Karma

{{religion}}
{{cquote|What goes around, comes around.|||{{wpl|Paul Crump}} in his novel ''Burn, Killer, Burn''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/burnkillerburn00crum/mode/2up 'Burn, Killer, Burn''] by Paul Crump (1962) Johnson Publishing.</ref> was the first known person to use the phrase according to etymologist {{wpl|Barry Popik||.}}<ref>[https://www.barrypopik.com/new_york_city/entry/what_goes_around_comes_around What goes around, comes around] (January 06, 2010) ''Barry Popik''.</ref>}}
'''Karma''' is a notion of cause and effect with a religious twist, common to many Eastern religions and philosophies, including [[Hinduism]], [[Sikhism]], [[Jainism]], and [[Buddhism]]. There are subtle differences in the ways Hindus and Buddhists understand karma, which can be confusing to outsiders.

Through karma, one's actions are believed to have positive or negative consequences during one's life, or even to determine one's nature when [[reincarnation|reincarnated]]. Strictly speaking, karma is simply the concept that actions have consequences. 

Simplified, abstracted, or dumbed-down versions of karmic philosophy have been adopted in many western [[New Age]] belief systems ever since the [[hippie]] era, and also widely used in popular culture. The westernized conception of karma boils down to the idea that if you do good things, good things will happen to you. In most traditional Indian and Indian-derived religions ([[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]], and especially [[Jainism]]), all karma is considered ultimately unhelpful, and the goal of the serious practitioner is to refrain from incurring any kind of karma, even "good" karma. However, in Buddhism, it is taught that the development of the Eightfold Path is "called [karma]… leading to the ending of [karma]."<ref>[http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.235.than.html Ariyamagga Sutta: The Noble Path]</ref>

Karma has historically been used as justification for a hereditary [[caste]] system. {{cquote|Hindus believe, as they must believe, in reincarnation [and] transmigration, they must know that Nature will, without any possibility of mistake, adjust the balance by degrading a Brahmin, if he misbehaves himself, by [[reincarnation|reincarnating]] him in a lower division, and translating one who lives the life of a Brahmin in his present incarnation to Brahminhood in his next.|||Mahatma Gandhi<ref>[http://www.academia.edu/326347/Changes_in_Mahatma_Gandhis_views_on_caste_and_intermarriage Changes in Mahatma Gandhi’s views on caste and intermarriage]</ref>}} 

==Offensive implications==
Some people have reasoned (backwards?) that [[Blaming the victim|those who have encountered misfortune must have somehow deserved it]], if only in a previous life &ndash; for example, Glenn Hoddle, who was forced to resign after claiming that disabled people must have done something bad in a previous life to have been born with physical deficiencies.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/football/270194.stm Sport: Football Hoddle sacked]</ref> Even worse, [[Shirley Maclaine]] hypothesized that the millions of [[Jews]] killed in the [[Holocaust]] must have done something bad in their past lives.<ref>[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shirley-maclaine-criticized-holocaust-question-773085 Shirley MacLaine Criticized for Holocaust Question: Was It Victims' "Karma"?]</ref>

==In genetics==
The ''Karma'' [[gene]] is a transposon in the [[intron]] of the gene ''DEFICIENS''. ''Karma'' is found in [[Palm oil|oil palm]] (''Elaeis guineensis'') and rice. In oil palm, methylation of the gene causes the fruits to grow normally, but lack of methylation causes a shriveled ("mantled") fruit. Methylated ''Karma'' is known as the Good ''Karma'' epiallele, and hypomethylated ''Karma'' is known as the Bad ''Karma'' epiallele.<ref>[https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bad-karma-can-ruin-palm-oil-crops Bad ''Karma'' can ruin palm oil crops: Cloned trees that lack DNA methylation produce poor fruit] by Tina Hesman Saey (12:26pm, September 11, 2015) ''Science News''.</ref><ref>[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v525/n7570/full/nature15365.html Loss of ''Karma'' transposon methylation underlies the mantled somaclonal variant of oil palm] by Meilina Ong-Abdullah et al., Volume 525 Issue 7570, ''Nature''.</ref>

==Platitudes==
*"Karma's a bitch."
*"[[Deepity#There is a 'do' in dogma|My karma ran over your dogma.]]"

==See also==
*[[Just world hypothesis]]
*[[Blowback]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

__NOTOC__
[[Category:Buddhism]]
[[Category:Eastern religions]]
[[Category:Hinduism]]
[[Category:New Age]]
[[Category:Orientalist woo]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

Categories: Buddhism, Eastern religions, Hinduism, New Age, Orientalist woo, Philosophy