Editing Karma (section)

==In Buddhism==
{{Main|Karma in Buddhism}}
Karma and ''karmaphala'' are fundamental concepts in Buddhism,{{sfn|Kragh|2006|p=11}}{{sfn|Lamotte|1987|p=15}} which explain how our intentional actions keep us tied to rebirth in ''[[Saṃsāra|samsara]]'', whereas the Buddhist path, as exemplified in the [[Noble Eightfold Path]], shows us the way out of ''samsara''.<ref>{{cite book|author=P. T. Raju |title=Structural Depths of Indian Thought |url=https://archive.org/details/structuraldepths0000raju |url-access=registration |year=1985| publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-88706-139-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/structuraldepths0000raju/page/147 147]–151 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Charles Eliot |title=Japanese Buddhism |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-79274-1 |pages=39–41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIzsAgAAQBAJ}}</ref>

The cycle of rebirth is determined by karma, literally 'action'.{{sfn|Buswell|2004|p=712}}{{refn|group=note|In early Buddhism rebirth is ascribed to craving or ignorance,{{sfn|Vetter|1988|p=xxi}}{{sfn|Buswell|2004|p=416}} and the theory of karma may have been of minor importance in early Buddhist soteriology.{{sfn|Matthews|1986|p=124}}{{sfn|Schmithausen|1986|pp=206-207}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1998|p=13}}}} ''Karmaphala'' (wherein ''[[phala]]'' means 'fruit, result'){{sfn|Kalupahana|1992|p=166}}{{sfn|Keown|2000|pp=36-37}}{{sfn|Gombrich|2009|p=19}} refers to the 'effect' or 'result' of karma.{{sfn|Kopf|2001|p=141}}{{sfn|Kragh|2006|p=11}} The similar term ''karmavipaka'' (wherein ''[[vipāka]]'' means 'ripening') refers to the 'maturation, ripening' of karma.{{sfn|Keown|2000|pp=36-37}}{{sfn|Keown|2000|pp=810-813}}{{sfn|Klostermaier|1986|p=93}}

In the Buddhist tradition, ''karma'' refers to actions driven by intention (''[[cetanā]]''),{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1998}}{{sfn|Gethin|1998|pp=119-120}}{{sfn|Gombrich|2009|p=19}}{{refn|group=note|Rupert Gethin: "[Karma is] a being's intentional 'actions' of body, speech, and mind—whatever is done, said, or even just thought with definite intention or volition";{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=119}} "[a]t root karma or 'action' is considered a mental act or intention; it is an aspect of our mental life: 'It is "intention" that I call karma; having formed the intention, one performs acts (karma) by body, speech and mind.'"{{sfn|Gethin|1998|p=120}}}} a deed done deliberately through body, speech or mind, which leads to future consequences.{{sfn|Gombrich|1997|p=55}} The ''Nibbedhika Sutta'', [[Anguttara Nikaya]] 6.63:
{{blockquote|Intention (''[[cetana]]'') I tell you, is kamma. Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & intellect.<ref>{{Cite web
| translator = Thanissaro Bhikkhu
| year= 1997
| at = AN 6.63, PTS: A iii 410
|title=Nibbedhika Sutta: Penetrative
|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an06/an06.063.than.html|access-date=2023-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813042845/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an06/an06.063.than.html |archive-date=13 August 2014}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|There are many different translation of the above quote into English. For example, Peter Harvey translates the quote as follows: "It is will (''cetana''), O monks, that I call karma; having willed, one acts through body, speech, and mind." (A.III.415).{{sfn|Harvey|1990|pp=39–40}}}}}}
How these intentional actions lead to rebirth, and how the idea of rebirth is to be reconciled with the doctrines of [[Anicca|impermanence]] and [[Anatta|no-self]],{{sfn|Dargyay|1986|p=170}}{{refn|group=note|Dargray: "When [the Buddhist] understanding of karma is correlated to the Buddhist doctrine of universal impermanence and No-Self, a serious problem arises as to where this trace is stored and what the trace left is. The problem is aggravated when the trace remains latent over a long period, perhaps over a period of many existences. The crucial problem presented to all schools of Buddhist philosophy was where the trace is stored and how it can remain in the ever-changing stream of phenomena which build up the individual and what the nature of this trace is."{{sfn|Dargyay|1986|p=170}}}} is a matter of philosophical inquiry in the Buddhist traditions, for which several solutions have been proposed.{{sfn|Buswell|2004|p=712}} In early Buddhism, no explicit theory of rebirth and karma is worked out,{{sfn|Matthews|1986|p=124}} and "the karma doctrine may have been incidental to early Buddhist soteriology."{{sfn|Schmithausen|1986|pp=206-207}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1998|p=13}} In early Buddhism, rebirth is ascribed to craving or ignorance.{{Sfn|Vetter|1988|p=xxi}}{{sfn|Buswell|2004|p=416}}
Unlike that of Jains, Buddha's teaching of karma is not strictly deterministic, but incorporated circumstantial factors such as other [[Niyama]]s.{{sfn|Kalupahana|1975|p=127}}<ref name="Bhikkhu 2010"/>{{refn|group=note|[[Thanissaro Bhikkhu]]: "Unlike the theory of [[causality|linear causality]] — which led the [[Vedas|Vedists]] and [[Jainism|Jains]] to see the relationship between an act and its result as predictable and tit-for-tat — the principle of ''[[Idappaccayatā|this/that conditionality]]'' makes that relationship inherently complex. The results of kamma ("kamma" is the Pali spelling for the word "karma") experienced at any one point in time come not only from past kamma, but also from present kamma. This means that, although there are general patterns relating habitual acts to corresponding results [MN 135], there is no set one-for-one, tit-for-tat, relationship between a particular action and its results. Instead, the results are determined by the context of the act, both in terms of actions that preceded or followed it [MN 136] and in terms one's state of mind at the time of acting or experiencing the result [AN 3:99]. [...] The feedback loops inherent in ''this/that conditionality'' mean that the working out of any particular cause-effect relationship can be very complex indeed. This explains why the Buddha says in AN 4:77 that the results of kamma are [[Acinteyya|imponderable]]. Only a person who has developed the mental range of a Buddha—another imponderable itself—would be able to trace the intricacies of the kammic network. The basic premise of kamma is simple—that skillful intentions lead to favorable results, and unskillful ones to unfavorable results—but the process by which those results work themselves out is so intricate that it cannot be fully mapped. We can compare this with the [[Mandelbrot set]], a mathematical set generated by a simple equation, but whose graph is so complex that it will probably never be completely explored."<ref name="Bhikkhu 2010"/>}} It is not a rigid and mechanical process, but a flexible, fluid and dynamic process.{{sfn|Harvey|1990|p=42}} There is no set linear relationship between a particular action and its results.<ref name="Bhikkhu 2010"/> The karmic effect of a deed is not determined solely by the deed itself, but also by the nature of the person who commits the deed, and by the circumstances in which it is committed.<ref name="Bhikkhu 2010"/>{{sfn|Kalupahana|1975|p=131}} ''Karmaphala'' is not a "judgement" enforced by a God, Deity or other supernatural being that controls the affairs of the Cosmos. Rather, ''karmaphala'' is the outcome of a natural process of cause and effect.{{refn|group=note|[[Khandro Rinpoche]]: "Buddhism is a nontheistic philosophy. We do not believe in a creator but in the causes and conditions that create certain circumstances that then come to fruition. This is called karma. It has nothing to do with judgement; there is no one keeping track of our karma and sending us up above or down below. Karma is simply the ''wholeness'' of a cause, or first action, and its effect, or fruition, which then becomes another cause. In fact, one karmic cause can have many fruitions, all of which can cause thousands more creations. Just as a handful of seed can ripen into a full field of grain, a small amount of karma can generate limitless effects."{{sfn|Khandro Rinpoche|2003|p=95}}}}
Within Buddhism, the real importance of the doctrine of karma and its fruits lies in the recognition of the urgency to put a stop to the whole process.{{sfn|Gombrich|2009|pp=21-22}}{{sfn|Vetter|1988|pp=79-80}} The ''Acintita Sutta'' warns that "the results of karma" is one of the four incomprehensible subjects (or ''[[acinteyya]]''),{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2013|p=14}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Acintita Sutta: Unconjecturable|at=4.77 |url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.077.than.html |work=Anguttara Nikaya|access-date=2023-01-14 |url-status=live|archive-date=22 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122020618/https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.077.than.html}}</ref> subjects that are beyond all conceptualization,{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2013|p=14}} and cannot be understood with logical thought or reason.{{refn|group=note|Dasgupta explains that in Indian philosophy, acintya is "that which is to be unavoidably accepted for explaining facts, but which cannot stand the scrutiny of logic."{{sfn|Dasgupta|1991|p=16}} See also the ''[[Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta]]'' "Discourse to Vatsagotra on the [Simile of] Fire," Majjhima Nikaya 72,{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2013|p=852}}<ref name="MN72">{{cite web |url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.072.than.html |access-date=2023-09-09|title=Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta: To Vacchagotta on Fire |translator=Thanissaro Bhikkhu |website=www.accesstoinsight.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606055741/https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.072.than.html|archive-date=6 June 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> in which the Buddha is questioned by Vatsagotra on the "ten indeterminate question,"{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2013|p=852}} and the Buddha explains that a [[Tathagata]] is like a fire that has been extinguished, and is "deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the sea".<ref name="MN72"/>}}

[[Nichiren Buddhism]] teaches that transformation and change through faith and practice changes adverse karma—negative causes made in the past that result in negative results in the present and future—to positive causes for benefits in the future.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fowler |first= Jeaneane and Merv |date=2009 |title= Chanting in the Hillsides |page=78}}</ref>