Collective Kamma

After the Tsunami disaster in 2004, many people were asking why do such tragic disasters happen. There were many Christians who asked how can God let such things happen.

From the Buddhist community, two explanations were offered.

The most common explanation that was offered was that it is Kamma. In this case, since it was Collective Kamma since it involved so many people, i.e. it is a phenomenon that happen due to the aggregate Kamma of many people and affected as many people.

The other explanation that was offered was that it is simply a natural disaster. If you live in this planet, you are subjected to the natural forces that operate here and that include natural disasters. There is nothing Kammic about it. Whether there are humans or not, Tsunami would occur every now and then. It is not a phenomena due to Kammic retribution. If Kamma is involved, it is the conditions that lead to this human birth.

Now, I always had some discomfort with Collective Kamma. I did realize that our actions do have effects that can affect our community, society or humanity as a whole. But is it fair that some people not involved in the actions suffer the consequences?

But what came as a very interesting surprise to me was that when I asked Ven Dhammika about Collective Kamma, he said he had not heard of that before. He had not come across it in the Pali scriptures.

That came as a shock to me because I had always thought that was a teaching by the Buddha. I started paying attention to the scriptures. I had not read the scriptures extensively enough, but does seem that where Kamma is mentioned in the scriptures, there is no mention of it being in collective in nature. I am not sure if they are found in the scriptures of Mahayana traditions or not.

This was a situation when I realize then that I had simply relied on hearsay -- some the Buddha had warned against in the Kalama Sutta.

It became clear to me that Collective Kamma is perhaps just something people came out with to explain mass disasters.

But I am not dismissing that our actions do have collective and aggregate effects. But rather, we should see not see those effects as a punishment or reward mete out by the forces of Kamma.

If we want a peaceful and happy community, we have to take certain actions to make that happen. In the end, the consequences may or may not be what we intended -- it all depends on the conditions. It is not Kamma.

If we continue to be greedy and exploit the planet's resources heedlessly, humanity eventually will suffer the consequences -- such as climate change. But climate change is a natural phenomenon. If we continue to spew green house gases into the atmosphere, the planet will heat up. Before there were humans on this planet, the planet had already gone through cycles of warming and freeze. What we are doing is to foolishly feed into the natural forces. It is not Kamma that determine humans should be punished for being greedy and hence decide to heat up the planet.

As long as we are bound to samsaric existence, we will be subjected to the natural laws that operates in those realms of existence. Whether we are happy or we suffers depends on the quality of our consciousness. When we continue to perform actions that generate positive kamma, we cultivate qualities which allows us to face those natural forces and phenomenon with positive attitudes and equanimity, hence leading to happiness and eventually to liberation.

Thus, when we are faced with disasters, whether natural or man-made, do not blame it on kamma. Instead, recognize the causes and effects, which may be due to a variety of conditions, including human actions as well as natural phenomenon. Then respond and deal with those disasters with the correct attitudes and actions that will lead to happiness and liberation.