“Karma” has become part of our American lexicon. It is a Sanskrit term meaning action or deed, and is often used to denote the cycle of cause and effect that has a significant role in Hinduism and Buddhism. It indicates the sum of one’s actions, everything we have done, are doing, and will do. In the Zen tradition it is at the heart of the well known and difficult koan “Hakujo and the Fox,” which is case two in the Mumonkan. These days, when people ask about karma, it is very often some variation of the question asked in this koan: Can we free ourselves from karma?

Each moment of human experience is a moment of karma. This moment, every moment, is the interaction and interpenetration of countless actions. Our experience is the product of these activities; it is not possible for a human being to be free from karma.

But, this moment that is filled with karma, where does this moment come from, where does this moment go? What is self, what is experience? These seldom-asked questions push us outside of our self-centric view and are the key to a full understanding of karma. To answer these we must critically examine our understanding of self.

The conventional view of human experience is based on two assumptions. One is the belief that experience is continuous, that time flows seamlessly from moment to moment; the other is that there is a separate, enduring self.

However, both of these assumptions are flawed. Just because our experience seems continuous does not mean it really is. Anyone who has watched a movie experiences an apparently seamless flow, but we know it is actually a series of images with an interval between them. As for the existence of a distinct and separate self, which we see as the center of our experience, Tathagata Zen also teaches that this is a mistaken view.

The foundation of Buddhism, the foundation of our self and our world, is the Dharmakaya. Dharmakaya is complete unity. The Dharmakaya is emptiness, in Tathagata Zen the term is zero. It is absolute; there is nothing apart from or outside of the Dharmakaya. Everything arises from the Dharmakaya and everything returns to the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya is not a “thing”; it is not fixed; it spontaneously divides itself and spontaneously reunites, realizing a new Dharmakaya. This cycle of dividing and reuniting happens very, very quickly. This fundamental activity – dharma activity – gives rise to our world, our self, and each moment of our lives.

In the complete unity of the Dharmakaya there is no self, no time, and no karma. When the Dharmakaya divides itself, two essential activities, expansion and contraction (plus and minus), separate; our world appears, only to disappear a moment later when expansion and contraction reunite. Each cycle of dividing and reuniting is a moment of human experience.

Usually, we see our experience in terms of subject and object, identifying our self with subject. In this way of thinking, our self is conscious, giving rise to thoughts, memories, and emotions, while being surrounded by people, situations, and events. Tathagata Zen, however, teaches that each moment of human experience has three components: subject, object, and distance. Subject is limited expansion, object is limited contraction, and distance is the union of minute residual amounts of expansion and contraction between them. Our personal self is conscious, but is neither subject nor object. Our self is the distance. Subject and object are limited or incomplete activities because a very small amount of plus and minus are unified as the distance between them. Subject, object, and distance are all limited or incomplete. The visible cosmos is a transitory, limited manifestation of the imperceptible complete cosmos, Dharmakaya.

The fundamental activities of each moment are expansion and contraction. Karma is dharma activity; karma is inevitable. But each moment arises from the unity of the Dharmakaya, and each moment returns to the unity of the Dharmakaya. The origin and conclusion of each moment is free from karma.

Between subject and object is distance, our personal self. This self is ephemeral—when subject and object reunite, self disappears. This happens every moment, but it is completely imperceptible. Everything disappears into the complete unity of the Dharmakaya. It has never been seen; it cannot be seen, not by Buddha, by Christ, or anyone. Our sense that consciousness is seamless arises, in part, because the millisecond of unity between each moment of human experience is beyond perception. Watching a movie or looking at an incandescent lamp are everyday examples of apparent continuous activity that are actually a series of discrete activities.

The content of our personal self is subject and object activity; the subjective activities are memories, thoughts, and emotions, while objective activities are perceptions and sensations. We interpret this intermingling of subject and object activities as actions our self initiates – “I am thinking…” or “I feel…” This reinforces our belief in our self’s independent existence. In turn, this belief leads to confusing our subjective activity with our personal self, which blinds us to our true situation.

In Tathagata Zen our self is neither subject nor object; our self is distance, space. It is the momentary union of microscopic amounts of plus and minus and shares the same nature as the Dharmakaya, the complete union of plus and minus. This nature is zero, emptiness. The content of this space is subject and object activity.

Subject generates a thought, “I am thirsty,” and our self-nature manifests the thought. Imagine a bare room in your house. If you put a bed in it, then the space of the room manifests the bed. If, instead, you put some garbage, then the space manifests garbage, including the unpleasant aroma. The space is filled with whatever we put in it, but the space isn’t the bed or garbage. Similarly, our self, distance, manifests as whatever is its content. Thoughts, memories, and emotions from subject and the sensations and perceptions from object fill our self; but our self-nature is zero.

Karma is transcended when subject and object reunite, naturally and spontaneously. This is the inevitable conclusion of each moment of our lives, when we return to the complete peace and unity of the Dharmakaya. But when we believe in self’s existence, when our subjective self is the focus of our world, we become caught up in subjective interests and reactions. There is no true peace when we are committed to our subjective self. Dharma activity – time – is indifferent to our self-interest. If we want to realize peace, we must surrender our self-attaching mind and embrace the essential dharma activities, expansion and contraction. Each moment subject and object are moving relentlessly towards reunification. Each moment our practice is to dissolve the distance between subject and object.

When we manifest our nature – zero – we free ourselves from self-centric activity. Each moment our content is plus and minus activity; it is our nature to manifest our content. Seeing a tree, we manifest tree; we turn our head and see a dog, we manifest dog. Feeling hungry we manifest “hungry”; feeling sad we manifest “sad.” Practicing our true nature is neither affirmation nor denial; our practice is manifestation. Without attachment or aversion we must give ourselves to our content. This is the practice of one true nature.

In the Dharmakaya, the contracting activity starts from the farthest expanse of the cosmos and culminates in the smallest point. We experience our world as sensations and perceptions that come together at the very center of our life, as if we are at the center of a sphere contracting to a single point, where we are. Manifesting one true nature, our world completely embraces us. We practice surrendering to the world’s embrace and realize the ultimate smallest point – no distance.

Expanding activity begins from the smallest point and culminates in realizing the complete expanse of the cosmos. Each moment, we instantly expand to take in our entire world. All experience is conscious experience; all our consciousness is our self. Practicing one true nature, we embrace our world as our self and realize the largest cosmos, again no distance.

If we want peace in our lives, we must move beyond explanation and belief. The Buddha emphasized that we should test his teaching in our lives and accept it only when we have proven its worth to ourselves. This is certainly true in Zen; Zen teaching is not a belief system. We are not being asked to replace one set of beliefs with another. It is only through practice, which benefits greatly with the help of a skilled teacher, that we can realize our true situation.

The two paths of contracting and expanding, surrender and embrace, are always open to us, but it is a rare person who can skillfully travel them without a lengthy period of determined and consistent practice. And whatever the situation, unless we surrender our self-attaching mind there will be no clarity. We must test the teaching through repeated study and practice. It is our own experience that gives us the basis for trusting practice, which we need to dissolve the last vestiges of self-attachment and separation. Without deep faith in practice, we will trip over our own doubts and observations. Time is dharma activity, and we cannot move with the flow of time as long as we observe, doubt, or hesitate.

As long as our understanding is incomplete, we try to emulate dharma activity. We practice giving ourselves until we manifest the effortless spontaneity of time itself. The ultimate truth of Buddhism is not found in any self-centric standpoint, regardless of how compassionate or skillful we may be. The Dharmakaya is selfless and it is our true self. Only a deep faith in practice will free us to give ourselves completely in each moment of our life, whether through surrender or embrace. Each moment that we manifest one true nature, we transcend karma.