What is Karma?

Learning vs. Karma

Why me? 

Recently I had a friend reach out to me and expressed anger that he was experiencing an intense amount of suffering. His view on karma was that suffering comes from your past deeds, and he could not see how his past deeds could result in so much suffering. In other words he was asking “what did I do to deserve this”? 

I have an answer for you; you did nothing, and you did everything. 

In one way you did nothing, and here’s why….

We have been poisoned with an idea about karma, that it is a reactive and consequential cause and effect relationship that starts with our individual actions. It is important to realize that there are many definitions of how karma operates. The one I am referring to, in short, is the Hindu one. Let me poke a few holes in this explanation for you. 

First, the idea that you could have consequences that come from your actions is not very complicated. You can see this happening, apparently, around us all the time. This is not very complicated; you reap what you sow. However, there is a flaw in this way of seeing karma, and there is a real problem with this flaw because it occurs at the very base, the very foundation of understanding of the law of cause and effect in such a way that everything that is built on top of it will also carry on that flaw. 

The flaw starts in the identity of the state of separation between yourself and your karma. Are you two, or are you one? That is the question. Furthermore, where did karma come from? In fact, karma as a concept was not invented by Buddha or by Hinduism; it is much older than that. The Jains have some of the oldest concepts of karma, and their ideas of karma are a part of a holistic understanding of a concept of the universe, that cannot really be understood by extracting their concept of karma alone. 

Ancient yogic texts hold a simple explanation. Yoga philosophy holds that you are not of this world, and your true nature exists beyond time, beyond space, and beyond the laws of cause and effect. Yoga philosophy holds that all suffering comes not from the laws of cause and effect that are bound to this world, but in fact that we suffer due to our concept that this world filled with suffering is our world, and that we are responsible for it. 

In yoga, the cause of something already includes the effect, in such a way that the entire universe is set into motion, and cannot be stopped. The yoga sutras are very clear that some beings have transcended the suffering caused by ignorance (avidya), but that this does not change in any way the way the universe operates for anyone else. This is to say that according to yoga, it is not our duty, nor is it possible to stop suffering for anyone but ourselves. This is a very important point. Suffering is inherent when you mix a spirit being (purusha) with the phenomenal world (prakriti), and there is the presence of ignorance of the separation of these two things (avidya). 

So, when something occurs in this world, it is because of the world, not because of you. That is essentially a component to the idea that there is no such thing as free will. However, you do have freedom to choose not to be involved, in terms of your personal identity, with the world of suffering. This is an important point in yoga, because a choice appears at the very foundation of our concept of karma and repercussions. No such choice appears in Hindu beliefs. 

In the way that the universe has inherent suffering, you did nothing. There is nothing you did to create the suffering that others experience, and there is nothing you can do to change it. 

But what about your own suffering? 

In this way you did everything to create it. 

Noam Chomsky and several anthropologists investigate the concept of language as the creator of one’s reality. Language is an abstraction of reality, in a way that our concept of self is an abstraction from our real self. The abstraction in our minds of our true selves becomes our ego, and when we become attached to that abstraction, we suffer because it is not real, it was simply created out of a necessity or desire to understand something from an outside point of view. In this way we create our own suffering, but it is not reactive, it is proactive, and I will explain why. 

When you misidentify with yourself, you do create karma, and that creates suffering. The yoga sutras describe in Chapter 2 that this comes from the 5 kleshas, or root causes of pain. This is one way to look at it, and if we see it from this perspective, it looks almost like we can go back in time and erase our karma, but we cannot. This is an important point. Remember that the suffering of this world is set into continuous motion and is an inherent aspect of this realm. There is nothing you can do about it. You are a visitor here and while you are here you must play by these rules, but these rules are not a permanent part of you, and therefore you do not need to see them as permanent; they are only a part of visiting here. Think of it like an outfit you had to put on in order to get into a party. To get into the fancy party you had to wear some scratchy wool jacket. You do not like the jacket, but you need to keep it on while you are at the party. You may decide that the jacket is too scratchy and that it is too high a price to pay to be at the party; this is a natural way of perceiving the opportunity cost of the suffering of the jacket vs. the utility provided by attending the party. Why are you at the party? 

We are at the party to experience it, and to become emancipated from it. This means that we have willingly accepted the terms of the party, and we have put on the jacket. If we lose sight of the original deal that we made to enter the party, we forget that we did not have a scratchy jacket on when we were in the line outside. We start to become tricked that this jacket is “our” jacket, and that it is a permanent jacket. Further, everyone around you also has a jacket and many of them believe their jacket to be a permanent part of themselves, and there is even a language we are all using at the party that seems to accept beyond doubt that this jacket is real, and it is ours, because all of us are wearing a jacket. As soon as someone takes off their jacket, by the way, they are immediately ushered out by security because, naturally, the jacket is required for the party. This is the relationship that suffering has to your soul according to yoga. You have something that you inherited as part of a contract to attend planet earth. Everything that happens on the earth will return to the earth, so to speak, and everything that is not from the earth, will eventually return to somewhere other than the earth. This is a metaphor, of course; we realize that we can literally ship trash and other stuff off of earth and into space. I am using the word “earth” to describe the 3D reality, to describe prakriti. 

So, there is something really interesting to consider here. Why do we then suffer for things that do not appear to be our fault. The answer given by Vedanta Hinduism is that there is a cause and effect relationship that we are suffering for. This is to say that we are suffering because we did something, at some point in time, and are now paying for it. This idea doesn’t work with the yogic view because we are visitors here and were not original participants in the plan to create the world and thus create karma. Instead, a yogi believes, in a way of speaking, that karma is not reactive, it is proactive. We are experiencing karma because our spirit is evolving, and the experiences we have that are painful are reminders along the way, of what we really are. The suffering of this world is a gift, a reminder, that we are only wearing a jacket. If it were not so, we would be completely enthralled in the party, and we would forget all about the choice we made to join and get the jacket.

Remember that the jacket did not come from you, but you are responsible for it. Remember also that all people here are wearing a jacket that did not come from them, and thus, their sinful ways are not an expression of who they really are, but are a consequence of having a jacket, and being human. Finally, the real frustration with this is when you become self aware that you are not the jacket, and the people around you are all participating in the illusion, and creating more suffering for themselves. This is where you cannot do very much. You simply have to recognize that is also a part of this place. Everything around you is made of suffering, and that is all there is to it. Everything here is made of suffering, and you cannot change it. I will now quote one of my favorite movie lines from The Thin Red Line:

“In this world, a man himself, is nothing, and there ain't no world, but this one”

“You’re wrong there top, I’ve seen another world. Sometimes I think it was just my imagination” 

There is indeed another world, and yoga is inviting you to see it. You can still keep your jacket, and see this world. That is the secret to living a life of yoga. Recognize that you are both at the party, and you are separate from the party.