Karma

The Dalai Lama dedicates an entire chapter to Karma. First, he explains that human life is extraordinary and precious. We have the ability to reason and find happiness and to willfully pursue a spiritual and virtuous life. According to Buddhist text, our current human situation is a result of an accumulation of virtue over countless past lives. Although we can not change the past, we can, in this life choose/continue to pursue an ethical path. We can do this by avoiding the ten non-virtuous actions (see below).

Karma is defined as actions in which we engage in as well as the repercussions of the act. Additionally, karma refers to how the repercussions effect everyone and their future lives. The ramifications of karma in the 10 non-virtuous acts are defined below.

3 non-virtuous Acts of the Body

1. Killing: The act is to take a life. The repercussions include suffering of the victims loved ones as well as effecting the killer so that his progress toward enlightenment/Buddhahood is displaced. Depending on the severity and malice in the act, he may be reborn into a realm of Hell, or into a life full of suffering, or as an animal with no ability to change his will or improve mentally.
2. Stealing: causes one to lack future resources or be stolen from. Willfully stealing begins a tendency to steal in the future, thus decreasing ones virtues rapidly.
3. Sexual misconduct: especially promiscuity and adultery, causes you to become distrustful of others, and in the company that you keep. You may suffer future infidelity and betrayal.
   

4 non-virtuous Acts of Speech

1. Lying: leads to a life in which other speak ill of you. Your tendency to lie in the future will lead to chances that people will no believe you and lie to you as well.
2. Divisive speech: speaking in such way to cause discord or strong disagreement will result in a life of loneliness and tendency to cause mischief.
3. Verbal abusive: is a spearhead to abusing others and leads to an angry attitude.
4. Idle chatter/gossip: causes other to not listen to you, ignore your words and leads you to speak incessantly.

3 non-virtuous Acts of the Mind

1. Covetousness: leads us to dissatisfaction.
2. Malice: leads to fear and to a life of causing others to suffer
3. Wrong views: causes us to have difficulty understanding and accepting truths.

When one weighs whether a particular act is moral or spiritual, one must contemplate the quality of the motivation. If you make a resolution to not steal, do you do it because you are afraid of getting caught? or because you are afraid of others' opinions? These motivations may be positive, but not considered moral. But if you think "stealing causes others to suffer" this is not just an ethical consideration, it is also spiritual. You increase your positive Karma and tread closer to Enlightenment.