Karma

• Karma does not refer to preordained fate.
• Contrary to what is accepted in contemporary society, the Buddhist interpretation of Karma refers to good or bad actions a person takes during her lifetime.
• Good actions, which involve either the absence of bad actions, or actual positive acts, such as generosity, righteousness, and meditation, bring about happiness in the long run.
• Bad actions, such as lying, stealing or killing, bring about unhappiness in the long run.
• The weight that actions carry is determined by five conditions:
  • Frequent, repetitive action;
  • Determined, intentional action;
  • Action performed without regret;
  • Action against extraordinary persons;
  • Action toward those who have helped one in the past.
• There is also neutral karma, which derives from acts such as breathing, eating or sleeping. Neutral karma has no benefits or costs.

Reincarnation -the cycle of birth

Reincarnation is not a simple physical birth of a person; This cycle is repeated over and over again. Or if one is lucky, s/he will be reborn as a human being. This notion of the transmigration of the soul does not exist in Buddhism.

• According to Buddhist cosmology, when a living being passes away s/he is reborn into one of thirty-one distinct "planes" or "realms" of existence, of which the human realm is just one.
• An increase in the human population simply implies that creatures from other planes are being reborn into the human realm at a rate faster than humans are dying.
• Likewise, a decline in the human population would imply that humans, upon death, are taking rebirth in other planes (or exiting sansara altogether) at a rate faster than other creatures are taking rebirth as humans.
• These sorts of population shifts have been occurring for countless eons and in themselves hold little cosmic significance.