Karma
When one is come to this world, surely, he or she must go someday, sooner or later. This is unavoidable part of life, and the fear of death is held by everyone. Karma is the belief that a person’s future life is determined by his or her past and present actions. Every action, bodily, ethnical, and good or bad has its effects. According to Newton’s first law of motion, an object at rest will remain at rest, unless acted on by an unbalanced force. This is intertwining with Karma, cause and effect of what one has done. There are five different categories when talking about karma; they are why believe in karma, how karma work, to follow the four laws of karma, what is the need for the karma to ripen, the good and bad results of the karma.
The belief of karma is bases on Buddhism and Hinduism. However, the idea of karma is found not only in Buddhism and Hinduism but also in Christianity. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A person reaps what he sows (NKJV, Gal. 6:7) That mean if we do good thing, we must get a reward, and if we grow a bad thing we must also harvest as we do. This is a very simple of Bible version that every person both believer and non believer could easily understand. All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do, even so, to them: for this are the law and the prophets(NKJV,Matthew.7:12). Therefore, we can see that there are some intertwines between karma and the Holy bible. The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sow's righteousness reaps a sure reward. (NKJV, Proverb. 11:18). Besides, Buddhism and Hinduism, we can see that karma is being talked in the Bible. Burmese pro-democracy leader noble-list, Aung San Suu Kyi said that she kept reminding people of Burma; karma means “doing.”What you sow, you reap. So you create your own karma by doing karma is your deeds (Bernstein). Saying karma is intertwining with Christianity does not mean that it should believe in Karma. However, it is to say that some Bible versions also urge us to do a good thing to other people. That is the fundamental to karma.
There are many ways how karma works. They are intention in mental, physical, and verbal. An intention is a mind action. Therefore, it may be expressed through either physical or verbal actions. (view on Buddhism 2). There are two types of Karma: the action of purpose and the intended action. (viewonbuddism2). The action of intention is the thought to engage in a physical or verbal act. The negative effect of the action of intention is that you are able to do something good, but in your evil mind, you are forced not to do it. For example, a rich man can give a beggar a dime to help him his one meal, but his evil mind prohibited and saying that the beggar became the beggar because he was lazy. Therefore, this intention is counted as sin or guilt. The positive effect of the action of intention is that you could do something that may not be good, for example, lying to save yourself or someone from danger, but this will be counted as a good reward as you helped save someone's life. Here is an example of the positive effect of the action of intention that is according to the Bible, Genesis 20, Abraham lied that his wife Sarah as his sister because he was afraid of his life danger from the killing of Pharaoh.
The intended action is the physical or verbal expression of our mind. (viewpoint2). Karma is action. Therefore, intended action is also connected with karma. Any action I undertake, I do so with a desired or expected objective in mind. (Dhanya). Action must be taken first in order to expect or to receive positive results. However, in some situations, action could not be guaranteed to get a successful result. For example, a cleaver student might work very hard to pass the test but he or she is sick before taking the test. As a result, the work hard did not give him or her, the expectation of passing the exam with a high grade. Sometime, the unintended situation turns someone into a good karma. Raymond, Mark Peltier, president of aromaSys Inc, had delayed his trip when he took a fight between New York and Canada because Montreal's air port was closed due to bad weather. However, He was awarded $ 1 million project through a woman whom he had dinner with him at the crown plaza. (Peltier). He also said that if it were not the fog, a cancel a fight, and a bus trip to the hotel, he never has gotten this project. That’s karma, he said. Sometime karma works in unexpected ways.
Another thing in karma is to follow its four laws. They are results are familiar to the cause, no results without a cause, results is remained, and karma expands.(viewonbuddism2). Results are similar to the cause is that when we hurt someone; we will be suffering as a reward. No result without a cause means that there is a purpose in everything, and things just do not appear themselves as an accidentally. The meaning of the result never lost is that when something happens, it will also have a result without fail because of the past action is finished. The result will remain forever. Once we have an imprint of an action in our mind, it tends to be habit-forming. (viewonbuddism2). This is known as karma expanding. For example, a person who ever has committed homicide has a second chance to commit the same kind of crime he committed in the past. Another example is that employees do not want to hire a person who has a criminal back ground because they are afraid he or she might be committing the similar crime he or she did in the past. This is karma or action expanding.
Every reproduction system needs seeds in order to spread its species. Similarly, Karma needs a seed to plant in our mind to create a negative and positive effect. The mind is the field where karma seed will grow inside. A mind that tries to produce goodwill will produce good gestures while a mind which tries to reproduce bad will produce nasty word such as scolding, and cursing. These karmic seeds will be remained in our mind to be ready to use them by verbally, physical, or mental action. The negative seeds will be illuminated by using good action or behavior. As the same way, the positive seeds will be destroyed using bad action. Finally, a mind with fully grown with negative karma such as lying, using bullying words will never believe in someone and be have gentile behavior. These actions will shape its environmental and its world to impact in a bad way. At the same time, a mind with mature grown with positive karma such as pitying someone and helping other will impact its environment to a better situation. Karma seeds in the mind. It shapes one-person life and shapes his environment.
We look around our environments; sometimes, we see that there is a question needed to be asked "why." Good people suffer unhappiness, while the many bad people live happy lives. Then we must ask to one another why he is blessed or why he is cursed, between these two kinds of people. It might be the fact that their past action or karma decided the present time of them. Dr. Wayne Dyer quoted that how people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. That means no matter how bad people treated you, if you want a positive reward, you must react to them with good behavior. Your reaction will determine your future karma. Similarly, here is another proverb quoted by Confucius “Before you begin on the journey of revenge, dig two graves.” It means that you are going to hurt yourself as much as the person who you are trying to revenge on. There is the no- good reason to revenge someone in order to have your appetite satisfaction. You will even have an unwanted reward as the result of your revenge. Finally, bad or good karma depends on how we behave in our past and present.
In conclusion, as mentioned in above the theories of karma can be seen in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, even though they do not have the same God. In Buddhism, karma is played a vital role not only to shape its futures but also to shape reincarnation of a Buddhist life. In Christianity, karma does not bring what one belief of eternal life. However, the similarities of having a good manner for the sake of own well have the same theory in these three religions. Karma shapes your life. Karma predicts your future. Therefore, the fundamental to major religion have the similarity each other which is to do good thing to cause a better life.
Bernstein, Danielle. “ Aung San Suu Kyi.” Newsweek 3Jan, 2001
Dhanya“The karma yoga attitude”
Karma- A View on Buddhism
Peltier, Mark. “Karma, Karma Comes and Goes.” The New York Times online. 17April, 2007
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