There are four aspects of karma as follows:

The Certainty of Karma

All happiness in the sense of feelings of ease — whether of ordinary or noble beings, including even the slightest pleasures such as the rising of a cool breeze for a being born in a hell — arises from previously accumulated virtuous karma.

It is impossible for happiness to arise from nonvirtuous karma.

All sufferings in the sense of painful feelings — including even the slightest suffering occurring in an arhat’s mind-stream — arise from previously accumulated nonvirtuous karma. It is impossible for suffering to arise from virtuous karma. The Precious Garland:

From nonvirtues come all sufferings

And likewise, all miserable realms.

From virtues come all happy realms

And the joys in all rebirths.

Consequently, happiness and suffering do not occur in the absence of causes, nor do they arise from incompatible causes such as a divine creator or a primal essence. Rather, happiness and suffering, in general, come from virtuous and nonvirtuous karma, and the various particular happinesses and sufferings arise individually, without even the slightest confusion, from various particular instances of these two kinds of karma.

Attaining certain knowledge of the definiteness, or nondeceptiveness, of karma and its effects is called the correct viewpoint for all Buddhists and is praised as the foundation of all virtue.

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The Magnification of Karma

An effect of immense happiness may arise from even a small virtuous karma. An effect of immense suffering may arise from even a tiny nonvirtuous karma. …

Therefore, solidify the certainty that even the subtlest of virtuous and nonvirtuous actions follow you like shadows and produce both great happiness and great suffering. Then, strive to cultivate even the subtlest of virtues and to eliminate even the subtlest of sins and infractions. The Collection of Indicative Verses:

Just as the shadows of birds who dwell In the sky move along with them, Beings are followed by What right and what wrong they have done.

Just as when those with few provisions Set out on the road and travel in suffering,

Living beings who have not cultivated good karma Travel to the miserable realms.

Just as when those who have prepared many provisions Set out on the road and travel in happiness, Living beings who have cultivated good karma Travel to the happy realms.

And also:

Do not scorn even the tiniest sin, Thinking that it will do no harm; It is through the accumulation of drops of water That a great vessel gradually fills.

And further:

Do not think that the commission Of even a tiny sin will not pursue you. Just as a large vessel is filled By falling drops of water, So too is a fool filled up with sins Accumulated a little at a time.

Again, the Garland of Birth Stories:

By accustoming themselves to virtuous and nonvirtuous karma Humans become habituated to these actions. Though you may ignore such matters, In other lives you will experience their effects, like a dream.

Those who do not train in generosity, ethical discipline, and the like May have good family lineages, good bodies, and health, And may have great power or enormous wealth, But they will not find happiness in future lives.

As for those whose family lineage and such are inferior but who are not attached to sin And who have qualities such as generosity and ethical discipline, Their happiness in future lifetimes will grow

As surely as the monsoons of summer fill up the ocean.

Once you have become certain that virtuous and nonvirtuous karma Give rise to happiness and suffering in lives beyond, Eliminate sins and make effort at virtuous actions. You without faith, do as you will.

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Not Experiencing the Effects of Actions that You Did Not Do

If you have not accumulated the karma that is the cause for an experience of happiness or suffering, you will in no way experience the happiness or suffering that is its effect.

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The Actions You Have Done Do Not Perish

Those who have done virtuous and nonvirtuous actions create pleasant and unpleasant effects. As Udbhatasiddhasvamin’s Praise of the Exalted One says:”

The brahmins say that virtue and sin May transfer to others — like giving and receiving a gift. You [O Buddha] taught that what one has done does not perish And that one does not meet with the effects of what one has not done.

Furthermore, the King of Concentrations Sutra states:

Further, once you have committed an action, you will experience its effect; And you will not experience the effects of what others have done.

Moreover, the Bases of Discipline says:

Even in one hundred eons Karma does not perish. When the circumstances and the time arrive Beings surely feel its effects.

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Source: Based on Tsong-kha-pa. Translated by The Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee. The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. Volume One. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 2000.

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