Karma

Is the popular notion of karma ultimately incompatible with Christian teaching on the nature of Divine Justice (and Love)? Does the Chinese notion of bo ying, revenge, originate in Buddhism, or does it predate the arrival of Buddhism in China? The Buddhist notion of karma does not seem to be identical to karma as it is popular understood. It seems that there is at least a separation between a theistic notion of karma and an atheistic one.

According to Christian teaching, God may permit others to do evil as a punishment for sin, both individual and collective. Often our acceptance of karma can be summed up in the wish, "May the evil that you do (to me) be returned to you (by someone else)." If we are injured we seek some manner of redress, though we sinners often forget that we ourselves have injured others as well. It doesn't have to be a big injury -- just a slight or small gesture of disrespect (or lack of acknowledgment or consideration, especially of our feelings) can trigger a desire for karma along with the appropriate emotional response. It is rather like the flip side of the "Golden Rule," whether it be expressed positively (as in Christianity) or negatively (as in Confucianism), though it goes beyond it, since it may not happen that evil will be revisited by a similar evil action.

That we sin knowingly and willingly is a sufficient punishment in itself, because by our sin we prevent ourselves from obtaining our ultimate end. And yet, there definitely is a place within Christian teaching for temporal punishments, committed by other agents, as well.