Expert: Justin Choo - 5/10/2011

Question
Hello there! All these while I was told that every action from us will have an effect of karma, be it words, speech, or our thoughts. I am slightly stunned to know that in Buddhism, what we think, will also lead to a karmic effect!

Does this mean that everytime we have a negative or distorted thought in our mind, something bad will happen to us in reality? Surely this doesn't mean that a person who always thinks of good and happy things will receive good things in life...does it? Surely this doesn't make sense because if this were true, one who always daydreams about riches in life will get them!

Or does this mean that word, action, and though we make must be in line and consistent - all good, or all bad, so as to allow something "good" or "bad" to happen to us?

So if we were in a tough situation, does it really "help" when we visualize good things in mind? Similarly, when we have a distorted thought (sometimes not even accidentally) will something bad happen to us? (this is really frightening)

No wonder they ask us to be optimistic !

I hope that you can guide me on this and how we should use our minds to achieve a better karmic retribution and better life. Thank you and metta.

Answer
Hi John,

I like your question.  Very down to earth and pertinent to everyday life.  I am sure you have read motivation and self-development books.  These authors mosy likely are not Buddhists nor even know Buddhism.  What they wrote are similar to the Buddha's teachings.  The Buddha revealed that every conscious act or speech is preceeded by the mind's thoughts.  Even based on logic alone, we can agree that if we constantly think negative thoughts, our behaviour would tend towards negativity.  The other way holds true with positive thoughts.  Our thought pattern will certainly attract results that are consistent with it.  This means consistent negative thought pattern will attract negative results, while consistent positive thought pattern will attract positive results.  

There is certainly a strong correlation between thoughts and results.  When we have angry and hateful thoughts, we can feel our bodies being heated up and aggitated.  With such thoughts in our mind, our immediate actions and speech would become hateful and aggrassive.  With kind thoughts, we will behave calmly and friendly.  

Now we talk about kamma. We cannot equate each act with an immediate corresponding result. This is too naive. We may view the effects of kamma like the hour glass.  The sum of all our conscious actions, speech and thoughts will in due course produce corresponding results.  The proportions and timing are not known to us.  So we can say, "Kamma works in mysterious ways".  

And yes you are right, we should be optimistic.   

Take care.

Justin Choo