HOW KARMA AFFECTS OUR LIVES

AND HOW MUSIC CAN SOFTEN ITS IMPACT

Graveson Mark Adam

Abstract:

When the word ‘Karma’ is spoken, generally it doesn’t have a very positive meaning. If people suffer from accidents or from illness, they generally say that Karma must have had something to do with them. Therefore they might go to a fortune-teller or to a temple and start to pray. Actually Karma simply refers to the principle of ‘Cause and effect’. Innen is mixture of two words, In which means the direct cause that makes a result happen and Nen means the indirect cause that helps it to grow. The cause is like a seed which nurtured by such things as moisture, fertilizer and soil. This nurtured seed sprouts, grows and bears fruit which is its natural result. The seed contains the potential to germinate, but without proper conditions being met, the seed cannot sprout. (As a scientific parallel, one could say that genes determine the predisposition of certain behaviors and environmental factors subsequently trigger the manifestation of those behaviors.

The principle of cause and effect is described in detail in the Abdhidarma-Kosha, a fifth-century treatise which is associated with the Indian monk, Vasabundhu.

It discusses the concepts of the ‘Six causes’, the ‘four conducive conditions’ and the ‘five results’. I would like to speak briefly now about its contents.

It opens by saying that all the variety in the world arises from the actions of living beings. All actions have their origin in the mind.