What Is Karma (Gou) — The Buddhist Meaning of "Accumulated Deeds" and Its Misreadings

"That, too, must be some karma" — even in everyday talk this word slips out. The karma (gou) meant here is originally an important Buddhist term. This article traces what karma is, from its original meaning to its common misreadings, from a Buddhist and folkloric view.

What is karma (gou)

Karma is what one does with the body, speaks with the mouth, and thinks in the mind — this action of body, speech, and mind, and the force by which it later draws a result. A translation of the Sanskrit "karma" (karman), its original meaning was something quite simple: "action," "deed" itself.

Onto this, Buddhism layered an axis of time: "the deeds you do never vanish and one day return to you." Each single visible act piles up as an unseen force, and in time shapes your circumstances and your next life — this lies at the heart of the idea of karma.

Body, speech, and mind — the three kinds of action

Buddhism grasps human action in three kinds: action by the body (bodily karma), action by words (verbal karma), and what one thinks within the mind (mental karma). Together these are called the three karmas.

What is easily overlooked here is mental karma — the karma of the mind. Karma does not question the deed of the hand alone. Words spoken aloud, and even what one thinks in the heart without telling anyone, are counted as karma. The common notion that "merely thinking it is no sin" does not hold within the teaching of karma. That is how heavily the direction of the mind is weighed.

Good karma, bad karma, and "good cause, good effect"

Karma is said to be of two kinds: good (good karma) and bad (bad karma). Deeds that benefit others or oneself become good karma; deeds that wound and diminish become bad karma. Here Buddhism teaches the reason of "good cause, good effect; bad cause, bad effect" — a good cause bears a good result, a bad cause a bad one.

What matters is that this is not one great blow but the sum of small daily deeds. Not only showy evil is bad karma; a careless unkindness, or looking the other way, quietly piles up too. Conversely, a small kindness done where no one sees is also said not to vanish. In the severity and the gentleness of this accumulation lies the depth of the teaching. The mirror said to reflect this good and evil in Enma's court is the jouhari mirror, also called the karma mirror.

The true meaning of "self-wrought consequence"

To receive oneself the result of the karma one has made — this is called self-wrought consequence. Today it tends to be used in the cold sense of "you deserve the bad you get," but it was originally used for both good and bad. Good deeds bear good fruit, bad deeds bear bad fruit; self-wrought consequence simply, evenly, states that turning of cause and effect.

In other words, the original phrase carries no ring of pushing others away. Rather it was a word of self-acceptance: "my deeds return, in their turn, to me." On this turning of cause and effect, see also The Meaning of Cause and Effect.

The misreading of "deep karma" — not fatalism

"That person's karma is deep." "This too is karma from a past life." From such phrasings, many take karma to mean an unchangeable fate. But this is a great misreading of the teaching.

Karma, in its original sense, is not a fixed destiny. By the same logic that past deeds affect the present, the deeds of this very moment reshape the self to come. Karma is, rather, an active teaching: "the future can still be rewritten." If everything were settled in advance, there would be no meaning in restraining one's conduct or in gathering good. Karma is questioned precisely because we are still beings who can choose.

Yurusen's world and karma

Yurusen is a private app for filing "the people you cannot forgive" into a ledger of judgment and passing verdicts. One who wounds others without a qualm — surely, someday, it returns to them as karma; there are nights we want to believe so.

Yet the law of karma does not tell us when it will return. That is why, even when no judgment falls at once, there is meaning in writing that deed down in your own words. It records the other's bad karma, and at the same time it sets a stagnant feeling outside yourself for a while, lightening the heart. You need not force yourself to forgive. First, simply write it, and file it away.

The forms of those living the worlds of hell and the six realms are gathered on the Wraith Codex page. Go and find, there, the "type" who has piled up bad karma.