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How Our Intentions Shape Our Karma: Understanding the Power of Mind
How should we understand the fundamental concept of karma? In other Eastern spiritual traditions, karma may refer to what we think of as fate or destiny. In Buddhist philosophy and practice, the term refers to intentional actions and their consequences. These are actions that create or reinforce mental imprints: our tendency to perceive things and events, leading us to react to them in a certain way. In sum, in the past we created or formed the karma that has resulted in our present situation, and now we are sowing the seeds for the future.
In a way, it seems easy to understand: karma means any action that has an intention behind it. Good karma—positive actions—leads to good results, while bad karma—negative actions—leads to bad results. Good results are conducive to happiness; bad results translate as suffering. But karma in real life is not black or white. Most karma is mixed, or gray; in real life, karma depends on context.
Sometimes karma that appears to be good is actually bad. And sometimes karma that appears to be bad is actually good. For example, generally speaking, giving and generosity are positive practices. But if you give something to someone with the intention of harming or even destroying them, your negative intention creates negative karma. Likewise, scolding, fighting, and even punishing are usually considered negative actions, but if they are carried out with the superior goal of benefiting others, these actions may be considered good karma. Karma is in the details.
In any given situation, our motivation could go either way, and this will make all the difference. The examples above speak to the importance of our intentions, even if the intentions don’t result in physical or verbal actions. Indeed, if you don’t actually do something commendable—say if you aren’t in a position to save a life or give things to those in need—but you feel really happy and rejoice when you see others doing it, karma is created: positive karma related to lives being saved or protected. You didn’t carry the action out yourself, but you approved of and felt good about it. And because your mind was so involved with the situation, your rejoicing planted a seed that will eventually bear fruit. In the same way, even if you’re not involved in a situation where there is suffering, reveling in the pain or misfortune of others creates negative karma in your own mindstream.
In the same vein, even if you spend hours chanting rituals and reciting mantras, your mind may be somewhere else entirely. You can go through the motions of practicing without generating bodhicitta, without mindfulness, without focusing on the visualizations. In these cases, even though the activity is apparently meritorious, the karmic result is not fully positive because the mind and the intention are not present.
All actions that create karma take place through at least one of what we call the three gates: body, speech, and mind. Whatever the action, mind is the key. If you’re chanting but your mind is miles away, the creation of positive karma is limited. And if you rejoice about other people doing good, even though your body and speech aren’t involved, your mind is participating and this creates positive karma. This is a very important point.
When you know something is wrong and you engage in negative actions nonetheless, the result is quite serious. If you don’t know that what you’re doing is wrong, the karmic result is lighter. It makes sense, right? Yet at the same time, the teachings tell us that it’s still better to know—even if you go ahead and do the wrong thing anyway. Why? Because if you don’t know right from wrong, you’ll continue to engage in those negative activities, and the resulting karma will just keep on accumulating. Don’t imagine that ignorance is bliss! Knowledge makes it possible for a person who has created negative karma to regret their actions and change their ways. Without knowledge, there’s no discerning right from wrong and no reason to regret.
Here’s an example to illustrate this point. Take a pound of solid metal, and a pound of thin metal sheets that form a hollow ball. In both cases the metal weighs one pound. If you throw both of them in a lake, one sinks and the other floats. The one with knowledge is like the hollow ball that can float, because the potential for remorse is there. The one that doesn’t know and continues to err ends up with the heavier karma, like the solid ball that sinks. This is one reason why it’s so important to receive teachings and gain knowledge and discernment.
The weight of karma will also depend on the object of our actions. With most people and animals we engage in both good and bad karma with relatively predictable results. In addition, according to the teachings, there are three kinds of objects that multiply karma: objects of kindness, objects of quality, and objects of compassion.
Objects of kindness are those who are very important to us and who have cared for us with great kindness. Whatever action we engage in with them, positive or negative, is multiplied because of the strength of our connection and their history of benevolence towards us. Objects of quality are those who have great wisdom and spiritual depth—buddhas and bodhisattvas are objects of quality. Whatever good or bad karma we create with them is also magnified. The last category is objects of compassion, that is, people and other beings who have great need yet who lack protection, beings who are going through deep suffering. Whatever actions, wishes, and intentions we engage in with them will also result in intensified karma.
Interestingly, you don’t have to interact with another person or being to create karma—you can create it on your own. Let’s say you’re walking through the forest and your backpack is snagged by a tree branch, or you trip on a rock, and now you’re angry. That kind of anger can also create karma; there doesn’t have to be a living being on the other side.
Is it possible to undo karma that has already been created? In one sense, our past actions have resulted in our being born in a certain form—human, dog, whatever—and that is a result that cannot be undone in this lifetime. But there are a lot of things we can do. There’s projecting karma and completing karma. Your karma has projected you into a certain category. If you are reading this, your past intentions and actions created the causes for a human rebirth and now here you are. How you live your life between your birth and your death is your completing karma. You may have entered this life in a certain part of the world, possessing certain characteristics, in a healthy or sickly body, within a poor or wealthy family, etc. How you complete this existence is up to you; there are opportunities to make changes. Your actions unlock the potential of your intention.
Moreover, the karma we’re creating here and now hasn’t yet ripened. We can strengthen or weaken it through our motivation and our practice. When the karma is positive, we can feel good about it, rejoice in it, and encourage ourselves to keep doing it. Not only will we be motivated to repeat the meritorious actions, but our motivation itself will increase that positive karma. On the other hand, if we do something positive but we regret it, our merit is reduced. There are many ways to intervene in the accumulation of karma, and understanding which actions are negative and lead to negative results and which actions are beneficial and lead to positive results is an excellent start.
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