On a few previous occasions, I have mentioned the concept known as Karma. Unfortunately, that concept has not been explained. I shall now attempt to elaborate a little more about the concept of Karma.
To many of us, Karma has been commonly associated with the practice of Buddhism. Contrary to this, Karma is not an exclusive concept to Buddhism. The concept of Karma predates Buddhism, to some ancient religion with Hindu origin. Therefore, Karma has its place in many Indian religions.
What is Karma then? The term "karma" has its roots in Sanskrit, which means action, or performance. Thus, Karma as a concept, refers to the actions, or deeds, that causes the entire cycle of cause and effect. Simply, it is the consequence that results from the performance of an action, or deed. Sadly, such simple reactions rarely do happen. In reality though, the consequence/s resulting from action/s can cause further consequences, and so on and so forth; becoming a chain reaction.
I am quite sure many of us know by default what the cycle of cause and effect is. It could have been mentioned in different religions in their own ways, or explained to us by our close relatives, and family members, from their own perspective. All of which drill down to one common line of thought, "you reap what you sow." That line of thought has given birth to many more well known quotes such as, "do unto others as you would have others do unto you", "revenge is a bitch", "hell hath no wrath like a woman's scorn", "before you begin on the journey of revenge, dig two graves", "Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds", "Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven", "Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity", to quote just a few.
From my own personal perspective, I view Karma as a bank account. This Karma bank account records all the good deeds and all the bad ones as well, and keeps a running total of both. As far as I understand, they both do not cancel each other off, which means having equal amounts of both good and bad deeds does not mean one has NO karma. Meritorious deeds begets good karma, and hence rewards. Devious deeds begets bad karma and thus punishment, or suffering. If one has equal amounts of both good and bad karma, then he/she will benefit and suffer equally. As a result, because of the enjoyments reaped from the benefits, the suffering may not be as bad.
To illustrate this with a real world example, lets assume that such a person exist. Lets assume that he/she is fated to have a near fatal accident in a deserted part of town where rarely anyone goes there (middle of no where). He/she suffers the accident, but will be saved by a passerby calling for help.
On the other hand, lets assume that his/her good karma account was lower then the bad karma debt. The result of such a situation could be that he/she would have the accident, but could die as a result of the accident, or may have to agonize over his near fatal injuries for hours before being saved. Each outcome depends on the amount of amount of good and bad karma accrued.
In short, we each receive the payout from each account accordingly. None of us may escape the effects of karma. However, having an overly positive karma account would not hurt anyone. But how do we differentiate between a deed that would produce good karma, from one that would produce bad karma?
I am quoting what a very respectable monk said once - as a rule of thumb, if the deed was done not to gain personal benefit, but solely for the benefit of others then it is a great meritorious deed and will gain good karma. If a deed was done for the sole benefit of oneself, then it is most likely a deed that will accrue bad karma.
