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'I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?'

Sharon Stone's recent remarks about karma caused uproar but also revealed widespread confusion about the concept. So what does it really mean?  Eddy Canfor-Dumas offers a Buddhist explanation.

Karma is the name given to the accumulated effect in our lives of causes we ourselves have made in the past. Good causes, especially those arising from respect for the fundamental dignity of all life, give rise to good or positive karma.  Bad causes, especially those arising from disrespect for the dignity of life,  give rise to bad or negative karma.  As a Buddhist text states:

'If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present.  And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present.'

This causal law operates not only in this life; rather, we are born in circumstances appropriate to causes we have made in previous existences, and our actions in this life will create the conditions for our rebirth in the future. In other words, it is one's personal karma – the accumulation of cause and effect – that accounts for the differences in fortune that we all experience at birth.  Some are born rich, others poor; some healthy, others sickly; and so on. 

Karma also determines where we are born - in a disaster-prone region, for example.  But not everyone in that region will experience the collective karma of a disaster in the same way, of course.  Many people will survive for one reason or another, which is another aspect of their personal karma.

The concept of karma is central to a number of Eastern religions, but they differ on the key question of whether or how karma can be changed.  Some are totally fatalistic, teaching that our fundamental destiny is determined by causes made in past lives, and that we can do little to alter the basic direction of our lives in the present.  These religions therefore tend to teach a passive or stoical acceptance of one’s circumstances in this life. 

Other religions – including the early doctrines of Buddhism - teach that we can change our destiny, but only over many lifetimes.  Through sticking to a complex set of rules of daily living that help us avoid making bad causes, or by following strict altruistic practices in which we sacrifice our needs to the demands of others, we can gradually rise through a series of life states until, finally, we attain enlightenment and are freed from suffering. 

By contrast, Nichiren Buddhism teaches that we can change our karma here and now, in a single lifetime, whatever causes for good or evil we may have made in this or previous lifetimes.  Rather than viewing the present as the result of past causes, it emphasises that through making the correct causes now, our present reality can be transformed and our future happiness created.

In particular, this teaching focuses on changing the internal cause that gives rise to the actions that produce karma.  This internal cause is our dominant life condition. 

A person dominated by the life condition of Anger, for example, will tend to think angry thoughts, speak angry words and take angry actions: these causes made in the world of Anger will inevitably produce effects in the world of Anger.  As a result the individual will create the karma to live in conflict with the world around him.   A person dominated by the world of Tranquillity, however, will make causes appropriate to that life condition and therefore enjoy (or suffer) the corresponding effects.  His life might be much more peaceful but, on the other hand, it might also be dull and uneventful.  

To change our karma, Nichiren teaches that we have to transform our dominant life condition by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, so that this life condition reveals its inherently positive aspect. Thus, our Anger will erupt at injustice, say, and not simply when we feel our ego to be threatened; while our Tranquillity will enable us to stay calm at times of stress, but not so laid back that we are completely detached from and indifferent to the suffering of those around us.  

What’s more, by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, all of the life states that we possess change to reveal their positive qualities.  As Nichiren explains, ‘Illuminated by the light of the five characters of the Mystic Law, they display the dignified attributes that they inherently possess.’  Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo therefore enables us to reveal the qualities of our greater or higher self – Buddhahood – in all areas of our lives, and increasingly to think, speak and act with the Buddha’s wisdom, courage and compassion.

As a result, our lives increasingly come to show the effects of causes based on the world of Buddhahood, especially causes made to support world peace and the movement to spread this teaching throughout our respective societies.

There is, however, an even more profound level from which to view our karma – as a means of proving the power of this practice to others.  The Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda explains:

'[My mentor Josei] Toda often said: "Someone who is too exemplary from the outset cannot go among the people.  In order to spread Buddhism we intentionally chose to be born as people who are poor or sick. Life is like appearing in a play," he would say.

'He also said, "I lost my wife and my daughter died.  My business failed...People who have not experienced painful struggles or suffering cannot understand the hearts of others.  Only if one has tasted life’s bitterness can one lead people to happiness."

'To simply view your sufferings as "karma" is backward-looking.  We should have the attitude: "These are sufferings I took on for the sake of my mission.  I vowed to overcome these problems through faith."

'When we understand the this principle of "deliberately creating the appropriate karma" our frame of mind is transformed; what we had previously viewed as destiny, we come to see as mission.  There is absolutely no way we cannot overcome sufferings that are the result of a vow that we ourselves made.

'…It's a matter of compassion, of living for and together with others. It is the desire to be born among those who are suffering the most. The Buddha is to be found among those who are suffering the most. Buddhism exists to enable those suffering the most to become the happiest.'

Viewed in this light, karma is not a heartless way of 'blaming the victim' but a compassionate principle that offers the way to change things for the better, now and in the future, whatever your present situation.

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