Karma: What It Is, What It Isn't, Why It Matters

✍ Scribed by Traleg Kyabgon

• Publisher: Shambhala
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 160
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A jargon-free explanation of two central teachings of the Buddha: karma and rebirth.

The Buddha’s teaching on karma (literally, “action”) is nothing other than his compassionate explanation of the way things are: our thoughts and actions determine our future, and therefore we ourselves are largely responsible for the way our lives unfold. Yet this supremely useful teaching is often ignored due to the misconceptions about it that abound in popular culture, especially oversimplifications that make it seem like something not to be taken seriously. Karma is not simple, as Traleg Kyabgon shows, and it’s to be taken very seriously indeed. He cuts through the persistent illusions we cling to about karma to show what it really is—the mechanics of why we suffer and how we can make the suffering end. He explains how a realistic understanding of karma is indispensable to Buddhist practice, how it provides a foundation for a moral life, and how understanding it can have a transformative effect on the way we relate to our thoughts and feelings and to those around us.

✦ Table of Contents

Foreword by Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Seventeenth Karmapa
Introduction

1.   The Origins of the Concept of Karma
2.   The Buddha’s View of Karma
3.   The Yogacara School’s Contribution to Karmic Theory
4.   The Bardo Teachings on Death, Intermediate State, and Rebirth
5.   No Karma—Emptiness and the Two Truths
6.   Meaning in Life and the Fear of Death
7.   Immortality, Reincarnation, and Rebirth
8.   Karmic Theory as a Possible Foundation for Ethics
9.   The Empirical Aspects of Karmic Theory and Rebirth
10.  Working with Karma

✦ Subjects

Buddhism Religious World History Religion Spirituality Tibetan Karma Other Eastern Religions Sacred Texts