Karma

Buddhist Wheel of Life

There are a lot of jokes and puns about karma. The popular conception in Western culture merges karma with the Galatians verse in the Christian Bible which uses the sow-reap analogy to explain cause and effect. Karma in the Western sense gets wrapped in terms of Judeo-Christian morality, the right-wrong, or good-bad, paradigm. However, Buddhist, or Eastern, concepts of karma are much more organic. Cause and effect in this sense can be seen in ways consistent with modern science. Action and reaction, in the language of physics.

Look at the current Syrian situation. A country of diverse religions and tribal roots unifies around xenophobia about Jewish statehood in Israel. The country becomes an armed fortress with an overdeveloped army and secret police. The leaders sow fear to unify and gain social compliance. Eventually, the fear of the outward threat turns into fear of the inside threat of human autonomy and intellectual curiosity. Oppression inevitably leads to revolution. Action and reaction.And it continues. Demonstrations lead to repressive measures by authorities which lead to more demonstrations which lead to massacres which lead to armed conflict. All actions with predictable reactions. 

Liberation in Buddhist terms is liberation from karma itself. However, short of liberating enlightenment, human beings have an opportunity with intelligence to effect their own karma. By controlling their actions, human beings can also effect reactions to those actions. By initiating causes for progress, the reactions to those causes can further that progress. This is not a vapid New Age positivism. This is humanist practice. 

By practicing self-development in a daily life of health, non-violence and generosity, I am living a progressive cause for peace and mental well-being in my life and environment. The effect is a life of increased peace and mental well-being in my life and environment. Preventing actions based in emotional habit or reflex in my life diminishes those reactions to my life. There is no supreme, omniscient Karma Judge who doles out rewards and punishments. I make my karma and live with its consequences in my moment-to-moment life by the choices I make and the actions I take. In this way, the old joke, "My karma ran over my dogma.", makes a certain amount of sense.