[Buddha-l] karma (Re: Pali Sutta0

[Curt Steinmetz]

"Karma" is not a Buddhist word. But there are various Buddhist theories 
of karma. One should be careful to distinguish between the basic meaning 
of karma and the theorizing that Buddhists do about karma.

Technically (and actually) karma just means "action". The Buddha 
understood that "thoughts", including but not limited to 
intentional/volitional thoughts, are actions.

In modern English we tend to associate action with physical action. In 
the process of correcting (from a Buddhist perspective) this too narrow 
view of "action", an incorrect impression is sometimes given that karma 
means a special kind of action, namely, action that is intentional - 
when in fact it means just plain old action, including thoughts, 
including thoughts of intention, including thoughts of intention that do 
not lead to physical actions.

"Karma" does not mean only actions we "intend". It means all actions - 
or, more correctly, it just means action.

An even bigger problem comes from another artificial, physicalist 
limitation that westerners usually place on the concept of action. Any 
action is a continuum that includes intention or whatever else was going 
on prior to the "doing" of the action. But this continuum also includes 
all the stuff that keeps happening after the "doing" of the action is 
completed. Westerners tend to fixate on the stuff that comes later and 
call that karma.

Because the western conception of action is fragmented in this way we 
tend to view both "intentions" and "consequences" as separate from 
"action" - resulting in all kinds of weird actions.

Curt

Kate Marshall wrote:
>> Isn't karma nothing more than that - intentional actions and their
>> consequences?
>> - Chris
>>     
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> From my understanding, Karma is intentional or volitional action.  However, 
> their consequences or "fruit" is termed Karma Vipaka.
>
> Regards
> Kate
>
>
>
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