Demystifying Karma

by Yin De

When I was younger, drinking used to be the fuel for my philosophical speculations. Now more and more it seems a long hike can get me stoked about spiritual subjects.

Last weekend, while hiking a relatively easy trail through the Great Sonoran Desert, my hiking companion and I stopped for lunch on some rocks in a dry creek bed. (Funny thing about Arizona, rivers everywhere but not a drop of water in one of them.) After we had finished our meal, he broke the silence with; "I must have bad karma because I got passed over for promotion at work again." To which I responded; "So, what are you going to do about it?"

"Do about what?" he said, "You can't do anything about your karma! It is what it is."

I wonder where people get the idea that karma is some mysterious force with a will and volition of its own... or for that matter, the idea that there is 'good karma' and 'bad karma'. Karma is just the network of causes and effects in which we find ourselves. It's how we deal with a situation - how we act and react to it that makes it seem good or bad. Karma is impersonal... it is just another name for the action of Maya. Atoms spin, people feel threatened and gossip, water evaporates, babies cry, gravity attracts, and egos salve themselves with the seven deadly sins: jealousy, greed, lust, anger, sloth, gluttony and pride.

We got up and started our hike again, and I began to explain the Zen Buddhist position on karma.

"Karma is actually a very simple concept, except that it has been romanticized over time into this other world magical force. There's no premeditation, no fatalism, no divine intent about it. What is, is. "

The word karma is a variant of the Sanskrit 'kri' meaning action. The Zen perspective on karma is basically that every action has consequences; both immediate and long term consequences. Some are obvious while others will either become obvious upon reflection, or else they will sneak up and whack us upside the head like the snubbing of my hiking buddy when promotions were being doled out. He actually thought that he had no influence on his own karma - on the decision not to promote him to the higher position, that somehow, the universe was against him, or that his "karmic energy" was out of balance.

"Come on." I said. "Think about it, did the new position you were applying for require any additional skills? Did it require that the applicant demonstrate certain proficiencies?"

"Well, I suppose so, sure," he acknowledged. "I mean, it is a promotion with more responsibility and a greater degree of visibility within the company and the community. Not only that but you have to learn Spanish, which I could easily have done within a few months after getting the promotion." He continued; "I have been working for that company for over ten years, and I would have thought that they would have taken my seniority into consideration. Not only that, but everyone there knows that I wanted the job."

"You wanted to 'be' but you didn't want to 'do.' In Zen we encounter many people who want to be known as Buddhists. They want to say, 'I am a Buddhist'; but they don't want to do the hard work of self-discipline and to perform a Zen practice. It isn't until we're inspired to 'do' the work... instead of just having some egotistical image of being the finished product of the work that we get anywhere."

"Who got the job?" I asked.

"Well, you're not going to believe this. They gave it to this new guy - fresh out of college!" "I mean, he has only been with us for 18 months!"

I was beginning to get a sense of what was really going on. My hiking pal was one of those "The world owes me because I always show up" kind of guys. I mean, he works hard and does exactly what his job description says. Nothing more, and nothing less. He has no ambition, no sense of futurity. He doesn't plan, he expects.

I asked him, "You mean they gave him the job just because he's younger? You're right, that hardly seems fair."

The reply came back: "Well, not just because he's younger. He studied Spanish before applying for the job... and took some public speaking classes. But still, I've poured my soul into that place for ten years." He whined again, "Ten years!" as if I couldn't possibly understand what kind of time that really was after hearing it just once.

"You mean he took control of his destiny and stacked the deck. That son of a bitch actually stole the promotion right out from under you by preparing for it!" I shook my head. "Inconceivable."

Then came what seemed like twenty minutes of awkward silence.

This time, I broke the silence, saying, "You see, karma is really as simple as this; every single action you take - or don't take - has an impact on some future event. Not some magical impact, but a real cause-effect relational impact. You can never undo an action. You can never un-think a thought, and you can never un-speak a word. The same goes for non-actions, like failing to prepare for a promotion when you know there will be competition. So how do you go about wanting to want? How do you take constructive action, to do the advantageous thing, or to avoid doing or thinking the thing that prevents you from being alert or awake to future possibilities? They're all actions of some sort based upon some decision. I mean, if you really think about it even a non-action is really an action, right? Just like Geddy Lee of Rush said in the song Free Will: 'If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.'"

"When a response is not automatic, you are purposely acting when you do nothing or when you elect to act with a purpose. A purpose requires a motivation.. You have to desire to deliberately follow a course of action.".

We hiked in silence for the next half-mile or so, before my friend confessed, "I had always thought of karma as some kind of reward for living a good life, or punishment for living otherwise."

I replied: "Well; you thought you were living the good life, doing the correct thing when you just did your job. But now you feel as if you're being punished. What's bothering you is that you resent not having been inspired to better yourself. You're angry with yourself for having chosen to use your time in other pursuits. That's the way it is. He was studying Spanish while you were doing something else. One of the nicest things about being a Zen Buddhist is that we train to be alert to the probable effects of our actions or inactions. We stay awake and try not to act automatically, without thinking. There's no one else to take the praise or blame for our actions or inactions."

He said, "You mentioned "wanting to want", what makes a guy want to want?"

I thought about this for a moment, and answered, "When he realizes that his life and the First Noble Truth describe each other. Life in Samsara (the ego's world of Maya) is bitter and painful. Not until he realizes this can he proceed to the second truth: that it is his own choice... his desires that he has satisfied... that are the causes of the bitterness and pain. And then he has another choice to make: i.e., to seek to correct the situation, to find refuge... peace, joy, truth and freedom. He does this by following the noble 8fold path."

It was starting to cloud up so we turned and headed back toward the trailhead, and neither of us had anything else to say. I think maybe we both got what we needed from this hike, and it wasn't just physical exercise. As I walked, I started to get philosophical again. I began thinking to myself: "Maybe we should dig into the misconceptions about rebirth?"

Nah. Maybe next week. And that's a much longer hike.

©2003-2006, Arizona Zen Buddhist Society