Cause and Effect - Karma or Kamma

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Karma or Kamma is the very important concept of Buddhism as it is the source of Samsara (The cycles of death and rebirth). And this "Samsara" concept also is unique of Buddhism among the religious. So to understand Buddhism, one has to learn about Samsara and the source of Samsara, that is Karma.

Definition of Karma

Karma (Pali: Kamma) means "action" or "doing"; whatever one does, says, or thinks is a karma.

In Buddhism, the term karma is used specifically for those actions which rise from :
* mental intention (Pali: cetana)
* mental afflictions

which bring about a fruit (Pali: phala) or result (vipaka), either within the present life, or in the context of a future rebirth. Karma is the source which causes the uncontrollable cycle(s) of death and rebirth, called Saṃsara (opposite of Nirvana), for each being.


In the (Anguttara Nikaya also known as Nibbedhika Sutta) the Buddha said :

"Intention (cetana) is karma. Having willed, one acts through body, speech and mind".

Every time a person acts there is some quality of intention at the base of the mind and it is that quality rather than the outward appearance of the action that determines the effect. If a person professes piety and virtue but nonetheless acts with greed, anger or hatred (veiled behind an outward display of well-meaning intent) then the fruit of those actions will bear testimony to the fundamental intention that lay behind them and will be a cause for future unhappiness. The Buddha spoke of wholesome actions (kusala-kamma)—that result in happiness, and unwholesome actions (akusala-kamma)—that result in unhappiness.


The theory is not deterministic, as past karma is not viewed as the only causal mechanism causing the situations in the present; see below regarding others. Moreover, as M.3.203 indicates, karma provokes tendencies or conditions rather than consequences as such.

There is a further distinction between worldly, wholesome karma that leads to samsaric happiness (like birth in higher realms), and path-consciousness which leads to the truly peace, Nirvana. Therefore, there is samsaric good karma, which leads to absolutely happiness, and there is liberating (Nirvana) karma, which is supremely good, as it is the end of suffering forever. Once one has attained liberation one does not generate any further kamma, and the corresponding states of mind are called in Pali Kiriya. Nonetheless, the Buddha advocated the practice of wholesome actions: "Refrain from unwholesome actions/Perform only wholesome ones/Purify the mind/This is the teaching of the Enlightened Ones." Dhp v.183.

"I am the owner of my karma. I inherit my karma. I am born of my karma. I am related to my karma. I live supported by my karma. Whatever karma I create, whether good or evil, that I shall inherit."

In Buddhism, the term karma is often used to refer only to samsaric karma, as indicated by the twelve Nidanas of dependent origination.

Because of the inevitability of consequence, karma entails the notion of Buddhist rebirth. However, karma is not the sole basis of rebirth. The rebirths of eighth stage (and above) Bodhisattvas in the Mahayana tradition refers to those liberated beings who consciously choose to be reborn in a future life in order to help others still trapped in Saṃsara. However, this is not the uncontrolled rebirth.

The Buddha explains what having conviction in karma means:

* First, karma really is happening and it is not merely an illusion.
* Second, you really are responsible for your actions, karma. There is no outside force, like the god or stars or some good or evil being, acting through you. When you are conscious, you are the one and only one who decides what happens or what will happen.
* Third, your actions have results and those results can be good or bad depending on the quality of the intention behind the act.

The Buddha's theory of moral behavior was not strictly deterministic; it was conditional. His description of the workings of karma is not an all-inclusive one. The Buddha instead gave answers to various questions to specific people in specific contexts, and it is possible to find several causal explanations of behavior.

In the Buddhist theory of moral responsibility, the effect (phala) or a deed (kamma) is not determined solely by the deed itself, but also by the nature of the person who commits the deed and by the circumstances in which it is committed.

A discourse in the Anguttara Nikaya indicates this conditionality:

A certain person has not properly cultivated his body, behavior, thought and intelligence, is inferior and insignificant and his life is short and miserable; of such a person ... even a trifling evil action done leads him to hell. In the case of a person who has proper culture of the body, behavior, thought and intelligence, who is superior and not insignificant, and who is endowed with long life, the consequences of a similar evil action are to be experienced in this very life, and sometimes may not appear at all.

Incorrect understandings of karma

In Buddhism, the following ideas are designated as "wrong views" on Karma.

1. Pubbekatahetuvada:
The belief that all happiness and suffering, including all future happiness and suffering, arise from previous karma, and human beings can exercise no volition to affect future results or human beings are not able to control to affect future results.

2. Issaranimmanahetuvada:
The belief that all happiness and suffering are caused by the directives of a Supreme Being such as the God, Creator and etc.

3. Ahetu-apaccayavada:
The belief that all happiness and suffering are random, having no cause.

Karma is continually ripening, but it is also continually being generated by present actions, therefore it is possible to exercise free will to shape future karma. This is the enlightenment to liberate from Samsara.