Karma

The Buddhist's judgment, which determines at death the future state of the deceased. It is also their flat on actions, pronouncing them to be meritorious or otherwise.

In Theosophy, it means the unbroken sequence of cause and effect; each effect being, in its turn, the cause of a subsequent effect. It is a Sanscrit word, meaning “action” or “sequence.”

“The laws which determine the physical attribution, condition of life, intellectual capacities, and so forth, of the new body, to which the Ego is drawn by affinities ... are ... in Buddhism [called] Karma.” —Nineteenth Century, June, 1893, p. 1025.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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