[Buddha-l] Re: on eating meat

[Joy Vriens]

Richard Nance wrote:

> The Sanskrit noun "karman" means action, though people tend to forget
> this. Hence, the term itself is really not any more metaphysical than
> the English "action".

According to Emile Sénart, "karman" in the sacerdotal tradition refered 
to ritual acts to which infinite vertues were attributed. He suggests 
it's not a coincidence that in the ascetic traditions this term was 
chosen to signifie (moral) actions that became the cause of future 
exitences. In both magically inclined views the proportions between the 
acts and their fruits tend to get lost. So "Karman" probably never got 
completely rid of the metaphysicality it did seem to have at its origins.