Vesak 2549 - 2005

Karma, the law that no being can escape

by W.D. Wickramasinghe

"Deep, indeed, oh Ananda, is the law of Karma, no mortal being can comprehend it."

To an ordinary person the word Karma is merely another word, very often loosely used. Nevertheless, when anything untoward or dissatisfactory were to happen, quite unconsciously one attributes it one's karma, not knowing what it exactly means, how and when it forms. Its functions and diverse ways of manifestation.

Its highly complex and ramified nature, whether it is something static or dynamic, or a force unalterable and hence, inescapable from its frightful and disastrous consequences.

What then is Karma?

Karma is the Law of Cause and Effect operating in the mental plane - thoughts. Its meaning being action, it does not necessarily follow that only if one uses one's hands and legs constitutes action.

They are mere tools the thoughts make use of , and such, it is in the thoughts (mind) that action really takes place. However, if the limbs are used, the effect of the action naturally becomes more grave.

It is a Universal Law operating in every sphere and mode of existence (anything that has come to being), even in the minute atom though invisible to the mundane mind, as mind and matter have to co-exist at all times for the presence and survival of each.

Impulsion moment

A thought has three stages: the stage of Arising, Presence and Cessation, all of which together comprise seventeen thought-moments.

It is in the Presence Stage (comparable to ripples on a mass of water), which lasts for a duration of seven of the thought-moments, that karmic impulsion takes place: those that occur at the first of this stage of the cognitive series, their effects should bear fruit in one's present life itself, otherwise becoming void; those activated at the seventh thought moment, the effect of these should take place in the immediately subsequent birth, otherwise becoming similarly ineffectual; and those that occur from the second to the sixth, their effects could manifest anytime in one's journey in Samsara, even after attaining Arhantship.

Conditioning factors

Like other phenomena in the world, karmic impulsions too do not arise by themselves.

They all have thought as the matrix which is conditioned by several proceeding factors, such as, the six sense bases, external objects, conjunction of these and the consciousness that arises therewith, perception, mental formations and sensations, etc. similarly, do their effects take place. In the absence of any of these in either, neither will the impulsion arises nor, if it does, its effect find a footing to manifest.

Wholesome or unwholesome karma depends for their arising on the understanding of these factors according to reality. It is due to non-understanding and being unmindful of them suchwise that all get besmirched with Greed, Hatred, Delusion and Karmic volition eventually takes place.

Functions

The main function of karma is to serve one right for one's actions in accordance with the means employed in the execution of them. It holds the scales evenly, regardless of whether one is born rich, famous or infamous, or in high or low position in life, and dispenses justice equitable for all karmically charged actions at the opportune moment when the appropriate conditioning factors arise for their fruition.

Another of its functions is to make beings realise at some point of time in Sansara the woeful consequences of their unwholesome actions which would eventually direct them to the path of rectitude and purification: for no being will ever think of turning for the better unless and until a severe beating in life has been taken, either in the present or in the past. In short, it is unwholesome karma, which begets suffering, that purifies beings, makes the unvirtuous virtuous, a criminal a saint!

Modifiable

Karma is not a force or an energy which is altogether unsubduable. just as much as all karmic effects are due to one's actions, it is by way of one's wholesome actions only the effects of unwholesome actions can be made ineffective, suppressed, obstructed or mitigated, except the five grave (Pannanam Cariya) crimes for which one has to pay sometime or other, namely: matricide, patricide, shedding the blood of a Buddha, Arhanticide and causing a schism in the Order of the Sangha.

It is, therefore, wrong to believe, or even assume, that it is something unmodifiable; for if it were so, it would then fall into the theory of Destiny or Fatalism (Niyatavada) and there cannot be for that reason a way out from the conditionally born, created world of suffering to the unconditioned, unborn and uncreated Nibbana (Cessation of Suffering). On the contrary, it is an invisible, intangible energetic force that is forever kinetic, self-created but yet yielding to, and subjugated to a great extent by one's efforts only.

Manifestation of effects

There is no particular place or clime for the fruition of karmic effects.

They are operative in the highest heaven or in the lowest of realms, wherev'er or whenev'er they find favourable conditions to manifest.

They also manifest in diverse ways: sometimes through riches and poverty, going to the help of another in distress, living a cloistered spiritual life, whilst praying or meditating, preaching Ahimsa, etc; and also in stages in different births, as in the case of Maha Moggallana who first had to suffer agonising pain for a very long period in perdition for the murder of his mother and father committed in a previous birth at the instigation of his wife, and in his last birth after attaining Arhantship was pulverised to death, thus completing its effect in entirety in two stages as similarly as he did his parents!

Numerous as they are in diverse ways of manifesting, they also are highly complexed and ramified in mode, and therefore, an exact enumeration of their varied aspects is utterly impossible.

However, if one were to sit in a quiet corner and ponder earnestly over this aspect of karma only, one would be able to get a glimpse of the truth of the Buddha's saying quoted at the beginning: "Deep, indeed, oh Ananda....., no mortal being can comprehend it".

May all beings be well and happy.