Who/what/how is the keeper of karma?

Please allow me to add another view. Keep in mind that this is part of a rather new approach combining the ancient views on consciousness and karma and finding explanations for them based on current scientific findings and theories.

For a moment envision us as merely the passengers within the physical constraints of this body. Much like taking a plastic bag and moving it thru the air to inflate and then we quickly close it off at the opening. WE are the empty inside while our body (all of it including the brain) is the bag. We are merely consciousness inside. Awareness. And we only experience things as our perceptions and mind allow/interpret. Outside of our bag we were merely awareness. Everywhere awareness, but simply awareness nonetheless.

While limited to measly perceptions, short lifespans, and strict obedience to linear time in these bodies we are able to affect change. This is something that we could NOT do merely as awareness. This change causes not only instantaneous effects, but also chains of subsequent events as a result. This is known as karma. Here is where it really starts getting interesting.

The multiple universe theory suggests that all possible outcomes are around us at all times. The universe we select is the one we encounter based upon our individual choices and the world we have built around us. Part of that world is the karma we created by our actions and choices and perceptions and the subsequent events those create. It's interesting to note the double slit experiment here. All things that must be wave or particle are both until we perceive them. This is scientifically proven. Our consciousness perceiving things actually affects the real world on a quantum level and this in turn affects the future. Going forward. This is karma. Cosmic momentum.

Now there are scientists showing that we actually store these quantum changes in the microtubules of our brain cells. article These same scientists also believe in the plastic bag theory of consciousness - that consciousness is merely an embodiment of the everything surrounding us in a human form. And that when this body passes it merely merges back into the whole. But what about that resultant karma?

The leftover karma creates the issues for many. If you set a bunch of events into motion then who will be on the receiving end of those probability changes and the like that existed when that body passed away? Once that consciousness is "ejected" back into the ether what becomes of those resultants? Do they merely fizzle away?

I am starting to believe that WE can actually clear our karma thru meditation. I will dig thru the vedas and upanishads and dhammapada to see if such an interpretation may fit into their readings or if it even should. But I believe this is the beginning to the confluence between the physical world and the world of consciousness.

Of course this will support the idea that Karma inevitably happens no matter what actions are choices or decisions we make. But it also May support the idea that we are unable to merge with the Consciousness whole wow we have Karma results attached to us. If it is true or can be shown that meditation can get rid of karma then we may find our link between physical world and the universe on a corporeal level. This can also support issues such as the type of karma affecting the type of rebirth. Perhaps a negative resultant Karma demands a certain type of vessel at rebirth.

"If karma is the result of my actions or choices and it has a bearing on one's life now and in the next, who/what is the keeper of such actions and choices?"

Nobody/Nothing is the keeper.

"Another way to ask the question is how is a record of my actions maintained and kept?"

With activities/volition the record of your actions is maintained and kept.

How?

With activities/volition there arises actions of the mind and body.

With the arise of actions, there arises knowledge of Good and Bad.

When the body dies, this same knowledge will make the body and mind be reborn again, based on this knowledge.

Whenever you're reborn, the whole universe is reborn with all its beings.

This your kamma.

It is maintained and kept by the universe you experience with your senses.

The universe you're reborn in is the result of your kamma and the keeper of your kamma.

The universe you're reborn in is the record of your actions.

The kamma is stored in the subconscious as a resultant consciousness (vipaka citta) and remains there until a right condition present itself, when it would resurface. If it is strong it would be carried over to the next existence.

More on the transmigration of kamma in the Theravada tradition.

Firstly, I would like to clarify that according to Theravada Buddhism, karma is not the 'result' of your 'actions' but the action itself. Performing certain kinds of actions (karma) leads to certain kinds of results. What does ‘action’ mean? It exclusively means ‘intention’, in the context of Theravada Buddhism. The physical doing of something is equated with karma only insofar as that it is a physical manifestation of the intention. With the above clarification, the question would be interpreted to mean ‘Who/What/How is the keeper of intentions’? The question is assuming that there is some kind of ‘keeping of intentions’ that occurs between the moment of intention and result. This assumption is wrong, and may be based on popular theories or misinterpretations of karma and how it leads to certain results.

So you might now ask, how does a specific intention lead to a specific result? The theoretical answer is quite complicated, and can be found by reading thoroughly the text called Abhidhamma (here is a link to an English translation: http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/abhidhamma.pdf), which is the primary source of Theravada Buddhism where the subject of how specific karma leads to specific results is examined in detail.

However, my personal suggestion is that it would be a wise decision to understand for yourself how specific intentions (karma) leads to certain results, rather than trying to have an intellectual understanding of this process by reading the text. Having a practical understanding of this process of cause and effect (how karma works) is far more beneficial than having an intellectual understanding, because an intellectual understanding is simply based on concepts and is essentially meaningless apart from giving you a temporary sense of satisfaction whereas if you see how cause and effect works for yourself, it will lead you to being released from your mental defilements and therefore set you free from suffering permanently (the path that the Buddha taught). So now you might ask me, how can you understand cause and effect for yourself? By understanding the experience of reality clearly. How can you understand the experience of reality? By practising the four foundations of mindfulness. If you want to know how to practise the four foundations of mindfulness, please read this book (http://static.sirimangalo.org/howto/HTM.pdf) written by a great monk called Yuttadhammo, who in this book clearly and comprehensively explains how to practise the path that the Buddha taught in order to understand reality clearly and therefore set yourself free from suffering.

Therefore, by practising the path that the Buddha taught, you will come to understand for yourself the nature of karma, how it is not something that is recorded and how it actually leads to specific results.

When a volitional thought comes Sankara is created. This in the subtlest forms this is Kalapa (Sub atomic particles which arise and pass causing other sub atomic particles to arise when they pass). Say when you are doing some action you feel the sensation associated with the action (p35 - Comprehensive Manual of Abidhamma by Bikkhu Bodhi) based on roots of the action.

These ("seeds") stay dormant until the condition are right for them to give results. Here multiplication starts ("fruit"). When this happens you feel the associated sedations of the results. Each seed has a certain "taste" associated with the result (the same "taste" you felt when doing the action). By your reaction to this sensation (with craving or aversion) you multiply the results of future results.

When a new group of Sankara or seeds starts when these have the dominant taste off your past Karma and other Sankara lay dormant though still arising and passing as a group of Kalapas. Since this arising and passing is with decay if a condition does not come for its multiplication then some just passes away with no results.

Through meditation but making you self sensitive whilst not being reactive to the sensations associated with the formation you stop reacting new conditioning and also understand the process these are created. You might not be able to identify each and every Kalapa (only a Buddha can do this if I am not mistaken) which sums up as you total Sankara but you will identify more and more significant clusters. These might be small dot like areas where a certain sensation prevails where as maybe in the rest of the body other sensation are dominant. (These are also fruits due to some multiplication of the seeds as they maybe too minute for a normal person to identify.) By non reaction (devoid of craving and clinging) they loose there potent as they do not multiply.

At the moment of death what happens is this process passes away in one physical body an arises in another. Hence the seeds are still there whilst arising and passing.

Another way to look at this is in the process of doing Karma you create a cluster of Kalapas. This arise and pass giving arise to other Kalapas. When one Kalapa passes it creates a new one which is progressively less potent. Look at this as a Discrete-time Markov process.

Karma is a memoryless process (hence no keeper). You have hidden states not observable over a threshold (based on strength of awareness). There are external perturbation (result of past Karma, hence contact with the taste pertaining to the state) based on the potent of the hidden states to which you react and cause them to (state based on response to stimuli) multiply the hidden states. Each state has a stopping time when they decay away without result.