The doctrine of kamma is probably the most misunderstood of all the Buddha’s teachings. The four most common misunderstandings are these.
(1) Everything which happens to us is the result of our past kamma. In actual fact, Buddhism recognized at least four other broad causes of why things happen, including because of the operation of natural laws (dhamma niyama), biological laws (baja niyama), physical laws (utu niyama) and psychological laws (citta niyama, Atthasalani.854; A.III,62).
(2) We can never escape from the consequences of our past actions. If this were true then we would be completely determined by our past and be unable to change and attain enlightenment (A.I,249). The Buddha spoke of two types of determinism (niyativada); theistic determinism (issaranimmana hetu) which says that God knows and controls everything and thus has determined everything before it has happened and (2) kammic determinism (pubbekata hetu) which says that everything we experience, pleasant, painful or neutral, is due to our kamma, that is, how we have acted in the past. The Buddha said that both these ideas are not only false but also pernicious (A.I,173). Determinism means that the individual cannot choose one course of action over another, cannot make an effort to change anything and is not responsible for anything he or she does. Such a belief can only lead to irresponsibility and inactivity - ‘What can I do? It’s my past kamma.’ As the Buddha very correctly said, ‘If anyone were to say that we experience (the results of) a deed exactly as we have done it then it would be impossaible to cultivate the spiritual life’ (A.I,248). In much of Buddhist Asia the widely held belief that everything is due to kamma is used as an excuse for peoples’ lack of social concern. What Buddhism does teach is that several strong intentional good actions may very well modify or even cancel out a bad action and vice versa (Dhp.173). The Buddha also said that a minor negative action done by a bad person may well have a significant consequence while a relatively strong negative action done a basically good person may have little effect, and visa versa. He compared it to throwing a hand full of salt in a pot of water and another hand full in a large lake (A.I,248). Thus it is more correct to say that we are conditioned by our kamma rather than determined by it.
(3) Our experiences in the present life are due to what we did in our last life and what we do now will have an effect in the future life. In reality, many, probably most, of our actions have a result immediately or soon after we have done them, i.e. in the present life. Why the insistence on every life but the present one? Lend someone a helping hand and chances are you will notice the positive effect of it very soon. Punch someone in the head and you might find yourself down at the police station very soon.
(4) The fourth common misunderstanding about kamma is what might be called ‘kammic naivety;’ i.e. kick a monk in this life and you will be reborn with a club foot in your next life, swear in this life you will have halitosis in the next life, be generous in this life you will be rich in your next life. This, of course, is just plain stupid. Because kamma is primarily psychological (i.e. intention), its manifestation is primarily psychological. It only affects our physical form and circumstances to the degree that the mind can have an influence on the physical, as for example when prolonged worry can contribute physical illness. The main effect kamma has upon us is how we feel; happy, neutral or unhappy. Some of the things people say because of kammic naivety could only be described as laughable (e.g. be nasty to the Tibetans and you’ll have an earthquake on your hands. Why didn’t the people who decided on and implemented China’s Tibet policy have their houses fall down?). Others cause a lot of pain. A mother who had recently given birth to a severely deformed child told me through her tears that a Thai monk had informed her that this was her punishment for having done something evil in her former life. Even if this were true it would have been a tactless and cruel thing to say. Nothing I could say to the poor woman was able to undo the damage this ignorant comment had caused and later she turned to Christianity.