Does karma really exist?

by Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering

The mind becomes conditioned psychologically as we go through life. This means that a sense of self is formed, and this sense — the egoic self, the “I,” “me,” the persona, etc. — is based only upon information, an accretion of many thoughts. This self identifies with all sorts of things, including the body, ideas, people, phenomena, possessions, job titles, roles, religious affiliations, successes and failures, marital roles, gender roles, and so on.

It is the sense of self, often called the egoic mind, that is fearful and seeks stability. It wants everything to have a reason for being. It demands to make sense of seemingly chaotic and threatening existence. We want to believe that there is reward for the good and punishment for the bad. Karma satisfies one’s quest for justice. However, because this self does not really exist except as a belief, there is no one for whom karma applies.

Karma is when the sense of self is fixated on a certain aspect of existence; it has trouble getting past the identification with, and attachment to, ideas and behaviors.

Ultimately, there is no good or bad, there is just one single flow of consciousness that the mind splits into dual components —Yin and Yang, good and bad, hot and cold, tall and short, big and little, fair and unfair, kind and unkind, love and hate, beautiful and ugly. If the mind were to give way to consciousness then this false duality would be clear.

You are God, consciousness
The Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi said, “It is asked, why all this creation so full of sorrow and evil. All one can say is that it is God’s will, which is inscrutable. No motive, no desire, no end to achieve can be attributed to that infinite, all-wise and all-powerful Being. God is untouched by activities which take place in His presence. There is no meaning in attributing responsibility and motive to the One, before it became many. But God’s will for the prescribed course of events is a good solution for the vexed question of free-will.”

The idea of God in Ramana’s statement should not be confused with any sort of religious understanding of God. God is consciousness, the totality of all that is, not an anthropomorphized being that is apart from us. I personally do not like using the word God because it is so overused and misused. Consciousness is a better term. It is consciousness that moves the wind and creates this world; and we as existence are consciousness. Thus, when speaking of God we speak of ourselves without the overlay of the belief of the independent, individual self. And as God, or consciousness, we are the cause of everything — but not in any kind of personal sense.

Regarding karma, Nisargadatta Maharaj explained, “As long as you believe yourself to be a body, you will ascribe causes to everything. I do not say things have no causes. Each thing has innumerable causes. It is as it is, because the world is as it is. Every cause in its ramifications covers the universe…You are looking for the causes of being what you are not! It is a futile search.” The only cause is from consciousness. “For whatever happens, all the universe is responsible and you are the source of the universe.”

As long as we remain attached to this idea that we are bodies with all sorts of identities and attachments, then we suffer from what we imagine to be karma — rewards and punishments. We suffer from ignorance.