In popular Western culture, karma means something like cosmic justice — do good, good things happen; do bad, bad things happen. It's used casually: "That's karma," we say, when someone gets what they deserve.
The actual concept, developed in depth by both Hinduism and Buddhism, is considerably more sophisticated — and the two traditions disagree on some fundamental points.
The Shared Foundation
Both traditions agree on the basics: karma refers to the law of cause and effect as applied to volitional action. Every intentional action — physical, verbal, or mental — produces consequences. Those consequences shape future experience, including experiences in future lives.
The word *karma* comes from the Sanskrit root *kri*, "to do." At its simplest, karma just means action. But in both Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, it refers specifically to action that creates consequences that must eventually be experienced.
The Hindu View
In Hindu philosophy, karma is intimately connected to the concept of the eternal soul (*atman*) and the cycle of rebirth (*samsara*). The soul accumulates karma over many lifetimes. Good karma (*punya*) leads to favorable rebirths — as a human, a deity, or in pleasant circumstances. Bad karma (*papa*) leads to unfavorable rebirths.
The goal is not to accumulate good karma but to eventually escape the karma cycle entirely through *moksha* — liberation. The Bhagavad Gita's solution is karma yoga: acting without attachment to results, offering action to God. Unattached action does not create binding karma.
This means karma in Hinduism is tied to a permanent self that carries consequences across lifetimes.
The Buddhist View
Buddhism complicates this picture in a radical way: there is no permanent self. What we call "I" is a constantly changing collection of mental and physical processes. So what exactly carries karma from one life to the next?
The Buddhist answer involves *consciousness* as a causal stream — not a soul, but a flow of mental energy shaped by intention. Each intentional action leaves a *mental formation* (*cetana*) that influences the stream of consciousness and shapes future experience — including the next rebirth.
For Buddhism, what matters most is *intention*, not the action itself. An unintentional harmful act creates less karma than an intentional one. The practice of meditation is partly aimed at seeing intentions clearly — catching harmful impulses before they become actions.
Where They Diverge
The crucial difference: in Hinduism, there is a permanent self that experiences the fruits of karma. In Buddhism, there is no such self — karma operates as cause and effect within a stream of consciousness that has no fixed owner.
Both traditions agree that clinging and craving generate karma. But their solutions differ: Hinduism often emphasizes offering action to God; Buddhism emphasizes non-attachment and seeing clearly the impermanence of all phenomena.
The Practical Upshot
Despite philosophical differences, both traditions agree on practical ethics: intentional harmful action always has consequences, kindness and generosity create positive conditions, and the goal is ultimately to be free of the endless chain of cause and effect entirely.