We are going to continue with our Karma series. In previous sessions, we talked about the definition of Karma and the four characteristics of Karma. The next topic is the types of Karma and their effects. So there are two types of Karma. Virtuous or positive Karma and Non-Virtuous or negative Karma. Let’s begin with non-virtuous or negative Karma. There are just about a million negative Karmas one can create. However, all of those mostly fall into ten negative Karma. They are killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, hurtful speech, idle chatter, covetousness, malice, and holding wrong views. Out of these, killing, stealing and sexual misconduct fall into what is called bodily actions. Lying, divisive speech, hurtful speech, and idle chatter are so-called verbal actions. I want to point out that when you write an email or something on social media, that is also considered speech and falls into the verbal action category. The last three, covetousness, malice, and holding wrong views are mental actions.
So let’s begin with bodily negative Karma. We think I have not killed anyone so I am good. Let’s take it slow. If we killed a mosquito with an intention to kill because it was bugging us, that is a killing action no different than committing first-degree murder. If we accidentally killed a living being that does not have the negative Karma attached to it.
There need to be four factors present for us to suffer the consequences of a negative action – the object, the intention, the preparation, and the completion. So in our mosquito example, the mosquito is the object. Our intention to kill arrives when it starts bugging us. We prepare to kill by using a squatter or some other object and the action is complete when we actually kill the mosquito. A couple of points of note here. Let’s say you are trying to kill a mosquito and by mistake, you end up killing a fly. In this case, you do not suffer consequences because you did not kill a mosquito and you did not intend to kill a fly. Also, a point to bear in mind is that if we direct someone to kill a mosquito for us, and they complete that action, both of us suffer the consequences of that negative action. This is a very important point. We cannot say I did not kill the mosquito so I do not suffer the consequences. In fact, in this case, both the person giving the instruction to kill and the person killing suffer from negative consequences. You know there is a war going on in Ukraine right now. The soldiers who kill for sure suffer the negative consequences but the commanders and generals and leaders actually suffer a lot more of these consequences. Leaders are responsible for the negative actions of all the people underneath them! Talk about overwhelming negative Karma. So being a powerful politician is the worst-case scenario because one ends up suffering from the negative actions of so many underlings. Similarly, if a group of people decides to perform a negative action through only one person, the entire group will suffer negative consequences of that Karma.
For us to have created intention, there have to be three factors at work. One discrimination, two determination, and three delusion. What does that mean? Well, discrimination means identifying the living being we intend to kill. For example, if you are a hunter and go out to hunt an animal but accidentally kill a human being, the intention is not there. So in this case, you do not get the negative consequences of killing an animal or a human being! The next factor that needs to be present for there to be intent is determination. Once you identify the object an animal in the hunting example, we carry out the plan to kill the animal. We have our hunting gear, the traps, and whatnot. We will not be preparing for this unless we are determined to do it. And the last factor that needs to be present is the delusion. Our intent only occurs if we are motivated by one of the delusions such as anger, attachment, hatred, etc. For example, a soldier kills out of hatred for the enemy. A thief kills out of attachment for valuables and so on. In our previous example of mosquitoes, we kill a mosquito out of anger. So who kills out of delusions you may ask? Well, if we kill out of compassion—say an animal is hurt and is suffering. There is no way to save that animal and killing that animal only takes it out of its misery; killing out of compassion will not result in negative Karma even when we have discriminately identified the object and have the determination to kill.
Next, let’s look at stealing. Again, we think we never stole anything from anyone. But let’s examine this a little bit deeper. If we ever took our work product from one job to another, for example, that is a form of stealing. Not paying our taxes or defaulting on loans is a form of stealing. Stealing means anything that is not freely given to us. If we manipulate, bribe, blackmail to get something, that is stealing. As described before, we must identify the item we want to steal, and have the determination and delusion in order for us to suffer negative consequences. Here is an interesting point. Let’s say we borrowed a book from someone. We have every intention of returning it. We refer to that book as someone else’s book. In this case, there is no stealing. But let’s say a few years pass and now we consider that book as our book. As soon as that happens, we have completed the negative Karma of stealing and will have to suffer appropriate consequences.
Sexual misconduct is the last type of bodily negative Karma. If we are in a committed relationship or have taken celibacy vows, the object of sexual misconduct is any other person. If we are not in a committed relationship, the object of sexual misconduct is someone else’s partner or anyone else who does not consent.
So those are all the bodily negative actions. We will pick up verbal negative actions next week.