Thich Nhat Hanh addresses the question of why people have different karma by reframing karma as action—not reward or punishment—and demonstrating how cause and effect form a continuous, inseparable whole. Rather than seeing karma as strictly individual, he reveals the deep interbeing between individual and collective karma. He uses the metaphor of a corn kernel and plant to show that opposites like cause/effect and individual/collective are not truly separate but are continuations of each other in time and space. Understanding this non-dualistic view of karma leads to ethical action based on insight into our interconnection with all beings, ancestors, and the world.
What Does Karma Actually Mean?
The opening question—"Why do people have different karma?"—prompts Thich Nhat Hanh to step back and examine the assumption embedded in the question itself. He asks the questioner: "Are you sure every human being has a different karma?" This gentle interrogation is characteristic of his teaching method: before answering, he invites reflection on what we think we know.
Thich Nhat Hanh defines karma plainly: karma is action. The word itself, he explains, means action. He shares a personal note—his name, Nhat Hanh, carries this meaning. "Nhat means one, Hanh means action," he says, adding with characteristic humility, "and I don't know what action it is" (101s). This is not mystical language. Karma is not a cosmic accounting system that rewards and punishes. It is the concrete reality of action and its consequences.
How Are Cause and Effect Actually Related?
To deepen understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh distinguishes between two forms of karma: karma hetu (action as cause) and karma phal kaala (karma as fruit, or effect) (126s). But here is where his teaching diverges from simplistic interpretations. He states with precision: "You cannot remove the cause from the effect...and you cannot remove the effect from the cause" (152-155s).
He illustrates this with the image of a corn kernel and a corn stalk:
"It's like the corn kernel is the cause and the corn stalk is the effect but they are not two separate entities...you cannot remove the corn kernel from the plant of corn and you cannot remove the corn plant out from the corn kernel" (160-175s).
This is profound. The kernel and the stalk appear to be distinct—one comes first, one comes after. Yet they are not truly separate. Cause and effect are not two different entities; one is the continuation of the other (185s). The plant of corn is a continuation of the kernel in the direction of the future. The kernel continues the plant in the direction of the past. "Thanks to the corn kernel the plant of corn has access to the ancestors and thanks to the plant of corn the ancestors have access to the future" (209s). This is not poetic language alone—it describes a real interdependence: "It's a wonderful collaboration on the base of no-self. There is only a continuation" (227s).
This teaching dissolves the illusion that past and future are truly separate. Karma is a continuous process, not a chain of isolated links.
What Is the Relationship Between Individual and Collective Karma?
The question shifts from time to space. Just as cause and effect are inseparable, so too are individual and collective karma (243s). Thich Nhat Hanh notes that "if you reflect on the notion of individual and collective you already make a big step" (263s), because "the notions of individual and collective are also a pair of opposites to be transcended" (278s).
He illustrates this through the example of a young person claiming autonomy: "This is my body, this is my life, I have the freedom, I have the right to do anything with my body my life" (291-312s). Such a view rests on the illusion that "I am not you"—that the young person is entirely separate from their parents and ancestors. But this is false. The young person is "a continuation of their father, their mother" (325s). This insight has ethical implications: "They cannot harm, they do not have the right to harm the father....to commit suicide is an offence: you are killing your father you are killing your mother, your ancestors when you commit suicide" (334-347s).
Why? Because "this body is not yours. This body is a property of your father, of your ancestors" (347s). This is not poetic exaggeration. It is a statement about the actual dependence of the body on ancestral lineage, genetics, culture, and resources.
How Does the Body Dissolve the Boundary Between Individual and Collective?
Thich Nhat Hanh uses a striking example to show how the individual/collective boundary collapses: your optic nerves (427-489s). At first glance, your optic nerves seem strictly individual—"something absolutely individual. People don't see it, they are not concerned by it, it concerns only you" (456s). The distinction seems clear.
But imagine you are a bus driver. "Our lives depend on your optic nerves so your optic nerves are not individual any more, they belong to us because our lives depend on your optic nerves" (475-489s). Your individual organs become collective when their function affects others. The boundary is not fixed—it shifts based on relationship and dependence.
The broader principle: "Your body is a collective product of your nation, of your people, of your culture of your ancestors, so you are not strictly individual, you are partly collective" (394-407s). This is not a metaphor. Every cell, every nutrient, every learned skill comes from the collective.
What Happens When Many People Act Together as a Collective?
Thich Nhat Hanh then illustrates these principles in action. When 600 people gather on retreat, "they read something together as collective action. They do sitting, walking, breathing, smiling, sharing, and this is a collective action and we profit from that" (506-533s).
This collective action stands in contrast to how others spend their time in the world—"they drink and....., go dancing and they spend their time in a very different way" (548s). The 600 people have set aside three weeks to share "a collective action here that we believe to be a good action because every day we water the seeds of mindfulness, understanding, compassion in us and the collective" (569-588s).
Yet even within this collective, individual differences persist: "There are those that do better than some others, there are those of us who can find it possible to transform, to leave behind the burden of worries in the first five days there are those who also need more than that, probably on the third week that they can release, put down their worries" (602-622s).
The point is not that individuals vanish into the collective, but that "in the collective there is the individual and in the individual there is the collective there is no absolute individuality, there is no absolute collectivity, that is the truth" (640s).
How Do We Act Rightly When Karma Affects Everyone?
This understanding transforms ethics. "Any karma whether it is individual or collective affects the whole" (506s). Whatever good actions we undertake ripple outward: "whatever good we are doing here is helping the world, so we have to be confident that the karma is not lost" (660s).
Moreover, "any thought of compassion and forgiveness that we produce not only can help us heal but can help the world" (681s). This is not wishful thinking. If we are truly interconnected—if the individual and collective are inseparable—then our inner work is simultaneously action in the world. "During the 21 days we have in producing thoughts of loving kindness, that is our best contribution to the world" (697s).
What Is "Right View" of Karma?
Thich Nhat Hanh concludes with a statement about right view: "Our action of karma is neither different nor the same because sameness and otherness is also a pair of opposites so right view lies in the fact that you are able to remove all these pairs of opposites" (697-720s).
This is the culmination of his teaching on the original question. Why do people have different karma? The question contains a hidden duality—the assumption that some people are fundamentally separate from others, with separate karmas. But right view transcends this. Karma is neither utterly individual nor utterly collective, neither fixed in the past nor determined in the future, neither cause nor effect but their continuous collaboration.
To practice this view is to meditate: "To meditate is to see the nature of interbeing, non self, which allow you to act properly and not to cause suffering that is karma" (360-375s). This is not abstract philosophy. It is practical insight that grounds ethical conduct in reality rather than in rules or fear of cosmic punishment.
Where to Go From Here
Explore Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings on interbeing (the concept that all phenomena exist in mutual dependence) as the foundation for understanding karma in a non-dualistic way. Study his work on mindfulness practice, which trains the mind to perceive these interconnections directly rather than merely intellectually. Investigate how this view of karma differs from both fatalistic and mechanical interpretations—it offers a middle way that acknowledges causation while dissolving the illusion of a separate self making choices in isolation. Consider how this framework applies to collective action and social change: if individual and collective karma are inseparable, what does ethical action look like in community?
