The Buddha’s Teachings on Karma and Rebirth - this is a very long essay on what the Buddha taught in the Pali Canon in regard to karma (i.e. the law of cause and effect) and rebirth, so I have split it up into a series of articles with its own page.

  • The Three Types of Knowledge - According to earliest records of the Buddha’s life and teachings on the night of his awakening the Buddha realized three types of knowledge that pertain to the teaching of karma and rebirth.

  • Mundane and Supramundane Right View – The Buddha positively asserted in his teachings that right view as it pertains to conditioned existence includes karma and rebirth.

  • Rebuking Wrong Views of Cause and Effect – The Buddha even rebuked those who held views that would negate karma and rebirth.

  • Karma as One of the Laws of Nature – One must not make the mistake of conflating karma and the law of cause and effect. Karma is actually just one type of causality encompassed by the law of cause and effect. This means that karma does not in fact determine everything so in Buddhism there is no such thing as karmic determinism.

  • Intentional Actions and Their Consequences – Karma is an intentional act of thought, word, or deed. Intentional activity sows the seeds that ripen into character and either fortune or misfortune.

  • The Complexities of Karma – The subtle workings of the law of karma are such that we should not presume to guess about the karmic balance of oneself or others, rather one should concentrate here and now on refraining from bad causes, making good , and unbinding oneself from karmic entanglement.

  • Six Paths of Rebirth – According to Buddhism there are five (or six depending on how you parse it) paths of rebirth, each of which corresponds to a particular state of mind that characterize a way of relating to the world. These are also known as the six lower worlds.

  • Transcending Karma and Rebirth – The most important part about the Buddhist teachings concerning karma and rebirth is that they are not inevitable, the chains of karma can be broken and there is liberation from the cycle of rebirth and redeath.

  • Sources – for the Articles on Karma and Rebirth.