Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning “action.” It refers to a cycle of cause and effect, which is an essential concept in Eastern religions, including Buddhism.
Karma means that your thoughts and actions mold your life steps, spiritual development, and personality. Present you affects future you. In its essence, karma refers to both the actions and the consequences of the actions.
Dr. Yun He is a Taiwanese professor who studied in the United States. He viewed himself as an intellectual and used to believe that the conception of karma was a tool used by religions to spread their doctrines.
After repeatedly encountering or hearing about examples of karma, he started to believe that many mysterious phenomena in the universe cannot be explained by science. So he collected such examples and published them to advise people, “Do not do anything evil. Do all good things.”
The following two stories depict karma, which he shared on the internet.
Captain Fabian and the truck driver
During the evening of June 1930, Captain Fabian of the Highway Patrol in Bastrop County, Texas, encountered a truck speeding; he rode his motorcycle in pursuit. Accidentally, he hit the rear of the truck, severing the artery of his leg. He was bleeding heavily and lay in a pool of blood; his life was in danger.
Smith, the truck driver, witnessed the accident and stopped the truck. He immediately applied pressure to the site of the severed artery to stop the bleeding for Fabian; otherwise, he would have died before the ambulance arrived.
Five years later, while Captain Fabian was on his patrol, he was informed and directed to a severe car accident. He rushed to the site and found an unconscious man seated with his right leg bleeding from a torn artery. He immediately staunched the bleeding with a tourniquet.
As he was checking other vital signs, Fabian scanned the driver’s face and instantly recognized this to be Smith, the driver who had saved his life five years ago! According to karma, what goes around comes around. (Materials adapted from “Mysteries of the Unexplained,” Reader’s Digest, 1984)
Mr. Lee’s virtue
According to a Taiwanese newspaper, Mr. Lee, an employee of the tax office in Jiayee, Taiwan, frequently donated money to those who needed help. He contributed when he specifically read related reports in the newspaper.
Once a poor student was accepted by Jiayee High School, but he could not pay the tuition fee. Mr. Lee learned about it and donated the money to the student monthly with a pseudonym via an organization. After the student graduated from high school, he was accepted by the prestigious Department of Economics at the National Taiwan University.
He was unable to register due to financial difficulties. Mr. Lee once again donated money to support him throughout his college years. The student later studied in the graduate school of the same university and obtained a grant from the government to study in the U.S.
Eventually, he earned a Ph.D. degree in Law Studies and went back to Taiwan to teach at his Alma Mater. This is only one example of what Mr. Lee had donated to others during his anonymous, decade-long contributions; all of this time, he worked conscientiously at his career as a Taxation employee.
Once, Mr. Lee’s friend visited him during the dinner hour. On the table, he saw one plate of bean curd (tofu), one spinach dish, and one dried fish. His friend was deeply moved. If he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would not have believed that Mr. Lee, who was always so generous to others, was equally so frugal in his own life.
Due to Mr. Lee’s compassion for others and leading by example, his three children performed well in character and learning. They all held college or graduate school degrees. In addition, one obtained a government grant to study in the United States. This echoes the traditional Chinese saying: “Virtue is its own reward.”
