Karma In Hinduism and Buddhism

Paper Summary:

This study examines and compares the different views of karma in Hinduism and Buddhism, including consideration of the Buddhist theory of dependent origination, the role of actions vs. intentions in karma, and the difference between the Hindu concept of reincarnation and the Buddhist concept of rebirth.

From the Paper:

"This study will examine and compare the different views of karma in Hinduism and Buddhism, including consideration of the Buddhist theory of dependent origination, the role of actions vs. intentions in karma, and the difference between the Hindu concept of reincarnation and the Buddhist concept of rebirth.


The concept of karma in general is not as simple as the popular interpretation of it would hold. Comparing the two religions' views brings out additional subtleties and complexities. On one level, karma would seem to lock the individual into a cycle of behavior from which he has no hope of breaking free, as Schroeder writes with respect to the Hindu definition of the concept:
Karma: "deed, action, impression": The law of causality: all events have causes and results; the principle of universal..."

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