Victim of Effects or Creator of Causes
A primer on karma, rebirth, and eschewing victimhood.
An ex-girlfriend of mine was a devout Buddhist, and our two years together served as a crash course in that religion. Combined with my previous forays into Hinduism, my exposure to Buddhism helped shape my views on a variety of matters, particularly karma and rebirth. The popular definition of karma correctly understands it as the consequences, or effects, of our actions. For example, if we screw someone over and later get screwed over ourselves, that’s karma in action.
Though karma is essentially a neutral, mechanistic phenomenon, on a subjective basis, there is positive and negative karma. Positive karmic causes lead to effects that reduce suffering (dukkha) and entrapment in the cycle of rebirth (samsara). Negative karmic causes lead to effects that increase these things. The Buddhist’s life mission is to create as much positive karma and eliminate (purify) as much negative karma, with an end-goal of becoming fully enlightened and escaping the samsaric cycle of suffering, birth, and death altogether.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the popular and orthodox Buddhist (in my case, Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism ) definitions of karma are how effects play out. Whereas the popular definition limits the effects of karmic causes to one’s lifetime, orthodox Buddhists connect them to one’s subsequent lifetimes. Our present-day causes —for good or ill —are creating the effects of our future incarnations. If you subscribe to this view, this nuance has grave implications.
In Buddhism, to be born a human —as opposed to other forms of sentient beings —is extremely rare and auspicious. My ex used to say it’s like winning the Powerball everyday for a lifetime. When one uses this opportunity —doing whatever he or she can to propagate positive karma and reduce suffering for all living beings —it results in an auspicious rebirth, e.g. being reborn as a human with fortunate circumstances and access to spiritual paths. When one blows this opportunity —not taking advantage of consciousness, increasing suffering for others —it results in an inauspicious rebirth, like a weevil, gnat, or being cast into a “hell realm.” Contrary to notions unhappy humans have about charismatic animals like dogs and dolphins, the Buddhists hold no romance for animal lives, which are primarily preoccupied with survival.
It’s easy to focus on karmic effects, which often seem to happen to us. We don’t have the stuff we want. Things don’t go our way. The perception that karmic effects arise from outside us, particularly negative ones (humans are far more likely to take credit for positive effects), is rooted in the tendency to underestimate the impact of our actions and limited conceptions of time; effects, if one subscribes to Buddhist beliefs, are caused by previous lifetimes that we cannot recall or identify, and therefore may view as random.
Focusing on karmic causes, ideally positive ones, is more difficult since it internalizes responsibility and requires a delay in gratification. Similar to the concept of “paying it forward” and the “be-do-have” model I wrote about the other day, creating positive karmic causes requires us to be the change we seek in the world, often without immediate reward and when the world can seem stuck in negativity. Few beings were more focused on creating positive karmic causes than Jesus, who, so the story goes, sacrificed his worldly pleasures—and indeed, his life —for the benefit of future generations. The future positive karmic effects spurred by Jesus’ causes are why, I believe, his name and message have endured so long.
Jesus’ sacrifice is an extreme, but informative, example for understanding how to generate positive karma. The world and our lives often seem mired in negative effects —ones we’d assume not take credit for or deal with. In Jesus, Gandhi, MLK, and other awesome, dead people, we see the power —and peril —of those who take the yoke or responsibility and devote themselves to better outcomes for all.
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