(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

We’re taught that we accumulate karma through volitional action. (Please click here for detailed description of what karma is, is not, and how it works.) This is  what I call the outer level of karma.

My understanding is that it’s not the action per se that creates karma. It’s the intention. The motivation. What the law calls mens res. That’s what I call the inner level of karma.

(Most of us are not necessarily aware of our real intentions. It takes a lot of honesty and conscious awareness and willingness to really explore.)

The purification process can only be successful if we understand that it is the intention we have to purify, not the action per se.

Specifically, two people can carry out the same action. One person accumulates negative karma. The other person does not. For example, if a fully evolved dharma teacher slaps a student, there is no negative karma because there is no anger. Wrath perhaps. But not anger. If we were to do the same thing, we would probably do so in anger and thus accumulate negative karma.

Why then is it taught that we accumulate karma by our volitional action? Because if we just have an intention, but don’t act on it, then we do not accumulate karma.

As my root guru used to say, “Got it, sweetheart?”