Around 563 BC, Buddhism began, which puts it ahead before Christianity even began, about 500 years ago. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama who was born as a prince in a small kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayas. Gautama's father kept him within the castle walls to avoid the Brahmin's prophecy that his son would be an ascetic. So, Gautama grew up in a luxurious life, was protected from the outside world and was entertained by dancing girls. At the same time, he was trained in physical activities such as; archery, fencing, wrestling, swimming and running. However, Gautama met a sick man, an old man and a dead man on his way home. Then he became aware of human suffering in this world. As a result, he left his kingdom to become an ascetic and developed the Middle Way, a moderate path between self-mortification and self-indulgence. This will help someone achieve Enlightenment. As a result, he was called Buddha which means "The Enlightened One". But calling it a religion in itself would be an injustice. It is more of a school that teaches moral thoughts and principles, as well as a cult religion that preaches the idea of ​​spiritual development leading to kindness and wisdom. For Buddha, everyone should want to follow this in their path through life. There are several core values ​​to study and practice in Buddhism. These teachings came from past experiences that Buddha experienced in his life that were used and still uses to teach others. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay However, Buddhism is not like any other religion. It is very different from the others. For example, beliefs about the “afterlife”. In some religions, the ultimate goal is to be one or to be together with their creator, the Almighty Father. Besides that, they should follow the commandments, do good deeds, and follow what the Scriptures say. However, when you didn't follow their beliefs and didn't make your stay here on Earth worthwhile and did totally the opposite of what you should do, they believed that you will go to Hell as punishment and suffer there in the afterlife. However, in Buddhism there is no God, the ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Nirvana, it is not a place but rather a state of mind. only you, yourself can do it. There will be no God in Buddhism who can save you and help you achieve your goal. To have nirvana, you should be enlightened. In this state of mind, all negative traits should be removed such as greed, ignorance and hatred. However, if you did not reach Nirvana, you would enter samsara; the cycle of birth and rebirth. It's all because of your karma, reaping what you sow. Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning "action" or "doing". O'Brien said that in Buddhism, karma has a more specific meaning, which is a volitional or voluntary action. These are the fruits of your past actions or decisions in life. It may also predict what will happen to you in your afterlife. Doing wholesome gestures can generate positive karma, but unhealthy gestures can generate negative karma. The idea of ​​Nirvana is to cease suffering through individual liberation. However, in early Buddhism there is no concrete belief in rebirth and karma. Instead of proving oneself incompetent, the early Buddhist notion of karma focused on what the mind thinks and does at any moment. That's when the idea of ​​karma was born, they explained it as a domino effect. Whatever we do, it will always backfire on us. Our decisions and every action have an effect attached, it can also be combined with cause and effect. The actions thatwe perform are the causes and the effect of such actions will be our karma. Furthermore, karma is not a superstitious belief, it is an automatic law of justice. Since karma is the foundation of the doctrine of Buddhism. The Buddha defined three types of karma a human being can do: (i) The karma of words, (ii) The karma of sarir and (iii) The karma done by the mind. Just like Tenzing said, I agree with what he said. That the karma of the mind or intention is the most important thing. Since this is the starting point of our actions. This is where we filter, where we evaluate and where we think deeply about the actions we will take, it will give indications of what we will do, whether we will take acceptable actions or not. Specifically, our mind which helps our consciousness determine the consequences of our actions. Geshe Rabten, a modern Tibetan author, then states that the law of karma is “Just as a seed cannot grow into a plant of a different kind, so our actions can only produce actions of their own kind.” He stated that what we plant is what will produce. You cannot expect that when you plant an apple tree you will produce a mango tree. The law of karma helps us improve the quality of life we ​​live in and in the next life we ​​have. To do this, Buddha helped us understand him more through his teachings. Through his teachings we can avoid things that will lead ourselves and others to suffering. And could experience immense happiness and could form purer happiness. I said that there are other religions besides Buddhism. Some of these are Hinduism and Jainism. Hinduism is in fact the best known religion in the West. They believed in a Supreme Being and were committed to following their concepts such as truth, suffering and karma. And he believed in the authority of the Vedas, their sacred scriptures. While Jainism is a religion that teaches salvation through perfection through successive lives and non-offence to living creatures and is known to ascetics to use three guiding principles also called the “three jewels”; the right belief, the right knowledge and the right conduct. The three above-mentioned religions share many common interests, one of which is the law of karma. In Buddhism, the law of karma is the principle of universal causality. When you do good deeds you will get good results while when you do bad deeds you may get bad results. But in Hinduism, behaving correctly and what is correct according to one's caste system is the karmic quality of a person. While in Jainism, the karmic quality is based on their seven truths also called as their fundamental principles, through the activities of the mind, speech and body are also believed to stimulate their karmic quality. Regardless, it has been argued that the theory of karma and moral justice should not cause confusion since "justice" is such a great word and was originated by a Divine Being, a God who makes the law and decides what is right and wrong. While karma is the fruit of your own actions. No one can be blamed except you. It is not an external force, no one has ordered that you can experience it. Buddhists believe that we create our own destiny, it is in our hands. But since not all of us are aware of this, many lead to suffering. That's why they are helping us to be enlightened to become aware and be conscious of our actions. Furthermore, being human is not measured by the judgment of others through our past decisions and actions we have done. Because through our past mistakes we can learn and we can change at any time through our free will. Sayadaw said that the result of our past actions and ourpresent actions, we ourselves are responsible for them. This is what the law of karma tries to tell us. We experience suffering and misery because of our own actions. Let us create our own heaven and our own hell. We ourselves are the architects of our lives. Just as stated in one of the Buddha's teachings, the Four Noble Truths, we should be aware that suffering is a part of life. Life is not just fantasy and beautiful things. There will be times in your life when you will suffer. Everyone will feel suffering and this should not stop you from experiencing happiness once again. Another teaching of Buddha said that there is a way to stop suffering. Just like I said, it's not always suffering, you should know how to stop it. Experiencing suffering should motivate you to do good and do something to ease the pain of suffering. At the same time, people should know that karma is not bondage. Tenzing said that karma should not be a dead weight lying on a man's shoulders. It should not hinder someone's life and daily activities. Rather it should help the individual to know if what is right and should have a free choice. The doctrine of karma also explains how our freedom and responsibilities work. Furthermore, Buddhists have only one meaning of karma and that is the universal meaning. However, Jones identified the meanings of karma into two types; universal and psychological. He explained the psychological meaning of karma, which means understanding how to practice ethics. It is more the result of the intentional actions of our body, speech and mind and has good consequences and can lead to a happier life. For example, when you revise and study well for your exam you will undoubtedly get a good result or when you have helped a charity or even someone, the satisfaction of those, especially, when they say their gratitude cannot be compared to your goods materials. While for Jones, the universal meaning of karma is more about universal moral justice. Intentional acts of body, speech and mind will have a consequence corresponding to it. For example, when you go to church and make many offerings to the needy, those deeds will accumulate. So it will never fade away, when your time comes your collected merits will help you have a pleasant rebirth. To summarize, both have different implications in life, the universal law of karma is more related to religious belief while the psychological law is something we can observe over time. In this world, most people fail to understand that what they experience is what they deserve. . Because many people are unaware of these things, they believe that their karma is what they experience in the current moment of life, but it is not. They should know that the karma they experience are consequences of their previous life, that the accidents that have occurred are perhaps free acts or others are in the environment. Since the theory of karma requires that individuals have free will, Buddhists suddenly realized that it has multiple loopholes. That past and present actions have helped shape us for our current situation and at the same time present actions will help us understand the present and the future. Bhikkhu compared the nature of freedom to flowing water. Which the early Buddhists used. That sometimes the flow of our past is so strong that it is hard to resist, but there are also times when the flow is gentle and it is so easy to go in any direction. And instead of going with the flow and doing absolutely nothing, according to the Buddhist notion of man, we should do the exact opposite. We should at least try to do something because everything can change in an instant.