Lé judré (ལས་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་), or the law of cause and effect is one of the most fundamental concepts in Buddhism, though its origins lie even more distant, in the Indian traditions of Brahmanism, Jainism and Hinduism. However, the concept of karma (ལས་) in the Buddhist tradition differs in that Buddhists consider the theory of karma to be a vast and abstruse topic (དོན་ཟབ་པ་དང་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བ་), so much so that only omniscient Buddhas can truly fathom it. A number of Buddhist philosophical treatises provide in-depth theoretical analyses of karma, while Buddhist literature such as the Jātakas share stories that illustrate how karma works. This short essay provides a synopsis of karma as a moral and ethical principle.
The moral theory of karma arises as a corollary of the central Buddhist philosophy of tendrel, or dependent arising. The philosophy of dependent arising or law of causation asserts that:
(1) things do not come of nothing but emerge from causes and conditions,
(2) things do not come out of an eternal cause but causes and results are impermanent and subject to change, and,
(3) causes and results correspond to each other
It is in the context of this philosophical theory of causation that Buddhists espouse the moral theory of karma or lé judré: that all sentient experiences are outcomes of causal actions committed beforehand. They do not emerge from nothing or from an eternal cause (such as a creator God) but rather from positive and negative actions committed in the past. In this respect, all actions that are ethically charged lead to associated existential experiences. ‘Good’ or virtuous actions give rise to pleasant experiences and ‘bad’ non-virtuous actions bring about unpleasant experiences of suffering. For example, compassion gives rise to peace in this life and future lifetimes, while aggression leads to violence and a short life. Neutral actions, much like sterile seeds, do not produce results.
Like a single seed giving rise to numerous fruits, actions do not necessarily lead to a directly proportional outcome but can generate compounded effects. For example, a single homicide is believed to result in being killed oneself five hundred times in the future, while the act of giving leads to great wealth in the future. Some ethically charged positive and negative actions are said to bring about unavoidable consequences while other actions can be thwarted or suppressed by counteractive forces, such as confession and reparation rituals. These types of rituals, and the actions that they expiate, differ from one Buddhist school to another. Vajrayāna Buddhist traditions in Bhutan claim that even most heinous actions, such as matricide, can be expiated through acts of confession and purification. While some actions are said to trigger results in one’s current lifetime, the effects of other actions do not manifest until the next or in subsequent lifetimes.
According the Buddhist theory of karma, the determination of an action to be positive or negative is made by the state of one’s mind. The Buddha taught a voluntaristic theory of karma, proclaiming karma to be primarily intention. Speaking against Brahminical and Jain theories of karma as physical and material phenomena, he declared, “O Monks! karma, I declare, is intention. Having intended, the body, speech and mind perform action” (Aṅguttaranikāya, iii, 415). It is the intention—virtuous, non-virtuous, and neutral—that make actions positive, negative and neutral and bring about happiness, suffering or no results, respectively. An intention is negative when aroused by emotions such as attachment, greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance or jealousy, and positive when inspired by calm, composed, clear, compassionate or righteous states of mind.
This moral philosophy of karma, with intention and volition constituting its heart, forms the basis of the Buddhist soteriological and ethical systems. Karma is not merely an intellectual topic broached by philosophers and scholars but a belief espoused and enacted by devout practitioners. In Bhutan, lé judré is a popular religious concept used to explain past and present states of being and also shape the future. It is the foundation of the collective Bhutanese moral conscience, which aims to guide people towards the positive and away from the negative.
Karma Phuntsho is the Director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of The History of Bhutan. The piece was initially published in Bhutan’s national newspaper Kuensel in a series called Why We Do What We Do.