karmic cycle
Actions determine rebirth
The karmic cycle is the Hindu and Buddhist concept that actions in one life determine circumstances in future lives—a wheel of death and rebirth driven by accumulated karma.
Good deeds improve future incarnations; bad deeds worsen them.
Liberation (moksha or nirvana) means escaping the cycle entirely.
In casual use, karmic cycle often just means what goes around comes around: The karmic cycle caught up with him when his lies were exposed.
- samsaraCycle of rebirth
- cause and effectHow events produce results
- good deedsHelpful, moral actions
- what goes aroundActions returning to sender
- reincarnationSoul's rebirth after death
next life · universal law · transmigration · rebirth · ahimsa · spiritual path · cosmic balance · life lessons · wheel of life · endless loop · spiritual evolution · moral responsibility · cosmic justice · destiny · soul journey · forgiveness · accountability · mindfulness
- karmacomeuppance, good deeds, poetic justice, what goes around comes around, divine retribution
- samsarawheel of life, hell realm, transmigration, ghost realm, birth and death
- afterlifeheaven, hell, paradise, purgatory, limbo
- story patternshero's journey, monomyth, death and rebirth, rise and fall, redemption arc
- Dashas
karmic cyclelinear progression
Movement in one direction only
linear time · arrow of time · mortality · finality · terminus
karmic cyclemoksha
Release from rebirth cycle
nirvana · liberation · enlightenment · release · spiritual freedom