The Law of American Karma

I hear the word “karma” used an awful lot these days. When someone mentions karma, they are usually referring the following law: If you do something good, something good will happen to you; if you do something bad, something bad will happen to you. This is the Law of American Karma. I am intrigued with this idea of karma because I see it as a caricature of real religion.

I am reading An Introduction to Buddhism by Peter Harvey currently, because I wanted to know more about the real idea of karma. I have had a hunch that most Americans have a skewed view of it, and from what I have read I am right. Karma is a Buddhist belief that is intertwined with the cycle of rebirth and the attainment of nirvana. In a very brief nutshell, Buddhism teaches that suffering is caused by desire. A person must eliminate desire to escape the cycle of rebirth, which doesn’t happen until he or she attains nirvana, a state of complete non-attachment in which a person is neither conscious nor unconscious. Karma is the idea that your actions influence—and this is key—your future lives. Your current life is influenced by your past lives’ karma. This means that to speak of an action’s karma influencing you in the present life, as far as I can tell, is not a proper Buddhist interpretation. Furthermore, a person who believes in karma necessarily believes in reincarnation.

What does this mean? Most importantly, it means that I am a card-carrying member of Anal Retentives of America (ARA) and the Obsessive Readers’ Guild (ORG). I think it also means that there are many people out there who don’t put a lot of thought into the important questions of life. In this case, people latch on to the word karma, which has been ripped out of its original context and given a new meaning, and go about their merry way. The same happens with many religious words: God/god, spiritual(ity), Jesus. Many people are quite happy to go to the smorgasbord of religion, pick out what looks good to them and alter it to fit their needs.

Is this a good way to look at religion? I would think not. A person’s worldview influences all else he or she does; might it then be more important than grazing at a salad bar? Shouldn’t some thought be given to whether or not his or her religious beliefs equate with reality? One does not get to pick and choose the realities of life; why would one expect to choose their explanations? Likewise, the universe does not care if it “works for” you; therefore, perhaps your worldview should “work for” the universe.

At any rate, for many people, five minutes' worth of serious thought on the subject might be revolutionary.

Are there any other ARA or ORG members out there? Maybe we should get t-shirts or something.

Addendum: For another good example of "religious smorgasbordianism" see this blog on Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.