Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Karma |
KarmaNoun1. (Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "karma" was first used: 1828. (references) |
Etymology: Karma \Kar"ma\, noun. [Sanskrit]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Karma The Buddhist's judgment, which determines at death the future state of the deceased. It is also their flat on actions, pronouncing them to be meritorious or otherwise. In Theosophy, it means the unbroken sequence of cause and effect; each effect being, in its turn, the cause of a subsequent effect. It is a Sanscrit word, meaning "action" or "sequence." "The laws which determine the physical attribution, condition of life, intellectual capacities, and so forth, of the new body, to which the Ego is drawn by affinities ... are ... in Buddhism [called] Karma." - Nineteenth Century, June, 1893, p. 1025. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The law of Karma (Sanskrit), or Kamma (Pali), is a central principle in the Asian religions of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Although these religions express significant disagreement regarding the specific meaning of "karma", all three groups have relatively similar notions of what karma is.
The universal moral law of Karma provides justice and order to a beginningless and endless universe. Alongside this view is the related notion of reincarnation, or rebirth in Buddhism, which has its roots in the principle of Karma.
Often misunderstood in the West as "cause and effect", in actuality, Karma means intention or cause (accompanying this usually is a separate tenet called Vipaka, meaning result or effect). By the will of the individual, the re-action or effect can itself also influence an action, and in this way, the chain of causation may continue ad infinitum.
According to Karma, performance of positive action results with the reaction of a good conditioning in ones experience, whereas a negative action results in a reaction of a bad response. This may be an immediate result following the act, or a delay may delay the result into future the present life or next. Thus, meritorious acts may create rebirth into a higher station, such as a superior human being or a godlike being, while evil acts result in rebirth as a human living in less desirable circumstances, or as a lower animal. While the action of karma may be compared with the Western notions of sin and judgment by God or gods, Karma is held to operate as an inherent principle of the Universe without the intervention of any supernatural being.
Most teachings say that for common mortals, having an involvement with Karma is an unavoidable part of day-to-day living. However, in light of Gautama Buddha's teachings, as well as in Vedanta and Shaivism, one is advised to either avoid, control or become mindful of the effects of desires and aversions as a way to moderate or change one's karma.
The idea of karma was popularized in the west through the work of the Theosophical Society. Western New Age reinterpretations of karma frequently cast it as a sort of luck which is associated with virtue: if one does good or spiritually valuable acts, one deserves and can expect good luck; contrariwise, if one does harmful things, one can expect bad luck or unfortunate happenings. In this conception, karma is affiliated with the Neopagan law of return or Threefold Law, the idea that the beneficial or harmful effects one has on the world will return to oneself.
Intentional Actions
In Buddhism, only intentional actions are karmic "acts of will". However, in Jainism, unintentional action is also included into the make up; while Hinduism has several different ideas of karma, not necessarily compatible with each other.
Jainism
Jainists believe that karma is a form of matter. Mahavira described karma as "clay particles". Jains do not believe in "good karma" or "bad karma"; they try to avoid all karma.See also: Theosophy, Yuanfen
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Karma."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
KARMA | English | Knowledge-based Augmented Reality for Maintenance Assistance | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Right | Scales of justice, evenhanded justice, karma; suum cuique; clear stage, fair field and no favor, level playing field. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Karma |
| Non-English Usage: "Karma" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (karma), Dutch (karma), German (karma), Italian (karma), Spanish (fortune, karma), Swedish (karma), Turkish (combined, composite, integrated, karma, mixed, mixing, olio, public-private, shuffle, shuffling). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | That would depend on how much good karma you want for your next life (Beyond Rangoon; writing credit: Alex Lasker; Bill Rubenstein) Bad, sport, real bad! The karma in here is so thick, you need an aqualung to breathe (Phantom of the Paradise; writing credit: Brian De Palma) | |
Lyrics | Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon (Karma Chameleon; performing artist: Culture Club) I got the karma but it don't come free (Sunshine; performing artist: Aerosmith) I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned (Affirmation; performing artist: Savage Garden) I don't care about your karma (I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead; performing artist: Weird Al Yankovic) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Bad Karma (2002) Karma (1933) The Reincarnation of Karma (1912) Karma Ghost (2002) | |
Song Titles | Instant Karma (performing artist: John Lennon) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Stern of the shrimp trawler F/V KARMA. Credit: Fisheries. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "BS 04" by Lucien Aréstegüi Commentary: "BIO STRUCTURE 04 Picture of my friend Karma, just standing there? Something like that. :) Has interesting tones to it, kinda retro feeling to me, great for certain types of design. Have fun." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Human Rights | Bhutan | Domestic human rights groups allege that the Government has taken no action to punish a government official for the 1998 killing of Buddhist monk Gomchen Karma. (references) |
Worker Rights | China | The Pawo Rinpoche was recognized by the Karmapa and is one of the senior Karma Kargyu lamas remaining in Tibet. (references) |
China | Following the December 1999 flight to India of the Karmapa, leader of Tibetan Buddhism's Karma Kargyu school and one of the most influential religious figures in Tibetan Buddhism, authorities restricted access to Tsurphu monastery, the seat of the Karmapa, and reportedly increased "patriotic education" activities there. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Karma" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 80.00% of the time. "Karma" is used about 50 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 80% | 40 | 54,274 |
| Noun (proper) | 18% | 9 | 117,287 |
| Unclassified Items | 2% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 50 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "karma" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Karma | First name Female | 2,000 | 2,682 |
| Karma | Last name | 100 | 71,515 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "karma"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | karma. (various references) | |
Dutch | karma. (various references) | |
Esperanto | karmo. (various references) | |
German | Schicksal (destiny, doom, fate, fatefulness, fortune, kismet, luck, misfortune, portion), karma. (various references) | |
Italian | karma. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 縁 (bonds, chance, connection, destiny, edge, fate, related to, relation), 業因 , 定め (agreement, appointment, arrangement, decision, destiny, fate, law, provision, regulation, rule), 宿縁 (destiny, fate), 宿業 , 天命 (destiny, God's will, Heaven's decree, one's life), 因果応報 (retribution), 因果 (cause and effect, fate), カルボン酸 (caramel, carboxylic acid). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | しゅくごう, しゅくえん (banquet, destiny, fate, old grudge, old score), さだめ (agreement, appointment, arrangement, decision, destiny, fate, law, provision, regulation, rule), いんがおうほう (retribution), いんが (a negative, cause and effect, fate, print), ごういん (carousing, coercive, drinking, forcible, high-handed, overbearing, pushy), カルマ , てんめい (dawn, daybreak, destiny, God's will, Heaven's decree, one's life), えん (bonds, chance, charming, circle, connection, dam, destiny, false charge, fascinating, fate, garden, hatred, relation, salt, voluptuous, weir, Yen). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | armakay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | carma. (various references) | |
Russian | карма. (various references) | |
Spanish | karma (fortune), carma. (various references) | |
Swedish | karma. (various references) | |
Thai | ชะตากรรม, กรรม. (various references) | |
Turkish | karma (combined, composite, integrated, mixed, mixing, olio, public-private, shuffle, shuffling), kader (destiny, dispensation, doom, fatal, fatality, fate, foreordination, fortune, lot, Moira, predestination, Providence), tâlih (auspiciousness, chance, fate, fortune, luck), önceki yaşamın kaderi belirlediği inancı. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | карма, доля (allotment, chance, cup, destiny, doom, fatality, fate, fortune, lot, nemesis, portion, predestination). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sanskrit | 300 BCE-Modern | karman-. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "karma": karmas. (additional references) | |
| |
"Karma" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Akraman, Akyma, Arma, carma, carmal, cramar, jarma, Kahraman, kaimak, kaimei, kama, kamai, Kamau, kame, Kami, Kamla, Kamu, kara, Karaj, karam, Karambo, karan, karap, Karar, karba, karim, Karima, Karkar, karmah, Karmali, Karman, karmar, Karmen, Karmi, Karmuta, Karna, Karnad, karpa, Karrar, Karsa, Karta, Karwal, Karzay, katra, Kaumi, Kazmi, kera, Kerma, kersmack, kharma, Kilma, kirka, Kirya, korm, kormu, Kouma, Kraka, Kram, krama, krame, Kramm, krams, krava, Kurma, marma, Nkama, Sarma. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "karma" (pronounced kÄ"rmu) |
| 4 | -Ä" r m u | Dharma. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: makar. | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-k-m-r" | |
-1 letter: arak, maar, mark. | |
-2 letters: ama, ark, arm, mar, ram. | |
-3 letters: aa, am, ar, ka, ma. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-k-m-r" | |
+1 letter: karmas, makars, markka. | |
+2 letters: amtrack, earmark, malarky, markkaa, markkas, mazurka, seamark. | |
+3 letters: amtracks, brakeman, capmaker, carmaker, dekagram, earmarks, hallmark, hatmaker, haymaker, keratoma, landmark, lawmaker, malarkey, mandrake, mapmaker, marksman, mazourka, mazurkas, seamarks, skiagram, tamarack, tamarisk, teamaker, trackman, warmaker. | |
+4 letters: amberjack, automaker, capmakers, carmakers, cracksman, dekagrams, earmarked, hackamore, hallmarks, hatmakers, haymakers, karyogamy, keratomas, kerygmata, landmarks, lawmakers, makeready, malarkeys, malarkies, mandrakes, mapmakers, mazourkas, metalmark, pacemaker, playmaker, rainmaker, skiagrams, tamaracks, tamarisks, teamakers, trademark, warmakers, watermark. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Names: Frequency 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Abbreviations 14. Acronyms 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
