The Science of Karma
The Science of Karma is the science of subjective experience. It investigates why we perceive what we do and therefore, how we can create perceptions that we enjoy in the future.
There is a lot of scientific information about perception. In order to present it in an orderly way, we will start at the beginning: discussing a non-scientific, materialistic, common United States cultural understanding of how to achieve the life we want:
Common Method
As discussed in "common method," people usually think of themselves as a person, navigating through life, trying to get the things that they want and avoid things that they don't like. The more we get what we want and avoid what we don't want, the happier we are. This method for achieving life satisfaction is incomplete as evidenced by poor people who are happy and rich, famous people who are depressed.
The psychological method incorporates a piece that's missing from the common method: the mind. The common method assumes that positive external circumstances lead to positive mental states and negative external circumstances lead to negative mental states. Psychology recognizes that this is not exactly the case, and investigates what causes particular states of mind.
Psychology has discovered a lot of valuable information about the mind and the way it functions. So I suggest not skipping over this section. It's integral in our later discussion of karma.
Psychological Method
Psychology investigates a mixture of external events and internal conditions that contribute to a person's mental experience. The goal of psychology is not necessary to achieve well being. Much of it is more prescriptive toward negative mental states. ex. How to get a person with anxiety to be less anxious as opposed to a person with anxiety becoming happy.
A portion of psychology is directly concerned with how to help people achieve happiness and well being regardless of their initial mental state. This portion is called Positive Psychology:
Positive Psychological Method
Positive Psychology has contributed a lot to the western understanding of how to be happy. A lot of positive psychological ideas came from Eastern Spiritual traditions. Mindfulness and Resilience (mental habits) are two of the main mental factors which contribute to well being.
I've summarized the psychological research for well-being into a "hierarchy of happiness" to make it easy for people to understand which actions and mental habits to aspire to in order to be happier.
Hierarchy of Happiness
Research supports the efficacy of many spiritual techniques for creating happiness and well-being. One spiritual method supported by research is Karma Yoga. The most detailed presentation that I've ever come across comes from the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. In the "Karmic Method" section I go into details of Karma and how scientific studies provide evidence for the karmic theory.
Karmic Method
In the "Karmic Method" section, I briefly discussed karmic teachings and some of the science that supports them. In "Karmic Psychology" I'm going to discuss how our thoughts speech and actions affect our thoughts and feelings.
Karmic Psychology
In the "Karmic Perception" section I talk about how our thoughts speech and actions affect our perceptions. The difference here is between feeling like we have all the companionship that we could ever want and perceiving ourselves to have all the social relationships we ever hoped for.
Karmic Perception
In this section, I've summed up much of the scientific evidence supporting the karmic psychological theory.
There is a lot of scientific information about perception. In order to present it in an orderly way, we will start at the beginning: discussing a non-scientific, materialistic, common United States cultural understanding of how to achieve the life we want:
Common Method
As discussed in "common method," people usually think of themselves as a person, navigating through life, trying to get the things that they want and avoid things that they don't like. The more we get what we want and avoid what we don't want, the happier we are. This method for achieving life satisfaction is incomplete as evidenced by poor people who are happy and rich, famous people who are depressed.
The psychological method incorporates a piece that's missing from the common method: the mind. The common method assumes that positive external circumstances lead to positive mental states and negative external circumstances lead to negative mental states. Psychology recognizes that this is not exactly the case, and investigates what causes particular states of mind.
Psychology has discovered a lot of valuable information about the mind and the way it functions. So I suggest not skipping over this section. It's integral in our later discussion of karma.
Psychological Method
Psychology investigates a mixture of external events and internal conditions that contribute to a person's mental experience. The goal of psychology is not necessary to achieve well being. Much of it is more prescriptive toward negative mental states. ex. How to get a person with anxiety to be less anxious as opposed to a person with anxiety becoming happy.
A portion of psychology is directly concerned with how to help people achieve happiness and well being regardless of their initial mental state. This portion is called Positive Psychology:
Positive Psychological Method
Positive Psychology has contributed a lot to the western understanding of how to be happy. A lot of positive psychological ideas came from Eastern Spiritual traditions. Mindfulness and Resilience (mental habits) are two of the main mental factors which contribute to well being.
I've summarized the psychological research for well-being into a "hierarchy of happiness" to make it easy for people to understand which actions and mental habits to aspire to in order to be happier.
Hierarchy of Happiness
Research supports the efficacy of many spiritual techniques for creating happiness and well-being. One spiritual method supported by research is Karma Yoga. The most detailed presentation that I've ever come across comes from the Gelug lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. In the "Karmic Method" section I go into details of Karma and how scientific studies provide evidence for the karmic theory.
Karmic Method
In the "Karmic Method" section, I briefly discussed karmic teachings and some of the science that supports them. In "Karmic Psychology" I'm going to discuss how our thoughts speech and actions affect our thoughts and feelings.
Karmic Psychology
In the "Karmic Perception" section I talk about how our thoughts speech and actions affect our perceptions. The difference here is between feeling like we have all the companionship that we could ever want and perceiving ourselves to have all the social relationships we ever hoped for.
Karmic Perception
In this section, I've summed up much of the scientific evidence supporting the karmic psychological theory.
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