[Buddha-l] Re. karma and consequences

[W. Codling]

Karma means action, what you do.  There are 3 sorts of karmically 
significant behaviours, those of thought, speech and body.  These are 
not equal in karmic potency; thought has least karmic consequences and 
body the most.  The three are linked, though, since thoughts usually 
find some physical manifestation.  The teaching of karma recognizes that 
the habitual links between mind and body form patterns of behaviour in 
which certain consequences recur as long as the habits of mind and body 
persist.  These are called karmic consequences.  Meditation is the way 
to uncouple the linkages between mind and body.  Buddhist teaching 
suggests that the presence of greed, ill-will and mistaken notions of 
permanence are mental phenomena which interfere in the patterns of mind 
and body in ways which produce harm; thus they are poisons and form the 
tethering points for a great deal of Buddhist practice.

Karma is not destiny.  Causality is not the same as invariable 
concomitance.  The Buddha's conflation of karma with intention does not 
imply that only conscious intention is karmically significant; it means 
that all activity is tethered to intention and thus karmic.  The story 
of Ananda accidentally stepping on ants while walking is illustrative.  
Some commentators have thought that Ananda is karmically blameless with 
regard to the deaths of the ants because he had no intent to harm them, 
but that is not correct.  Even if his intention was not aimed at ants, 
his intention is involved in the ignorance of their presence.  So there 
will be karmic fallout from inadvertently doing harm.  The Bodhisattva 
vow to cease harm to all beings does not let Ananda off the hook just 
because he was unaware of their presence.  Suzuki-roshi once reminded us 
that "...even a gentle step raises dust".

Wayne