God is karma (the righeousness of God)

This is part of a series reflecting on God-talk and Buddhist terminology. It is an opening to dialogue, not a final word on the subject.


Karma is such a heavy word in so many ways. And it gets tossed around quite a bit. When you toss around heavy things, there is likely to be some damage as a result. I will try to handle it with care.

Karma in the Buddhist sense of the word is at its simplest the notion of cause and effect. Only in Buddhism, these are different sides of the same coin. Both come into existence simultaneously, one is simply delayed in manifesting in a visible way.

In the case of karma from harmful behavior how often you engage in such a particular behavior, how you feel about what you've done, whether you have regretted your actions and made amends, and whether you have worked to oppose such harmful consequences and promote beneficial ones can lessen the impact of the karmic effect of your actions. The opposite can intensify the karmic effect.

A similar pattern holds true for the effects of beneficial behavior, and sometimes this is referred to as merit rather than karma. Yet both forms of karma can be the basis of unhealthy and destructive attachments. This is easier to appreciate for negative karma, but it is true for merit as well when we get want to get credit and recognition for our good deeds.

This is seen in the story of a king who asks how much merit he will get for building grand Buddhist shrines and temples. He is told he will receive none. The Bible has similar stories of people who want to increase their social status and see their piety and alms as a cause for boasting. Truly those people have already received their reward, Jesus tell his disciples. In other words, it was a worthless offering in the sight of God.

Which brings us to the question of how karma and God might be related.