Karma and its wrong interpretations

It is the fashion here to say of those involved in any distressful situation, “It is their karma!” This immediately makes the victim answerable for the misery piling up over his head.

Karma, kismet, fate, destiny normally means reaping of the bitter fruit of black seeds, sown by oneself in the past, and is hailed by most religions as the cause of the catastrophes that come hurtling down to break or eliminate altogether whatever was hoped for.

Buddhism is the only religion that teaches that karma is not to be accepted, if bad, but to be overcome and that every karma – except those named as truly heinous – can be circumvented, changed or moulded. But after a daily dose of Sinhala teledramas where women unsound and ravaged, and men, drunk and disorderly, stagger from the first to the last episode, moaning, “Aney, mage karume”, Buddhists here are fast losing touch with their religion and trapped into believing the opposite of what it teaches.
What Buddhism teaches is that volition is karma and feeling, the result of that volition, is vipaka. Karma (the order of act and result) is only one of five laws, the other four being utu (physical, inorganic order - seasonal phenomena of winds, rains, heat, etc.); bija (physical organic order – germs, seeds, cells, genes, etc.); chitta (order of mind); dhamma (order of the norm). When the opportunity arises, karma produces its inevitable result – as an innate sequence. Karma, in Buddhism, is best described as – what one reaps accords with what one sows. As the Buddha pointed out - if one has to reap all what one sows, whenever will it (suffering) cease?

When the Buddha remarked that human beings enjoy suffering, no doubt the spotlight was on our teledramas that keep egging their disorganized characters to grab and hang on to every bit of bad karma going. The worst outcome of this harping on bad karma (both in drama and real life) is the mental blockade against knowing the joy and freedom taught in their religion that salvation from suffering is attainable by realizing Nibbana, here and now.

Also the equally effective good karma that can shower one’s life with the choicest blessings is totally ignored. The texts describe your good deeds as if they were loving relations waiting to welcome you into happiness, here and hereafter. This reinforces the doctrine that you are not only your master, but also your judge, executioner and saviour.

Buddhists should be aware of the attempts now being made to mix their unique religion with other dogmas on account of bribery or for popularity. Especially those who preach should be made to stick to the Buddha-word, without dragging in alien beliefs to make it seem one. What is unique cannot be mixed.

By Prema Ranawaka – Das, Moratuwa.