KAMMA "Beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions; they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge. It is action that distinguishes beings as inferior and superior.‖ - MN 135 The Buddha also described skillful view as understanding kamma (karma in Sanskrit). Traditionally kamma is described as the moral law of the universe. We are all the owners of our actions. If we commit harmful acts to ourselves or others we shall, at a later time, reap unpleasant results from those actions. If we commit skillful ones we will reap favorable results. According to the Buddhist view, this cycle can occur within our lifetime or a later life. This view, which is a commonly accepted one in Asia where Buddhism began, has it that the kamma we produce and the kamma results we experience are caught up in samsara, an endless cycle of birth and death (and suffering). Buddhist tradition believes that there is no divine agent driving kamma and that there is no beginning of samsara. The goal of practice, many believe, is to get off this samsaric wheel of suffering. Some Western practitioners have difficulty believing in this world view. There has been debate in Western Buddhist circles as to whether belief in kamma is necessary for practice. In many discourses of the Buddha he says that it is. Each practitioner needs to determine for themselves how they want to relate to this aspect of the teachings.
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