Question asked by Eli Levine
Good evening Pastors,
I was wondering how karma works? I get that all actions that I do have consequences and that all experiences I have are the result of my own karma. My question is how is it that my karma is not dependent upon and entangled with other people's individual karma? In other words, how is it that I pay for other people's poor choices and vice versa? Is my karma dependent upon how I respond to others' choices and vice versa? I'm not seeing a definitive "I" or "me" in anything in the universe. Yet how is it that "I" have absolute control and power over my own karmic destiny. But how is it that I affect others' karmic destiny or am affected by others' karma? It seems that we are all of the same entity. But how is my karma not bound to others' and others' to my own? Clarification on these points would be much appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time!
Dear Eli Levine,
Karma is more complicated that as you have suggested above. There are many categories of Karma actually, three are listed below:
1. Individual Karma
2. Group Karma
3. Environmental Karma
Therefore you do have karma that is entangled with that of others. Karma is not so individualistic as most people think. But the key point here, is how you react to situations that arise due to these interconnected karmas. If you are in a situation at work, where your whole team is under a boss that is very demanding and generally not very nice, you all have the group karma to work with this person, however, this does not mean you all have to react in the same exact way to this situation. It is up to you to react to the situation, though you may obviously be influenced by your team mates. But ultimately it is up to you.
To learn more you should read the sections on Karma in the great Lam Rim texts, such as “Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand” These explanations of Karma will provide you with a better and overall explanation of Karma, more than I would be able to do here in this short space as the questions you have asked are very vast indeed. I hope this helps.