Is there a concept like "karma" in Taoism?

[Marblehead]

Too much math in there for me.

 

Nice post though.

[nestentrie]

52

(The Tao) which originated all under the sky is to be

considered as the mother of them all.

 

When the mother is found, we know what her children should be.

When one knows that he is his mother's child, and proceeds to guard

(the qualities of) the mother that belong to him, to the end of his

life he will be free from all peril.

 

Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up the portals (of his

nostrils), and all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion.

Let him keep his mouth open, and (spend his breath) in the promotion

of his affairs, and all his life there will be no safety for him.

 

The perception of what is small is (the secret of clear-

sightedness; the guarding of what is soft and tender is (the secret

of) strength.

 

Who uses well his light,

Reverting to its (source so) bright,

Will from his body ward all blight,

And hides the unchanging from men's sight.

James Legge trans.

 

 

 

This is a kind of karmic thing.

[Marblehead]

Sounds like plain ole common sense to me.

[nestentrie]

Sounds like plain ole common sense to me.

 

Karma is, yes.

[PLB]

Karma is a necessity for return in the cycle of becoming where the accumulation of what was done before conditions the form of life a particular soul will experience in each new generation. I don't see this idea of reincarnation in the early Taoist literature.