[Buddha-l] One dharma on Karma

[jkirk]

Any suggestions for 'sound bites' on this theme?


Richard Basham


** In-line append follows:

Besmir wrote:

July 23, 2008
Tricycle's Daily Dharma

Fair and Impartial Trial in the Court of Cause and Effect

The theory of karma should not be confused with so-called "moral justice" or "reward and punishment." The idea of moral justice, or reward and punishment, arises out of the conception of a supreme being, a God, who sits in judgment, who is a law-giver and who decides what is right and wrong. The term "justice" is ambiguous and dangerous, and in its name more harm than good is done to humanity. The theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward and punishment. Every volitional action produces its effects or results. If a good action produces good effects and a bad action bad effects, it is not justice, or reward, or punishment meted out by anybody or any power sitting in judgment on your action, but this is in virtue of its own nature, its own law. This is not difficult to understand. But what is difficult is that, according to the karma theory, the effects of a volitional action may continue to manifest themselves even in a life after death.


--Walpola Rahula in What the Buddha Taught from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book
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I don't go with literal "life after death," which is of a piece with vernacular notions of karma as retribution or just desserts/rewards.  The natural law of karma is about such a complex interdependency that I don't see how anyone can figure what's going on with a "good action" vis a vis karma. 
In Buddhism there is also sila and papa. Those are ethical concepts. They more easily relate to figuring out the probable consequences of one's personal actions and whether or not justice is involved, or even evaluating others' personal actions--like those of George W. Bush and his VP, for example.

Joanna