Explaining Karma...
Although most westerners have heard of karma, there's still a lot of confusion about what it means. For example, many seem to think that karma is only about being rewarded or punished in the next life. And it may be understood that way in other Asian spiritual traditions, but that's not exactly how it is understood in Buddhism. To be sure, you can find Buddhist teachers who will tell you that karma (or kamma in Pali) is all about good or bad rebirth. But if you dig deeper, a different picture emerges. Karma The Sanskrit word karma means "volitional act" or "deed." The law of karma is a law of cause and effect or an understanding that every deed produces fruit. In Buddhism, karma is not a cosmic criminal justice system. There is no intelligence behind it that is rewarding or punishing. It's more like a natural law. Karma is created by the intentional acts of body, speech, and mind. Only acts pure of greed, hate and delusio...