Notes on Kamma

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The Paḷi word kamma (Sanskrit karma) is taken to mean "action". In Buddhist doctrine kamma refers to any intentional mental, verbal or bodily act; that is, an act of will. The Buddha says: ‘I say that intention is kamma, because having first intended one acts with body, speech or mind.’ (Anguttara Nikaya 3.415). According to the Buddha, every intentional action modifies our consciousness, thus building our character and thereby influencing our behavior, our experience and consequently our destiny. Positive intentional actions motivated by generosity, love, and wisdom tend towards outcomes that are experienced as positive, while intentional negative actions motivated by greed, hatred and delusion tend towards outcomes experienced as negative.

The doctrine of kamma is probably the most misunderstood of all the Buddha’s teachings. The four most common misunderstandings are these
  1. Everything that happens to us is the result of our past kamma. In actual fact, Buddhism recognized at least four other broad causes of why things happen, including because of the operation of natural laws (dhamm niyāma), biological laws (bīj niyāma), physical laws (utuniyāma) and psychological laws (cittaniyāma, Atthasalini 854; Anguttara Nikaya 3.62).
  2. We can never escape from the consequences of our past actions. If true then we would be completely determined by our past and be unable to change and attain enlightenment (Anguttara Nikaya 1.249). What Buddhism does teach is that several strong intentional good actions may very well modify or even cancel out a bad action and vice versa (Dhammapada 173). It is accurate to say that we are conditioned by our kamma rather than determined by it.
  3. Our experiences in the present life are due to what we did in our last life and what we do now will have an effect in the future life. In reality, many of our actions have a result immediately or soon after we have done them, i.e. in the present life.
  4. The fourth common misunderstanding is what might be called ‘kammic naivety,’ i.e. if you kicked a dog in this life you will be reborn with a clubfoot in your next life, if you swear in this life you will have bad breath in the next life, if you are generous in this life, you will be rich in your next life. This, of course, is a rather naive idea.
Because kamma is primarily psychological, that is, intention or volition, its expression is primarily psychological. It only affects our physical form and circumstances to the degree that the mind can have an influence on the physical, as, for example, when prolonged stress can aggravate or even cause physical illness. The main effect kamma  is how we feel happy, neutral or unhappy and which realm we will be reborn into.

There are three factors that make kamma complete. If all three of these are present then the effect of the kamma will be strongest on the individual. If any is lacking the kamma is said to not exist or is at least diminished. They are 

  1. The action has to be thought about, contemplated. An action without thought is a reflex and not so damaging. The thought to act has to be present.
  2. The action has to be taken. This does not mean completed but at least the attempt to act out must be there.
  3. The individual has to be glad they did it after they did it. Even if the action was incomplete if the thought is present, "I wish I had done that" it is the same as doing it. Remember we are talking about mental activity.
If I really enjoy contemplating doing something I will probably think about it often. In my mind I will rehearse and relive the action over and over again. I may never carry the action out in the physical world but I have done it thousands of times in me fantasies. Because kamma is a mental activity I can fulfill the three conditions of a completed kamma hundreds of times and never leave the safety of my living room.

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