Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ok, here's how Karma works in a Buddhist world.

First of all, before we even start about good versus bad, rebirth this or rebirth that, we need to talk about your birth.

Every living thing starts off life, for the most part, innocent and unclean. We are born because there was enough Karma to start another life, but we haven't started to accumlate Karma in this life quite yet. There is still an infinite amount of Karma from past lives, however, which is what I'm getting to next.

What makes you who you are? Your flesh and blood? Would you be a different person if you were in a different body?
What about your thoughts. Surely they are unique. Would you be a different person if you thought differently?
How about your experiences? Do different people have different experiences?

Who "you" are, as an illusionary and transient ego, is made up of experiences, thoughts and volitions. Because of this ignorance in thinking you (not you inparticular, but everyone) are different, permanent and solid; we create this selfish Karma because of the selfish Ego.

This has never had a real "beginning". Possibly the beginning of time, or perhaps the beginning of consciousness - who knows? Buddhists shouldn't even care.

But why do we have Karma from past lives, if nothing from the past life comes forward with us? See, that's a view out of black and white thinking. Nothing comes with us, that's true. But we still have been reborn, so something came along, didn't it? Quite perplexing. When we die, all of those experiences and thoughts and that form are stripped away. What is left is nothing, because to call it a thing is to rob it of its nothingness. Yes, something carries over, but it's not you, because you are transient and illusionary.

Get it?