12 Little Known Law of Karma that Will Change Your Life
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
Dear friends around the world,
I came across this article and thought to bring it here for strictly educational purposes. I think it is a nice way of looking at karma and how it works. I recommend you read and watch the video very much. It will not take very long but it can make a difference in your life.
I am always looking for information, videos, pictures, stories, happenings and events to blog to enhance your life, your knowledge and who you are. I am not qualified to do this, but I just do the best I can. I hope you enjoy this beautiful and simple article I found and continue to enjoy the contents of this blog. If this blog benefits anyone, then the purpose of this blog is fulfilled up till now.
Much care,
Tsem Rinpoche
Most people view Karma as a punishment. The phrase, “karma is a b$&@!” comes quickly to mind. However, this is a misconception about karma that is drawn from the media and the misunderstanding of culture and religion.
Karma is the Sanskrit word for action. One can think of karma as the spiritual equivalent of Newton’s Law of Motion. “For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.” Basically, when we exhibit a negative force in thought, word, or action, that negative energy will come back to us.
However, karma is not meant to be a punishment. It is present for the sake of education. How else is someone to learn how to be a good person if they are never taught that harmful action is wrong. A person only suffers if they have created the conditions for suffering.
Here are the 12 laws of Karma everyone should know!
1. The Great Law
- “As you sow, so shall you reap.” Also known as the “Law of Cause and Effect.”
- To receive happiness, peace, love, and friendship, one must BE happy, peaceful, loving, and a true friend.
- Whatever one puts out into the Universe will come back to them.
2. The Law of Creation
- Life requires our participation to happen. It does not happen by itself.
- We are one with the Universe, both inside and out.
- Whatever surrounds us gives us clues to our inner state.
- Surround yourself with what you want to have in your life and be yourself.
3. The Law of Humility
- One must accept something in order to change it.
- If all one sees is an enemy or a negative character trait, then they are not and cannot be focused on a higher level of existence.
4. The Law of Growth
- “Wherever you go, there you are.”
- It is we who must change and not the people, places or things around us if we want to grow spiritually.
- All we are given is ourselves. That is the only thing we have control over.
- When we change who and what we are within our hearts, our lives follow suit and change too.
5. The Law of Responsibility
- If there is something wrong in one’s life, there is something wrong in them.
- We mirror what surrounds us, and what surrounds us mirrors us; this is a Universal Truth.
- One must take responsibility for what is in one’s life.
6. The Law of Connection
- The smallest or seemingly least important of things must be done because everything in the Universe is connected.
- Each step leads to the next step, and so forth and so on.
- Someone must do the initial work to get a job done.
- Neither the first step nor the last are of greater significance. They are both needed to accomplish the task.
- Past, Present, and Future are all connected.
7. The Law of Focus
- One cannot think of two things at the same time.
- If our focus is on Spiritual Values, it is not possible for us to have lower thoughts like greed or anger.
8. The Law of Giving and Hospitality
- If one believes something to be true, then sometime in their life they will be called upon to demonstrate that truth.
- Here is where one puts what they CLAIM to have learned into PRACTICE.
9. The Law of Here and Now
- One cannot be in the here and now if they are looking backward to examine what was or forward to worry about the future.
- Old thoughts, old patterns of behavior, and old dreams prevent us from having new ones.
10. The Law of Change
- History repeats itself until we learn the lessons that we need to change our path.
11. The Law of Patience and Reward
- All Rewards require initial toil.
- Rewards of lasting value require patient and persistent toil.
- True joy comes from doing what one is supposed to be doing, and knowing that the reward will come in its own time.
12. The Law of Significance and Inspiration
- One gets back from something whatever they put into it.
- The true value of something is a direct result of the energy and intent that is put into it.
- Every personal contribution is also a contribution to the Whole.
- Lesser contributions have no impact on the Whole, nor do they work to diminish it.
- Loving contributions bring life to and inspire the Whole.
- Karma is a lifestyle that promotes positive thinking and actions. It also employs self-reflection to fix the problems in one’s life.
To learn more about Karma, take a look at the video below!
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/karma2016a.mp4
Source: http://www.davidwolfe.com/12-laws-of-karma-change-life/?c=pwf&vp=cellenlight
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The concept of rebirth has a long association with Buddhism. Rebirth in Buddhism refers to the teaching that the actions of a sentient being lead to a new existence after death, in an endless cycle called saṃsāra. One will begins a new life in a new body that may be human, animal or spiritual depending on the moral quality of the previous life’s actions. What they are reborn as depends on their actions in their previous life rather kamma. As a Buddhist we should believe in rebirth but still many people don’t . Buddha taught us that choices of rebirth make a difference and can shape many lifetimes. Buddhists believe that nothing that exists is permanent and everything will ultimately cease to be. There is a belief in rebirth
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this profound article.
In Buddhism, cause and effect is known as Karma. The philosophy of karma, both physical and mental, states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction . It’s the theory. Glad to come across this post again, to understand deeper about the Law of Karma.
Destiny is the aggregate karmic effects from past life. Past Karma determined our present destiny. Present Karmas are to mould our next life . Very interesting video explaining all about the cause and effect.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the 12 laws of karma which everyone should know.
simply and well explain.
may GOD bless u.
Thank you RInpoche for the valuable sharing of Law of Karma that will change our life. The article has clearly explain how actions and thoughts turn and control our life. When we truly understand what karma means, it can be used as a powerful tool for our personal development.
What I understand about karma, the energy we generate now and in future will affect us depending on what we do. The process of karma is a cycle of reincarnation, when one understand the importance of the actions, then we can change our karma.
I am happy to come across this article, had a good read and to know deeper about the Law of Karma. If we look closer all the law points are very thoughtful and will help to improve our life much more greater.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the 12 laws of karma which everyone should know. Upon reading the article, I come to realize the karma itself is working on its own 24/7 whether we understand about karma or otherwise. Besides, I also understand that the karma context does not only apply to Buddhists, but also to other people who come from different religions equally as karma can also be described as the spiritual principle of cause and effect. For every thought, speech and action we have transmitted out from our physical mind and body, we will receive back the equivalent form of reaction accordingly.
There is so much contemplation we can perform on this article and one of them that hit my mind the most is the law of focus. According to the law of focus, we cannot think or focus on the two opposite elements if we want to achieve an ultimate goal. For example, if one is learning and practicing on the first of the 6 Paramitas, giving and non-attachment, one should not think of going to casino for gambling and win other’s money as this will only create more greed in one’s mind, lose focus on the practice of giving and the time is wasted in gambling instead of progressing positively in spiritual practice. Hence, the law of focus emphasizes a lot of our determination and willingness to discipline ourselves within the spiritual aspect and not to be tempted by other negative factors that can derail us from the path heading towards to our aim we have set at the very beginning.
May many people from around the world live well and happily without engaging in any activity that can invite for negative karma.
Thank you with folded hands,
kin hoe
Sadhu inspirational Law of Kamma for easy understanding of Kamma in simple words. May your Dharma sharing be fruitful in liberation of suffering of all beings with ignorance.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing about karma. Yes, this explains everything about karma. Especially the video explained by Hans Wilhelm, with his drawing he let us understand more about karma. Karma will not disappear or go away by itself. It will come back to us one day because of what we did previously. Just like Rinpoche said, “The Newton’s law of motion”. It is also called karma ripen. Like Rinpoche and the pastors always tell us, karma will not go away, and nobody can help us to take away the karma, because it is the cause of action we did ourselves. Only oneself can manage their own karma. But karma can be reduced. Thus, we need to practice dharma, contemplate to remorse and regret of what we have done wrong.
Thank you again Rinpoche. With folded hands _/\_
Thank you Rinpoche for this post on Karma which gives me deep thought. As evertime, when something bad happens, we usually just conveniently blame it on karma. We should learn to reflect on the pain and sufferings and then to change or do something positive and not just sit and just blame karma for our pain and sufferings.
“True joy comes from doing what one is supposed to be doing, and knowing that the reward will come in its own time” This reinforced us to continue doing more positive and good deeds and to refrain from harming or doing any negative actions towards others. With gratitude and folded hands.
Thank you Rinpoche for this simple and clear explanation of 12 Little Known Law of Karma that Will Change Your Life.
12. The Law of Significance and Inspiration.
Every personal contribution is also a contribution to the Whole.
Loving contributions bring life to and inspire the Whole.
These types of contributions brings true happiness to oneself and others.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article on 12 Law of Karma very simple and clear for us to understand.I do believe for every action,there’s a reaction.its the cause and effect theory. The consequences will come.Theres so many types of karma explain in this article.It a very good reminder and advice for us to be always kind,caring and compassion to all sentient beings. And forth most always be mindful for whatever we do. I will take some time to understand and improve to change for the better and make a difference in my life.I will try my best.
Thanks Rinpoche .with folded hands.
7. The Law of Focus
One cannot think of two things at the same time.
If our focus is on Spiritual Values, it is not possible for us to have lower thoughts like greed or anger.
I like this the most, and should be a very obvious indication that if we need to focus on something it is very good not to so much multi- tasking the results can be disastrous!
Thank you Rinpoche on the above article on karma.
Normally when something happens we readily blame it on karma not knowing the real meaning of it. Karma is a good excuse to do anything. Little did one knows or believe that karma will come back.
The many types of karma explain in this article is really amazing. The 1st one particular stands out for me is ‘you reap what you sow’ . Those who do not believe in karma won’t understand this. Maybe the repercussions will not happen to that person but to his or her children. It’s even worse because they have to suffer the consequences for the things they did not do.
Therefore it’s best to do good and not worry about bad karma coming back.
One of the laws that stood out for me is:
“10. The Law of Change
History repeats itself until we learn the lessons that we need to change our path.”
Many times we forget that we can change if we want different results in our life. We are so caught up in our distractions that we often don’t take some time out to reflect on ourselves and do a result check.
We keep operating and thinking the same way but expect a different result. When we don’t get the desired result, we keep going at it until we get no where near the goal.
This article highlights points that are logical, simple yet deeply profound and very empowering. I believe if we take the time to understand and practice these points, our life will change dramatically for the better.
Very interesting video explaining karma. Simplistic, logical and factual. Kind of makes the law of karma beautiful, a necessity for mankind but not so much as to help keep us in check but to propel us to grow.
Mankind has a natural propensity to define experiences to suit oneself. Karma is not exempted. We use karma as a reasoning or excuse to suit our convenience. Almost too conveniently. When things don’t go well, it’s your karma. This i worse in spiritual environment sometimes. When someone doesn’t agree or conform with our thoughts and our ways, we threaten people with the law of karma. When we fail, we blame it on karma. When we cannot debate or justify a situation, we say it’s karma. Karma is the ultimate argument. The one word that no one can refute. So easily misused and misunderstood.
No one has ever presented the beauty of karma. Karma should not be attached to any negative connotation. It is not negative just as Newton Laws of Motion are simply factual observation without any positive or negative connotation. The law of cause and effect is neutral. Karma is neutral even in a mathematical sense because it cancels out eventually.
Just as bad karma will cancel out so will good karma. All those time, effort, pain, suffering, joy, tears, happiness only to be canceled out eventually. Almost makes everything feels meaningless. In the meantime, I guess we continue to believe in creation, humility, growth, responsibility, connection, focus, change, patience, inspiration and just live in the moment, here and now.
Dear Rinpoche,
Every single post gives me very deep insights and I am forever thankful for your blessings and selflessness for me lazy boy. This is very categorised form of the laws of karma and very easy to analyse and conceptualise. Thank you for the amazing inspiration Rinpoche _()_.
Lama Khenno
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for posting this. 🙂 It’s really help me now, as I feel that my willingness to learn the dharma is lessened. Thank you for always posting these aritcles for the benefit of everyone._/|\_
Also, I’ve actually seen this video on youtube before, but never got around watching it due to laziness. 😛
I will always pray to be close to the dharma, no matter how far away from home I am. 🙂
Your student,
Keng Hwa.
Karma is not meant to be a punishment; it is neither an external force, nor a system of punishment or reward handled by gods. The teachings on karma explained that our past actions affect us either positively or negatively. The things we chose to do, say or think set karma into actions and thus our present actions will affect us in future.
As Buddhists, when we understand the law of karma, we should be mindful of our thoughts and actions as we are in control of our ultimate fates. Every action we take molds our characters for the future. “One must take responsibility for what is in one’s life.” Thus if we want to have a better future, we need to condition our good moral actions.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for sharing the 12 Laws of Karma.
Thank you Rinpoche for the article .. Yes Rinpoche the quality of our actions influence the quality of life, it can create a radical shift in the way we do things. For example, if we believe in peace and want to end conflict, according to conventional thinking, we need to forcefully convince others of our views. According to karmic understanding, we do it differently – we act peacefully so as to bring peace. ..
There are a few fallacies on explaining karma on the above video : “it’s like a boomerang effect, and it will come back to us in a similar way.” According to Lord Buddha, the subtleties of cause and effect and the consequences of its accumulative effect are even harder to comprehend than explaining and understand emptiness. You reap what you sow – it may not come back to you in a similar way. Often it carries an accrual interest basis, which pretty much works like a bank, negative karma you have committed may come back to us 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times or more depends on various issues:1) depending on the time frame the negative deeds ripen, and how potent the negative act is during the time of commiting; i.e. the act of killing an ant may be less serious than killing an elephant (the issues involved the size of the physical shape), the intent of committing also have to take into account. Mercy killing to terminate a patient’s life in the hospital that does not carry an evil intent may not pay a higher price for its negative consequences etc. Similarly, good deeds perform with good intention like making offering , doing charitable works with the right motives, such as with bodhicitta, a mindset that genuinely wishes the recipient to achieve enlightenment or whatever the giver genuinely believe will free the recipient from suffering,(excludes psychotic delusions) the positive results can be multiplied into 10,000 times. Also, if someone kills a person in this life, when his/her negative karma ripen next life tentatively, he/her may not be killed by the victim reincarnate at that life time, but he/ she may die during volcanic explosion, or through other countless manners. There are a few books for reading to understand the law of karma, one of the books entitled ” A Hundred Karma Sutra”, depicts countless karmic stories among many people told by Lord Buddha himself, from there one may have a glimpse on how karma actually works. This book is available in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese language.I am not certain if this book has already been translated into English. Lord Buddha himself said that the subtleties of the law of cause and effect are indeed the hardest to know indeed, eventhough one may be equipped with the clairvoyance power to see his own 500 past lives stories.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article as it provides a very good definition of karma.
Karma is not a punishment but an action that will bring positive and negative result based on our intention. By understanding this we will be more mindful with our every thought, speech and action.
The ‘Law of change’ again reminded me to always remember that if we don’t want to go through a certain condition then we must learn and change it. It is until we learn that we will not need to experience it again.
Thank you again for sharing this article.
At the onset, I thought karma is the penalty system working on the universal level that keeps track on everyone’s bad behavior. But in fact, karma encapsulates both the good and bad effect as long as one creates the cause for it. Whatever one puts out to the universe, it will come back to them.
The beauty of the laws of karma is that it is all encompassing, regardless of religion or creed or race, we are all subjected to the Laws of Karma. Hence, the sooner we understand the workings of karma and “play” by the rules, the better and easier things will become.
Thank You Rinpoche for sharing the 12 laws of karma. I really subscribe to the Great Law as it reminds me to do good and make the right choice.
Humbly, bowing down,
Stella Cheang
I have heard that once we fully understand the true meaning of Karma, it will actually blow our minds and we will become enlightened. Simple words, our minds can only comprehend to a certain level of understanding towards Karma.
I don’t think that everyone should be Buddhists or have faith in Buddhas, but my opinion is that everyone should at least believe in Karma because it lets us think twice before doing something and it also teaches us to be better people without including religions.
Many people mostly young people always do crazy things like robbery, stealing, fighting and etc because they never really thought of the consequences, and also because their family never taught them about Karma or maybe even the parents do not know what is Karma. Thank You Rinpoche for sharing this article, I have learnt more things about Karma.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the good article Law of Karma, which brings us clear understanding of karma and self improvement from inside out. Upon reading the article, I understand that every action, every thought and every speech will lead to the next consequence or result whether it is good or bad because everything is connected to each other in universe.
This article also reminds me that we need to be alert and mindful with our body, speech and mind as all the actions, thoughts and speech must be aligned with what we have learnt from the Dharma teachings rather than letting our behavior or thought to run on its own without control, which can lead us to negative states and derail us from the spiritual path.
Thank you Rinpoche for your kindness and compassion to give us Dharma teachings and may Rinpoche continues to live long with stable health.
With folded hands,
kin hoe
Thank you so much to share this
Thank you Rinpoche for this clear and easy to understand article on Karma.
Usually karma gets the blame when things go wrong or we couldn’t achieve our wants. Karma is usually an easy way out of accepting failures to be our own doings.
From this article, there are bad karma, good karma and neutral karma. Neutral karma I liken to “wait for the durian to drop ah!” stage where one does nothing. Positive would be the fruits of good actions, ie. Being able to meet and receive the dharma from our Guru
Thank you Rinpoche for this clear and easy to understand article on Karma.
Usually karma gets the blame when things go wrong or we couldn’t achieve our wants. Karma is usually an easy way out of accepting failures to be our own doings.
From this article, there are bad karma, good karma and neutral karma. Neutral karma I liken to “wait for the durian to drop ah!” stage where one does nothing. Positive would be the fruits of good actions, ie. Being able to meet and receive the dharma from our Guru, completion of projects, achieving our goals, etc. Bad karma everyone knows and recognise, some more than others.
Rinpoche’s article gives us the easy to follow method of generating good karma to overcome the bad. Also, karma repeats…so its entirely upto us to start generating good karma and start the ball rolling.
谢谢仁波切的分享。
往往很多人害怕接触佛教，因为害怕 Karma ， 来到克切拉我我明白 Karma 是有好多种， 并不像从前那样肤浅。Karma = 报应 ！ 大错特错！
看了这12条道理, Karma 是一种生活应该有的方式与自律！
1. The Great Law
2. The Law of Creation
3. The Law of Humility
4. The Law of Growth
5. The Law of Responsibility
6. The Law of Connection
7. The Law of Focus
8. The Law of Giving and Hospitality
9. The Law of Here and Now
10. The Law of Change
11. The Law of Patience and Reward
12. The Law of Significance and Inspiration
Hans Wilhelm 一画图解释 因果 Karma 非常的容易明白， 而且还形容说我们上面有个老天为我们每天记录！ 当成熟了那个也就会出现。 就像我们说的， 人在做， 天在看！
当我们明白了 Karma 就不会做一些伤害人，不负责任等等的事情。
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article about karma.
It was widely believed that karma only means when you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. It is more like a revengeful kind of thinking and only applies to negative actions. However, this is not true. There are positive karma too !
To me Karma is the universal law that pervades everyone and everything in this existence. No one is left out and no one can escape from it. It is the ultimate truth of how our existence works. By understanding karma better, we can make a change in our existence, present or future. Therefore, karma is not a Buddhist thing. It just happens that Buddhist knows a little better about it.
Humbly,
Chris
Karma had been viewed as a punishment and negative effects. It is my own humble belief that karma can be both negative and positive as long as we are in the state of samsara.
Enlightened beings such as Buddhas have no karma. This fact blows away my belief that there is both positive and negative karma and back to believe that karma is negative.
However the most empowering thing to learn about karma is that we can purify our negativities.
Therefore in order to have peace and love in our life, why not make the choice to be a peaceful and loving person and reap the fruits of what we sow.
Yes, most people view Karma as a punishment. We have all obtained a precious human form, but in itself, it is nothing to be proud of. There are an infinite number of other forms of life on this planet, but none are engaged in the kinds of destruction in which humans have indulged. Human beings have endangered all living beings on earth. If only we let compassion and an altruistic attitude guide our lives, we will be able to achieve great things – something that other forms of life are not able to do. If we are able to use this precious human form in a positive manner, it will certainly have value in the longterm. Our human existence will then truly be precious. If however, we use our human potential – the mind, to exploit and torture people, thereby causing destruction and sufferings, then our human existence will be a danger to our future self, as well as to others right now! If we can always do good deeds, such as saving the lives of animals under threat of death, as what Rinpoche has always done, human existence has the potential to annihilate everthing we know. If we undertake serious practice of the Dharma, we will be able to continue our spiritual progress in our lives to come. As said, “Every personal contribution is also a contribution to the World”. Karma is a lifestyle that promotes positive thinking and action. It also employs self-reflection to fix the problems in one’s life. If you accumulate virtuous actions properly – such as avoiding killing, freeing animals, and cultivating patience and kindness towards others, it will be beneficial in the future and in the lives to come. Whereas, if you choose to indulge in negative actions continously, you definitely will face the consequences in the future. If one does not believe in the princuple of Karma, then one can choose to do as he/she likes! Om Mani Padme Hung.
I think these 12 points are a very nice and short introduction to Karma. This subject can be somewhat daunting if delving straight into the works by the great masters, who usually describe it in a lot more detail. For those only just learning about Karma these points are a very nice introduction. And a nice recap or alternate way of looking at karma for those who know a little about karma.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for this simple yet profound post on karma. This stood out for me the most -> One must take responsibility for what is in one’s life.
I believe that by taking responsibility for our choices, it makes it easier to cope with challenges in life.