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Last updated: March 7, 2007.
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This lesson plan is designed to bring the meaning of karma-dharma and the related concept of samsara circles to life.
Dharma and Karma, if rightly understood and rightly applied, make a person's life prosper, spiritually speaking; a misunderstanding, a faulty application, and the person falls from the heaven of Spirit into the hell of matter so to say. What is true of the individual is also true of communities and even nations. Right conception of Dharma and Karma builds a wonderfully prosperous civilization; wrong views make the world err and blunder and sin (meeting the inner shadow). These words provide a single key by which we get at the meaning of the sorry condition of our so called "civilization". The Dharma of our civilization is expressed in three words: competition, competion and competion; and Karma expresses itself in desire for status quo on the part of the rich, with the result of lawlessness on the part of those who want to become rich, whyle the poor pay the bill.
Karma for these reasons, naturally implies reincarnation or rebirth (though the opposite is not true) since thoughts and deeds in past lives will affect one's current situation en actual life and behaviour. Thus, every individual alike is responsible for the tragedies and good 'fortunes' which are experienced. Karma governs the motions and happenings in a personal life, both inanimate and animate, unconscious and conscious, in the cosmic realm. Thus, what certain philosophical viewpoints may term "destiny" or "fate" is in actuality, according to believers of karma, the simple and neutral working out of the inner karma like it is embedded in the psyche. Many have likened karma to a moral banking system or so, a credit and debit of good and bad. However, this view falls short of the idea that any sort of action (action being a root meaning of 'karma'), whether we term it as being 'good' or 'bad', binds us in recurring cause and effect in the end. In order to attain supreme consciousness, to escape the cycle of life, death, and rebirth and the knot of karma one must altogether transcend karma and surpass the limits of its character. From Hinduism the concept of karma and dharma was absorbed and developed in different manners in other movements in the West and within the other Indian religions of Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Although these religions express significant disagreement between them regarding the particularities of "karma", all four groups have relatively similar notions about what plays a role in human and personal life and of what karma and dharma really is in the end.
* Samsara-According to Buddhism, all beings are born into an endless cycle of birth and rebirth which is called samsara (repeating circles). The first of the Four Noble Truths states that life is suffering. If one is destined to be reborn into this life of suffering at the close of their current life, then that cycle of rebirth is one of endless suffering. It is thus the goal of Buddhists to leave this cycle by reaching Enlightenment and entering Nirvana. The end-time comes slow but inevitable to our society as a whole as well. * Karma-How does one achieve Enlightenment in this? It is generally seen as a slow and gradual personal process, in which one is reborn into successively better lives, until finally reaching the pinnacle of enlightnement or Nirvana. But being born into a better life is not an arbitrary process or a benefit. Rather, one finds themselves in their current position specifically because of his or her behaviour in a previous life or even a life before that. If someone has led a meritorious life, filled with kindness and generosity, then they will have earned "good karma," and he or she will be rewarded in their next life with more comfort or ease. If they have been miserly, cruel or greedy in this life, they may find that it will take several-or even hundreds-of lives of hardship and difficult situations to return to their last position. In this case, the debt to their karma through unkind or selfish behaviour will take many lifetimes of kindness and generosity to pay back and compensate for the induced "pain". While karma is sometimes used interchangeably with words like "fate" and "destiny," it is not synonymous with these concepts per se. In karma there is nothing of the arbitrariness of fate, but sustains the concept of free will and choice. Rather, one's place in this world- be it as a rat, a deer, a beggar or a king-is the direct result of one's behaviour in previous lives. * Dharma-Like the words samsara (repeating circles) and karma, dharma is used in both Buddhism and Hinduism, and the details of the concept of rebirth and its application to life varies between the two faiths. However, within both religions it contains the idea of "right and just behaviour," or of the law, and behaving according to laws of a group or a society. In order to accrue "good karma" one must always behave according to your own dharma or destiny of your soul.
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