KARMA AND REINCARNATION

Both Vedanta and Buddhism ascribe to the principle of karma which says that for our every deed in this existence there is, for better or ill, a consequence, baggage which we then carry from one life to the next. But what exactly is karma?

"Karma" means action, work, a deed, not only physical action, conscious or reflex, but mental action as well, conscious or subconscious. Karma is everything that we think or do. Karma also means the Law of Causation, i.e. from this follows that.

When we do an action or think a thought, Vedanta says that this action and this thought, even though they apparently are over and done with, will inevitably, sooner or later, produce some effect. This effect may be pleasant, unpleasant, or a mixture of both. It may be long delayed. We may never notice it. We may have altogether forgotten the action or the thought which caused it. All the same, it will be produced.

Moreover, every action and every thought makes an impression upon the mind. This impression may be slight at first, but if the same action or thought is repeated, it will deepen into a groove of sorts, down which our future behavior will easily tend to run. These mental grooves we call our tendencies, which makes it possible to predict fairly accurately just how each of us will behave in any given situation. To put it another way, the sum of our karmas represents our character. As new karmas are added and previous karmas exhausted or neutralized, our character changes.

While agreeing on the phenomenon of karma, Vedanta and Buddhism have different views of reincarnation. With the former, a person who dies does not, except in the case where he or she has identified with the Atman, pass into a permanent state of being in heaven or hell or elsewhere, but is reborn into another existence which will terminate in due time and necessitate yet another birth. Rebirth follows rebirth in an endless chain and may occur in any of a series of planes, or upon earth in any of the forms of life, vegetable, animal, or human.

Since Buddhism does not accept the existence of a soul of any kind, it has a decidedly different take on reincarnation. In Buddhism the karma-laden ego passes from one life to the next but in the manner of, for example, a seal that is pressed upon wax. What passes from the former to the latter is the elements engraved on the seal and then retained by the wax. Nothing substantial is involved. Another analogy is the passing of a flame from one candle to another. In both Buddhism and Vedanta this process is quite impersonal, which is to say that unlike Christianity, there is no old man with a white beard sitting on a celestial throne passing judgement on one's fate. And one's fate does not include an endless heaven or hell.

Vedanta holds that the individual can escape from karma and reincarnation at any moment, as soon as he realizes, which can take a while, that he is the Atman. The Atman is not subject to reincarnation. In Buddhism, getting free of karma and reincarnation comes only with the attainment of enlightenment, when the individual ego ceases to call itself "I" and dissolves in the featureless purity of Nirvana, as a drop of spray is merged in a sea.