Buddhist Karma Quotes & Sayings

When action comes out of nothing it creates no karma. — Gautama Buddha

One who previously made bad karma, but who reforms and creates good karma, brightens the world like the moon appearing from behind a cloud. — Gautama Buddha

From a Buddhist point of view, the actual experience of death is very important. Although how or where we will be reborn is generally dependent on karmic forces, our state of mind at the time of death can influence the quality of our next rebirth. So at the moment of death, in spite of the great variety of karmas we have accumulated, if we make a special effort to generate a virtuous state of mind, we may strengthen and activate a virtuous karma, and so bring about a happy rebirth. — Dalai Lama

Just as one can make a lot of garlands from a heap of flowers, so man, subject to birth and death as he is, should make himself a lot of good karma. — Gautama Buddha

The way of presentation is different according to each religion. In theistic religions like Buddhism, Buddhist values are incorporated. In nontheistic religions, like some types of ancient Indian thought, the law of karma applies. If you do something good, you get a good result. Now, what we need is a way to educate nonbelievers. These nonbelievers may be critical of all religions, but they should be decent at heart. — Dalai Lama

As I apprehend the Buddhist doctrine of karma, I agree in principle with that. — William James

Be grateful to everyone is about making peace with the aspects of ourselves that we have rejected ... If we were to make a list of people we don't like - people we find obnoxious, threatening, or worthy of contempt - we would discover much about those aspects of ourselves that we can't face ... other people trigger the karma that we haven't worked out. — Pema Chodron

It's considered very, very bad karma, if I can cut to the chase, to take power from a teacher and not use it for something very positive. — Frederick Lenz

The universe that we inhabit and our shared perception of it are the results of a common karma. Likewise, the places that we will experience in future rebirths will be the outcome of the karma that we share with the other beings living there. The actions of each of us, human or nonhuman, have contributed to the world in which we live. We all have a common responsibility for our world and are connected with everything in it. — Dalai Lama

It is impossible to build one's own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings. — Daisaku Ikeda

What is required is the finding of that Immovable Point within one's self, which is not shaken by any of those tempests which the Buddhists call 'the eight karmic winds': 1-fear of pain, 2-desire for pleasure; 3-fear of loss; 4-desire for gain; 5-fear of blame, 6-desire for praise; 7-fear of disgrace; [and] 8-desire for fame. — Joseph Campbell

By practicing Buddhist Yoga, you can become happy, ecstatic and free in your current incarnation, even if you have never been that way before in any of your past lives. — Frederick Lenz

I believe in kindness and karma - which could make me a Buddhist. I believe in mystic healing and crystals' powers - which could make me a witch. I believe in truth, honor, and forgiveness - which could make me a Christian. I even believe in the existence of past lives and that each and every one of us is watched over by guides from the other side - which, to some, would make me totally woo-woo squared. — Emma Mildon

I remember a Buddhist teachers reflections on the Holocaust ... What terrible karma those Jews mustve had ... This kind of fundamentalism, which blames the victims and rationalizes their horrific fate, is something no longer to be tolerated quietly. It is time for ... modern Buddhism to outgrow it by accepting social responsibility and finding ways to address such injustices. — David Loy

In the early Buddhist view, then, a persons identity resides not in an enduring self but in his actions (karma)- that is in the choices that shape these actions. Because the dispositions formed by previous choices can be modified in turn by present behaviour, this identity as choice-maker is fluid, its experience alterable. While it is affected by the past, it can also break free of the past. — Joanna Macy

I don't know what religious people do. I kind of wished I'd been a Christian with the blind faith that God is doing the right thing. As a Buddhist, you feel like you have more control over the situation, and that you can change your karma. — Marcia Wallace

A more traditional Buddhist analysis, however, would eventually have to come around to ascribing ultimate responsibility to the prostitute herself, for the doctrine of karma must affirm that people's circumstances are ultimately the results of their own past actions, even if the vehicles of bringing those circumstances about might be the unmeritorious actions of others. Through the doctrine of interbeing, moral responsibility is decentered from the solitary individual and spread throughout the entire social system. This is an important element of engaged Buddhism, which again emphasizes systemic and not just individual causes of suffering. — David L. McMahan

Can there be a completely different set of laws of physics in a different universe, or do the laws of physics as we understand them hold true in all possible universes? If the answer is that a different set of laws can operate in a different universe system, this would suggest (from a Buddhist perspective) that even the laws of physics are entangled with the karma of the sentient beings that will arise in that universe. — Dalai Lama XIV

The Sanskrit word for awareness is smriti, which no one can pronounce. This may explain why awareness has not become as well-known in the west as karma, dharma, and nirvana. — George K. Ilsley

Karma is the record of services. Karma is the term used in Buddhist teaching. Taoists use the term te. Christians us the term "deed." Many other spiritual beings use the term "virtue." Karma, te, deed, and virtue are the same thing but in different words. To understand karma is to understand all of these words. — Zhi Gang Sha

They have no business administering government policies in a country that favors freedom and equality ... Can you imagine having the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as defense minister, or Mahatma Gandhi as minister of health, education, and welfare The Hindu and Buddhist idea of karma and the Muslim idea of kismet, or fate condemn the poor and the disabled to their suffering ... It's the will of Allah. These beliefs are nothing but abject fatalism, and they would devastate the social gains this nation has made if they were ever put into practice. — Pat Robertson

Buddhists understand that today and all other days have turned out the way they have because of karma. The interconnection of one moment with another moment, of one action with another action, is karma. — Frederick Lenz

The role of the Buddhist teacher is to explain your options and to show you what creates karma. All our discussions are basically karmic until you're fully engaged in samadhi. — Frederick Lenz

The Buddhist, who thanks no man, who says "Do not flatter your benefactors," but who, in his conviction that every good deed can by no possibility escape its reward, will not deceive the benefactor by pretending that he has done more than he should, is a Transcendentalist. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we hunt or fish, we deliberately kill a defenseless being who wishes us no harm. This is a direct violation of the First Precept. It is absolutely forbidden to Buddhists. As to eating meat, we know that the only way we can obtain it is for an animal to be killed. Therefore, when we eat meat, it is our intent that an innocent animal should die to satisfy our addiction to flesh. And that underlying intention, no matter how well hidden behind a smokescreen of rationalizations will block the growth of compassion and create negative karma. — Norm Phelps