so the individual entities in them are unconsciously to themselves performing their local earthly seven-fold cycles—hence the vast difference in the degree of their intelligence, energy and so on. Now every individuality will be followed on the ascending arc by the law of retribution—Karma and Death accordingly. The perfect man or the entity which reached full perfection (each of his seven principles being matured), will not be re-born here."

"Who goes to Deva Chan? The personal Ego of course, but beatified, purified, holy. Every Ego [soul] —the combination of the sixth and seventh principles—which, after the period of unconscious gestation is reborn into the Deva-Chan, is of necessity as innocent and pure as a new-born babe. The fact of his being reborn at all, shows the preponderance of good over evil in his old personality. And while the Karma (of evil) steps aside for the time being to follow him in his future earth-reincarnation, he brings along with him but the Karma of his good deeds, words, and thoughts into this Deva-Chan. Bad is a relative term for us... and the Law of Retribution is the only law that never errs. Hence all those who have not slipped down into the mire of unredeemable sin and bestiality—go to the Deva Chan. They will have to pay for their sins, voluntary and involuntary, later on. Meanwhile, they are rewarded; receive the effects of the causes produced by them. Of course it is a state, one, so to say, of intense selfishness, during which an Ego reaps the reward of his unselfishness on earth. He is completely engrossed in the bliss of all his personal earthly affections, preferences and thoughts, and gathers in the fruit of his meritorious actions. No pain, no grief nor even the shadow of a sorrow comes to darken the bright horizon of his unalloyed happiness: for, it is a state of perpetual "Maya.""

"Most emphatically the Deva-Chan is not solely the heritage of adepts, and most decidedly there is a heaven—if you must use this astro-geographical Christian term—for an immense number of those who have gone before." But " the life of earth can be watched by none of these, for reasons of the Law of Bliss plus Maya already given... For years, decades, centuries and milleniums, often times multiplied by something more. It all depends upon the duration of Karma. Fill with oil Den's little cup and a city Reservoir of water, and lighting both see which bums the longer, the Ego is the wick and Karma the oil: the difference in the quantity of the latter (in the cup and the reservoir) suggesting to you the great difference in the duration of various Karmas. Every effect must be proportionate to the cause. And, as man's terms of incarnate existence bear but a small proportion to his periods of inter-natal existence in the manvantaric cycle, so the good thoughts, words, and deeds of any one of these lives on a globe are causative of effects, the working out of which requires far more time than the evolution of the causes occupied."

"At the beginning of time I declared two paths for the pure heart: jnana yoga, the contemplative path of spiritual wisdom, and karma yoga, the active path of selfless service. One who shirks action does not attain freedom; no one can gain perfection by abstaining from work. Indeed, there is no one who rests for even an instant; all creatures are driven to action by their own nature... Those who abstain from action while allowing the mind to dwell on sensual pleasure cannot be called sincere spiritual aspirants. But they excel who control their senses through the mind, using them for selfless service. Fulfill all your duties; action is better than inaction. Even to maintain your body, Arjuna, you are obliged to act. Selfish action imprisons the world. Act selflessly, without thought of personal profit."

"At the beginning, mankind and the obligation of selfless service were created together. Through selfless service, you will always be fruitful and find the fulfillment of your desires: this is the promise of the Creator... Every selfless act, Arjuna, is born from Brahman, the eternal, infinite Godhead. Brahman is present in every act of service. All life turns on this law O Arjuna. Those who violate it, indulging the senses for their own pleasure and ignoring the needs of others, have wasted their life. But those who realize the Self are always satisfied. Having found the source of joy and fulfillment, they no longer seek happiness from the external world. They have nothing to gain or lose by any action; neither people nor things can affect their security. Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life."

"That swarm of ants that I observed, each one following the one ahead, have every one been Indra in the world of the gods by virtue of their own past action. And now, by virtue of their deeds done in the past, they have gradually fallen to the state of ants."

"You must bear your karma cheerfully, whatever it may be, taking it as an honor that Suffering comes to you, because it shows that the Lords of Karma think you worth helping. However hard it is, be thankful that it is no worse."

"You must give up all feeling of possession. Karma may take from yon the things which you like best — even the people whom you love most. Even then you must be cheerful — ready to part with anything and everything."

"People try to excuse their brutality by saying that it is the custom; but a crime does not cease to be a crime because many commit it. Karma takes no account of custom; and the karma of cruelty is the most terrible of all. In India at least there can be no excuse for such customs, for the duty of harmlessness is well-known to all. The fate of the cruel must fall also upon all who go out intentionally to kill God's creatures, and call it "sport"."