Q: What is karma?
A: It is cause and effect. When someone commits a
crime, he suffers the consequences. That is karma. When someone
does good, he enjoys the consequences. That is karma. But karma
runs deep; its affects our hearts and minds. From the beginning,
mind is absolutely pure. If we are unkind, deceitful, greedy or
cruel, we defile that purity. Imagine a plain white cloth,
beautiful, bright and clean. And then imagine someone splattering
it with black ink. The cloth is then spoilt. The mind is like the
white cloth. Like and dislike, greed and hatred, are like the ink
splattered across it. When the mind is unmarked and unspoilt,
suffering and enjoyment do not exist. This is happiness beyond
pleasure, beyond karma. All karma is impermanent and runs out in
due course. A Buddhist will learn how to get off the karmic see-saw
of pleasure and pain.