Many Human beings have a hard time reconciling with this concept. Transmigration, though it is accepted in many religions, can be difficult to understand. An article by Pamela M. Allen, John A. Edwards & Winston McCullough attempts to separate the concept of transmigration from the law of karma. In their article, “Does Karma Exist?: Buddhism, Social Cognition, and the Evidence for Karma” they use psychology coupled with the mind only school of Buddhism to explore the idea. The article claims, “Karmic effects should be observable within a current life and that karma is a concept that is dissociable from that of reincarnation.” (Allen, Edwards & McCullough, 6) They further claim that “the notion of karma should not be confounded with that of reincarnation” because Buddhist doctrine states that kamma can “ripen” in a single lifetime (Allen, Edwards & McCullough, 6). By putting karma into the span of one life, the article …show more content…
There are multiple theories as to what it is and how it works. Allen, Edwards & McCullough tackled the difficult question of how the law of kamma works using promising psychological research on how the human brain works. The article also looks into the concept of transmigration in connection with karma. Through separating those two concepts, the researchers make karma more appealing to non-believers. The theory that the law of karma is just a way of blaming the victim tends to be very appealing to non-believers in the Buddhist way because of their need to believe in a “just universe.” (Allen, Edwards & McCullough, 2) Burley agrees, arguing that the problem is that blaming the victim makes the world an unjust place. He goes a step further to claim that the concept of karma itself is a “medieval” or “pre-modern” idea (Burley, 150). Yet a large portion of the world, many religions and laypeople, believe in the law of kamma. This makes the idea that karma is a medieval concept a weak