Kamma and the Niyamas

The Law of Kamma is also known as the Law of Cause and Effect.

The Law of Kamma states that volition (i.e. intentional acts) are causes which has effects on our well-being (i.e. whether we suffer or are happy).

The problem with calling the Law of Kamma the Law of Cause and Effect is that it leads people into thinking everything that has causes and effects are due to Kamma.

I certainly thought that way for a long time.

It was only much later, that I learnt that it was not so. Kamma was the law that operates in the moral realm. Besides Kamma, the Buddha recognized at least 4 other laws, know as the Niyamas.

These are the Five Niyamas which the Buddha mentioned:

Utu Niyama: The laws governing the physical inorganic matter.
Biji Niyama: The laws governing the biological matter
Kamma Niyama: The laws governing the moral consequences of violition
Citta Niyama: The laws governing the working of the mind
Dhamma Niyama: The other natural laws.

Even when I later learnt about the Niyamas, I did not pay much attention to them. The concept that "everything is due to Kamma" is so ingrained that I did not appreciate the importance of the other Niyamas.

Why is it that the other four Niyamas are hardly mentioned and most Buddhists remain ignorant about them?

Apparently it was due to the idea that only Kamma Niyama is important because this is the only one which we have direct control over. The other four Niyamas are beyond our control anyway, and hence there is no need to pay them much attention.

I suspect it is also because Kamma is the primary justification Buddhists used to justify the need to lead a life of morality, and hence its emphasis.

However, I think it has lead to problems. First of all, it lead to the naive belief that everything is due to Kamma, and determined by Kamma. I have heard people attributing all sorts of things to Kamma: striking lottery, winning a lucky draw, getting a promotion, catching an illness, meeting an accident, narrowing escaping an accident, surviving a disaster etc.

Secondly, it leads to a belief in Kammic Determinism, i.e. a believe that whatever that is happening to you right now is determined by past Kamma.

Of the five Niyamas, Kamma Niyama is the only one over which we have direct control. While we do not have control over the other Niyamas, we do experience them through Kamma Niyama. What this means is that the operation of these laws are neutral and impersonal. They are not moralistic in nature and do not contain judgmental values. However, through Kamma Niyama, we experience them as good or bad, and thus we becomes happy or we suffers.

Thus, it is not Kamma that determined the physical and material outcomes of our actions. What Kamma determines is whether you are happy, sad, indifferent or abide in equanimity in response to the physical and material outcomes (the physical outcome is really due to the other Niyamas). The more you practice morality, the more you reduce three roots of evil, the more spiritually advanced you become, then the less you would suffer. Hence Kamma leads to happiness, not because of the Kamma contrived to create the physical conditions that made you happy, but because Kamma led you closer to enlightenment and hence your mind do not suffers even in face of adversity.

When I finally I understood this, I thought the significance was enormous, because it does affect attitudes.

There was a time when I too believe that everything is due to Kamma. When I can't explain it, it will be attributed to something like "kamma work in its mysterious ways". Well, didn't the Buddha say not to speculate on the workings of Kamma?

Thus, I remember, many years ago, I wrote in a forum that, if a person have casual sex and then later caught AIDS, that is Kamma.

But now I that I have clearer understanding, I realized how naive and judgmental that is. If indeed Kamma was the force that inflicted AIDS on a person in order to "punish" him for having casual sex, then it would imply that Kamma was the supernatural deterministic force that passed a judgment and manipulated the virus to inflict him. That would imply that the Kamma supercedes the other natural laws -- which is contradictory and not something I believe the Buddha taught.

The Buddha said everything arise through a confluence of conditions. Hence, contracting AIDS is a result of a confluence of conditions. Those conditions includes factors belong to other natural orders (e.g. Biji Niyama, which would determine how the virus spread and how our bodily defence react against it). However, these conditions also include our intentional actions as well (e.g. whether we decide to have casual and unprotected sex with someone).

Whether a person catch the AIDS might depend on many conditions, e.g. was condom used, was there exchange of bodily fluids, was the person's immune defense low, etc. And perhaps, Kamma, might in some ways be a conditioning factor -- I do not know. But I think it would be wrong to say it was DETERMINED by Kamma.

However, this does not mean having casual sex has no Kammic effect. It is after all intentional act -- and anything that involve volition would have an Kammic effect. The need to have a casual sex encounter could be due to a strong lust. The Kammic effects could be any or all of these: stagnating in the spiritual path, stronger bond to samsara, emotional dissatisfaction and anguish from the encounter, stronger sexual desires, some sensual happiness and satisfaction, etc. That is, I believe, Kamma Niyama operates in a way that affects a personal's mind and psychology, and hence his rebirth (since rebirth is conditioned by clinging and desire).

I think it is important that we, as Buddhists, correctly recognize the role of the Niyamas in our daily life, and understand Kamma's effect.

The wrong understanding has lead to a fatalistic passivity towards suffering (the attitude that it is determined by past Kamma and we just have to live it out), as well as a wrong emphasis on the physical outcomes of our actions rather than their effects on our mind.