8.5 mins read.
Often when things go wrong in our lives, we cast about for someone to blame and/or conclude that life is unconscionably unfair. Maybe we think there is some arbiter of our fate, some supernatural law-giver who is punishing us, and we feel guilty.
We ask, “Why me?” There are actually two questions we can ask: (1) Why is this happening? (2) Why is this happening to me?
For example, I just had my second COVID vaccination. I am very grateful, especially given what is happening in India and Brazil, and wish everyone could be safe from this seemingly endless pandemic. But I am also waiting for the well known side effects to start kicking in … some people have none, others are laid up for a few days. Although monumentally better than catching (and spreading) COVID itself, nonetheless, like I said, I am waiting ….
If I do start feeling fatigued and feverish, by understanding karma I can accept (1) that this is happening because causes were created, and (2) it is happening to me (as opposed to somebody else who got the same shot but is getting off symptom-free) because I was the one who created these causes.
Following on from this article.
A natural law
Just to reiterate the basic teaching on karma: Buddha observed that if an action is motivated by a good intention, such as compassion, an experience of happiness results; but if an action is motivated by an intention that is out of whack with reality, aka deluded, it is the substantial cause of a suffering experience. Also, there are neutral actions that give rise to neutral experiences, such as wondering what work shirt to wear today above our sweatpants.
Karma is a natural law that governs us, like the law of gravity. It is not the same as fate or predestination because we can change our karma by understanding how it works. That wisdom gives us free will.
Buddha didn’t invent karma any more than Sir Isaac Newton invented gravity. At some point in our life we learn about the earth’s gravitational pull — big things like this planet attract small things like me. And from then on, to protect ourselves from unwanted suffering, ideally we act in accordance with this natural law, such as by not jumping off the top of the Empire State Building.
Nor is there any capricious supernatural lawgiver. Everything depends upon our own minds and intentions. As Geshe Kelsang says in The Mirror of Dharma:
No-one has the power or authority to say to living beings, ‘You should go to the human realm, the animal realm, the hell realm, or the god realm.’ Because of our previous different actions, or karma, accumulated since beginningless time we all take different rebirths and experience different sufferings.
Just as there is no one who is casting us off the Empire State Building, so according to Buddhism there is no one who is punishing us for our transgressions or rewarding us for our good behavior.
Suffering is created by our own actions or karma – it is not given to us as a punishment. ~ How to Transform Your Life
Therefore, there is no need to feel guilty. However, there is a need to understand.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
When talking with other people about karma, it is important to do so sensitively. This is because when explained skillfully, it is very empowering and releases people; but when it is not, it can do the opposite — although logical, it can sound brutally unfair. For why do bad things happen to good people?
At a day course on karma recently a friend noticed a participant with his head in his heads and, asking him if he was ok, saw that he was crying. He told her he had a disabled son and was very upset by the teaching for suggesting that it was his son’s fault. His son is gentle and kind and he couldn’t bear to hear people suggesting that he somehow deserved this suffering. It was heartbreaking.
What would you have replied?
My friend said that we needed to take past lives into account — that it was not his son but a perfect stranger, really, in his son’s mental continuum who had created the causes for disabilities in this life. She also tried to explain how precious it is to have a human life and the story of the turtle and the golden yoke, meaning that someone in his son’s continuum must also have done many wonderful things, even more so to be born to such a loving father.
Other suggestions in response to my friend’s post on Facebook were to understand that all our negative actions are caused by our enemies, the delusions, and we are not our delusions, meaning that no intrinsically bad person created the karma. It was not his fault but the fault of delusions.
Moreover, there is no judgment – not just because it is our delusions that are to blame, but because all of us samsaric beings are in the same boat and have created a long history of similar deluded actions. They just haven’t ripened for us yet.
Far from feeling that this man’s son is inherently bad or deserving of his disability, taking karma into account can deepen our compassion (and our renunciation). This is because we develop a wish for ourselves and others to be freed not just from whatever is ripening to hurt us now, but from the causes of our suffering, delusions and karma. These are the chains that will bind all of us in all realms to suffering perpetually until we learn how to dismantle them.
Internal locus of control
Another person replied that on the other hand it can be a relief to understand about karma being created in previous lives as an explanation for their suffering now. Otherwise if we suffer a trauma or continuous ill health we just think we’re unlucky or being punished. We now have a ‘scientific’ explanation for it, which can be healing to hear and allow us to do something practical.
Some social scientists say that one thing we can do to ensure success is to take responsibility for everything that comes our way—big and small. To take the reins of our life, they believe it’s important to maintain an “internal locus of control.” This refers to the belief that our own ability and efforts contribute directly to our success. Conversely, when something doesn’t go our way or we encounter adversity, we don’t hold factors beyond our control as responsible.
In an article from Inc. titled “Here’s How Highly Successful People Make Little Choices Different From the Rest of Us,” Christina DesMarais explains:
When you believe you alone are responsible for your circumstances [ie, an internal locus of control], you’ll make necessary changes in your life to achieve success. If you sit around blaming everyone else for your problems an—’external locus of control’—your situation will remain as it is.
This makes sense to me, but it may not work so effectively if we evaluate our actions in only a short-term way when effects seem far more random, such as good things happening to bad people and vice versa. But it is very effective to take ownership of our intentions and actions by taking karma into account, if we are ready to do that.
This isn’t fair!
Bad things happening to good people and vice versa leads a lot of people to shrug that it doesn’t matter what we do, what is the point of going out of our way to be kind? Don’t we live in some kind of a haphazard world where things happen accidentally, meaninglessly?
Truth is, nothing happens accidentally and there’s no such thing as co-incidence. Events happen systematically according to the definite albeit illusion-like laws of cause and effect, including certain laws of nature; and one such ubiquitous law is the law of karma. Because it has such a tremendous impact on every aspect of our lives, we are very much kept in the dark by trying to live without an in-depth understanding of its workings. We end up floundering in this life too, not understanding “Why is this happening!”, just as we have been blundering around in all our previous lives.
As I talk about in these articles, this is not our first much less our only life – we have had countless lives, repeating the same mistakes that come from not understanding this natural law. By keeping an open mind to Buddha’s explanations, we can finally break free and create the future we want.
It’s karma so I won’t do anything about it
If misunderstood, observing the law of karma can even provide a false excuse to preserve the status quo, such as in the caste system in India. Or it can lead to a general lack of motivation to do anything practical to help ourselves and others because we think, “Oh it’s our karma, there’s nothing I can do.”
Related to this, earlier in the pandemic I heard some people say, “I’m not going to wear a mask because it is my karma whether or not I get COVID. I will take my chances.” More recently I have heard people say they won’t receive a shot for the same reason. Is this true?! What do you think?
This is what I think: understanding karma does NOT mean that we do nothing practical to help ourselves or others. I would argue the exact opposite — that it becomes even more compelling to work to end suffering, injustice, disease, cruelty, and so on, preferably motivated by wisdom and positivity and without attachment to results.
Moreover I think it’s just common sense to observe the valid conventions of our world, including its laws of cause and effect, because we are part and parcel of this world, not immune to pandemics or anything else. I could be wrong – happy to discuss — but to me it’s a bit fatalist, like someone smoking cigarettes saying they don’t need to quit because it’s their karma whether or not they die of lung cancer.
(At the very beginning of the pandemic, even before we all knew it was that serious, the person who seemed to be encouraging us the most to observe the COVID protocols was Geshe Kelsang himself.)
Over to you: would love to discuss this all with you. Per my earlier question, how would you explain to yourself or others how good things can happen to “bad” people and vice versa?
11 Comments
I think our idea of what was “bad” matters so much too, what we perceive as a “bad” circumstance, such as being late to work, could result in very good results, such as being able to notice a beautiful rainbow or take the time to call a family member with the extra time.
Thank you so much – clear and helpful – I too loved how the teacher helped the father.
Also I saw this shortly after reading your article – felt I had to share it!
“Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar” Brafley Miller
Really excellent article. I don’t normally share Buddhist articles with my friends and family who are non-Buddhist but I will definitely share this one. Such a clear explanation of Karma, logical but also responding to the emotional responses people can have to this topic.
I think the responses made by the person to the father were nothing short of genius 😉
Thank you again for making profound subjects so clear.
That person was actually you 😆 I was quoting you, lol.
(Ah, i just saw the winky emoji! But i agree, genius 🙂 And thank you for making us all think about this.)
I’m so glad it’s helpful! Thank you for sharing it.
Good article, thank you Luna. I think the teacher responded wisely to the student’s questions. I would’ve said the same things mainly that we were another person in previous lives, or another being, with different personalities and circumstances. This leads to a much deeper and broader concept, the concept of interconnectedness and interdependence, if people could understand that we were once like a Hitler, for example, or that we could be in the future, then they could forgive people like Hitler or at least not see them as so separate from themselves and come to understand that we all have a “cocktail” of karmic seeds in our consciousness storehouse. (Other traditions say “There but for the grace of God go I”, I would say There but for the law of karma go I.) I know this would probably lead to fear so I’d be careful about how I said it but the point is to help people stop feeling like a victim and seeing that when something bad happens to us or someone we love, it is no different than when it happens to someone else and yet we don’t go around feeling concerned and worried about bad things happening to someone else we generally more concerned with what happens to us or our circle, our close friends, family, loved ones.
Also wanted to say that people who say they’re not gonna get the vaccine because it’s their karma to get or not to get the virus infection, may not understand that the actions they are taking now are going to actually trigger the karmic seeds that are stored there in the consciousness so taking a positive action of protecting oneself now will then trigger to seeds of protection. Isn’t it true that our tendencies are triggered by continuing those actions or shifting to new actions will create new tendencies? So people say they believe in karma but don’t understand the many nuances of the law.
Thank you for this great and thought-provoking comment!!!
Thank you for that article. It is hard to see the connection between actions and consequences when they’re not obvious, being in separate lives. That’s maybe what makes it hard to understand why bad things can happen to good people. Also why do karmic effects multiply rather than stay proportionate?
Agreed, the delay between cause and effect makes it far harder … if for example someone was to give you something precious at the same time as you were giving something to others, karma would be more obvious.
As for why effects multiply, that is the way in the physical world too very often — small acorns become giant oak trees. The potentials of our actions are impermanent, which means they are changing and developing and increasing moment by moment until they ripen.
there is a typo in the article:
“internal FOCUS of control”
it reads “internal LOCUS” twice
Thank you, i think it is meant to say “locus” though. As in place or starting point, at least that is how I understand it. Focus would work too!