Also karman. [Skr. karma, karman-, action, fate.] In Buddhism, the sum of a person’s actions in one of his successive states of existence, regarded as determining his fate in the next; hence, necessary fate or destiny, following as effect from cause.
1828. B. H. Hodgson, in Trans. R. Asiat. Soc. (1830), II. 250.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 531/1. The progress of the soul towards matter is therefore the effect of a succession of acts (Karma—whence the name of the school Kârmika) on the part of the soul.
1853. P. D. Hardy, Budhism, 39. As the cause of reproduction, karma, is destroyed, it is not possible for him [the rahat] to enter upon any other mode of existence.
1879. Max Müller, Sel. Ess. (1881), II. 495. What the Buddists call by the general name of Karman, comprehends all influences which the past exercises on the present, whether physical or mental.
1882. Wood, trans. Barth’s Relig. India, 112. The individual … entirely perishes. The influence of its karman alone, of its acts, survives it.
1892. Month, Jan., 10. ‘Karma’ … literally signifies ‘action,’ and in Theosophic phraseology indicates the unvarying chain of cause and effect that governs the universe.
