What Taylor Swift Gets Wrong About "Karma"
Scholars of religion respond to Taylor Swift’s song “Karma” from Buddhist and New Age perspectives.
Audio also available on YouTube and Spotify.
Audio Outline
Reddit question 00:45
Definitions of karma, pre-Buddhist and Buddhist 01:26
Taylor’s Karma vs. Buddhist Karma 06:13
New Age spirituality, rebirth, and manifestation 13:15
Final takeaways 20:57
Transcript
Rachel Carbonara: Welcome to Preaching to the Comments, a podcast where Princeton scholars answer the internet’s burning questions.
Song, “Karma” by Taylor Swift: You’re talking shit, for the hell of it, addicted to betrayal…
Jae Pi: Hi, I’m Jae, I research Buddhist philosophy.
Echo Weng: Hi, I’m Echo and I specialize in Buddhist narrative literature.
RC: I’m Rachel and I study contemporary spirituality, New Age spirituality, and wellness culture.
Song, “Karma” by Taylor Swift: Karma is my boyfriend, karma is a god, karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend, karma’s a relaxing thought, aren’t you envious that for you it’s not? Sweet like honey, karma is a cat…
RC: There’s been a lot of discussion about Taylor Swift’s song Karma. We’re here today to weigh in on one discussion that we came across on Reddit.
EW: So the question we found comes from apricotpeach11, who asked what do the lyrics of “Karma” actually mean? So it seems like there’s a lot of mixed reactions to the song, or its lyrics. Some people find it really empowering, while others find it a little bit arrogant. So Jae and I wanted to talk about the song from a Buddhist perspective and also to unpack what karma means in Buddhism. And Rachel, we are very happy to have you here with us because we know that karma is also a concept that has been adopted by New Age spiritual movement. So if you find any interesting overlaps, feel free to join our conversation!
RC: So what is karma, and is Taylor getting it right?
JP: Not everyone in Indian religious traditions agree on what karma means. In pre-Buddhist Indian thoughts, it was primarily associated with ritual actions, so like, what are the proper performances or the procedures from making sacrifices to the gods and their corresponding results.
RC: Okay, so prior to Buddhism, people would use the word “karma” to refer to a specific ritual action. And then how does the concept of karma change with Buddhism?
JP: The Buddha, and his explanation of karma, is that he shifted the notion away from ritual action towards causality and ethics. In terms of causality, of how phenomena arise due to cause and condition, just like how sprout arises from seed. And he says that there is a certain kind of a principle of similarity between causes and effects. That’s…the cause that gives rise to an effect... are of a similar kind. So an apple seed gives rise to an apple tree, not to a peach. And that’s where the broader framework of how phenomena occurred. And within that, there is a specific kind of causal relation, which is karma. So the actions that are linked to intentional moral actions and their consequences, that specific part of causality is called karma. And because cause and effect must share some form of similar kind of resemblance, that’s why virtuous deeds lead to virtuous outcomes. It’s not possible that one does something evil and one gets good results out of that because an evil deed cannot cause a wholesome effect.
RC: It sounds like prior to the Buddha, karma was just a term meaning action. And then the Buddha understands karma as sort of a whole philosophy. Is that right?
JP: Yeah, I think that’s a good way of understanding some of the changes that the Buddha makes. And by redefining karma in this way, he shifted the notion away from ritual towards morality and ethics. What matters is actually the conduct that one does, and what kind of conduct that is, and the moral consequences that follow from these.
EW: Also to just go back to the song, so I actually wanted to give some credit to Taylor Swift for her lyrics. So I think in her song there are actually two things going on. So the first thing is that she uses a lot of analogies, such as a cat, a breeze on weekend, to describe karma. And that move is actually not foreign to Buddhism at all. So Buddhist literature is full of metaphors that try to explain how karma works and feels like. And Karma is often compared to a seed, that Jae mentions, that eventually ripens. And also in Yogacara thought, karma is compared to a fragrance that lingers in one’s storehouse of consciousness. So the move of making karma imaginable through analogy is something that Buddhism does as well. But there is another move that I feel like is a little bit tricky. When Taylor says that karma is her boyfriend or that karma is a cat purring in her lap, it started to sound like karma is this kind of being that has certain preferences towards her, that karma likes her and doesn’t like someone else. And that’s not something that Buddhism will agree with. Karma isn’t a personality and isn’t a judge, and is definitely not some high form of power that rewards one person and punishes another.
RC: I’m interested in what you’re saying about the lyrics, specifically the lyric “karma is a god.” So you’re saying Taylor kind of portrays karma as some sort of god, some sort of divine figure, who is a punishing god for some people and a rewarding god for other people. And you’re saying that in Buddhist thought, that’s not really common, to give, sort of anthropomorphize karma as being with intent.
EW: There is one Buddhist scholar who once compared karma to the law of gravity. Just like how an apple doesn’t fall because there is some high form of power that decides or wants it to fall, that an apple would naturally fall following the law of gravity. So in the same way, we experience the result of our actions because of the law of cause and effect, not because karma has its favorites.
RC: Let’s talk about how Taylor Swift’s philosophy of karma compares to a Buddhist philosophy of karma. Now, of course, there’s probably a good amount of variation within Buddhist ideas of karma. But in general, here’s what I see as Taylor’s philosophy of karma. It seems to be fairly simple. That she’s listing all of the good things in her life, and she’s attributing the fact that she has all these good things to her karma, meaning that because she’s always been a good person, she has all these good things, and that other people, whoever the song is supposed to be about, have done bad things and therefore they will experience bad things in their life and not have good things. What do you think about this philosophy of karma that Taylor’s presenting? How does it compare to a Buddhist philosophy of karma?
JP: I think she is presenting an individualist understanding of karma through her song. And a part of the song that stood out to me that can…that we can turn to was the beginning of the chorus, which reads, “And I keep my side of the street clean. You wouldn’t know what I mean.” And she also says in the chorus, “Karma is a relaxing thought. Aren’t you envious that for you it is not.” Buddhism teaches that one’s own moral conduct determines one’s personal fortune. So kind of a classic saying like, “you reap what you sow,” and that notion is there in Buddhism. But also, there’s another way to understand karma as a collective. So just to set an example, we can think about inequality, which can be a way to understand collective karma. So in this song, Taylor Swift contrasts her good fortune with another person’s misfortune, and therefore this you in the song is envious. We can read that as indicating a broader social condition of she’s doing well but the other person is not. From collective karmic consequences, those who are doing well and those who are not doing well are actually both suffering from this imbalance. And so the former, those who are doing well, kind of live in the fear of deceit, or in fear that their position of privilege will be taken away, while those who are not doing well are suffering from deprivation. So there is a collective suffering of inequality, which is actually seen as in Buddhism as a result of our shared actions. So from the collective perspective, we need to ask, what are the causes and conditions that produce and perpetuate this collective social result in which we’re all in? And how might one’s action contribute to changing these conditions and reducing suffering?
EW: It’s also important to note that concepts such as good, bad, evil are always defined within specific moral frameworks. So in Buddhism, morality is deeply embedded in its soteriological goals. And this might be a good way to respond to Taylor Swift’s depiction of karma because her version of goods seem to draw on widely recognized worldly benefits, such as wealth, pets, and loving relationships.What Buddhism sees as truly beneficial or karmically positive are things that actually move people closer to liberation. So there is this narrative from one of avadāna collections that I feel might be good for us to think about here. It’s about a monk who made an offering in front of a stupa. And then, Buddha then taught: because of this monk’s action, he will be reborn…and I forgot how many times…but let’s just say he will be reborn as a wealthy person and enjoy many worldly benefits for a hundred life times. And most of us will probably think that, “this is great!”And this is also exactly the kind of good karma that Taylor Swift is talking about in her song. But what is actually interesting is how the rest of the monks reacted in the story. So the monks basically think: but rebirth is exactly the thing that they are trying to avoid through religious practice, through Buddhist practice. So the cycle of rebirth, or samsara as we call it in Buddhism, is by default suffering and painful. And why would someone want to linger in the cycle of rebirth, even with good fortune? And this is what those monks think in the story. And I think this story shows how the ideas of good and bad should be contextualized within the Buddhist worldview when we talk about Buddhist notion of karma.
RC: Do people also…or historically have they used the concept of karma to say, well, I don’t need to help people who have less because they’ve, you know, they’re sort of getting what they deserve, they must have done something bad to be in this position.
EW: So that’s actually what we think is a huge pitiful of the lyrics, is that the way how karma has oftentimes been understood as a form of justice. If someone is suffering, whether economically, socially, or emotionally, this does not mean that they deserve it. And actually in Buddhism, only the enlightened beings will be able to know the exact causes that lead to someone’s current situation. But another thing is that if we think of karma as a form of moral justice, it may actually put karma in tension with the Buddhist teaching of compassion. So it becomes much harder to practice compassion if we believe that someone is suffering because of something that they have brought upon themselves. So Buddhist would say that instead of thinking that a person who suffers in front of us has done something terrible in their past, a more helpful way to approach this will be to think about and also understand the root of suffering. And this will be to understand that suffering is due to our ignorance, or our misconception of what’s impermanent as permanent, and also our clinging to the things that cannot last. And that’s something that we actually all share. So instead of thinking that people suffer because of what they did, Buddhist approach would be to think about that they suffer because of the same reason as I do. We are equally trapped in samsara, or the Buddhist cycle of rebirth, and we are equally not yet liberated.
Song, “Karma” by Taylor Swift: You’re terrified to look down. Cause if you dare, you’ll see the glare of everyone you burned just to get there, it’s coming back around. And I keep my side of the street clean. You wouldn’t know what I mean.
JP: Some of the contemporary New Age religious movements, they also talk about this notion of karma. And is there any kind of connection between this contemporary understanding of karma and the song?
RC: Yes, I would say there are definitely some links there. Taylor Swift, as far as I know, is not a religious person. She is a secular American as far as I know, so she likely will have learned about the concept of karma from pop culture. What I would call contemporary spirituality, which we could also call New Age spirituality…New Age sort of points a little more specifically to the era of the 1980s, 1990s, but it’s in the same vein as what I would call contemporary spirituality today. They’re interested in synthesizing science and religion, and then they’re interested in synthesizing religious wisdom from different traditions. They tend to be very interested in Buddhism more so than other religions. I would say in general the way that karma is understood in contemporary spirituality is definitely as an individualistic thing and it’s very linked with the idea of reincarnation.
JP: What we commonly know as New Age movement likes to synthesize different notions, and in our discussion we’ve already seen that there are many multiple ideas of what karma means. I’m very interested in how they reconcile some of the differences. That was the first question, but another one is about what you said about karma and its relation to getting all these wealths. Is there any contemporary practice that people do that’s branded through the notion of karma for getting good worldly benefits?
RC: So as far as I know, there is no real grappling in contemporary spirituality with the different Buddhist perspectives on karma. I think it tends to be very straightforward, you know, good actions bring good things to your life, bad actions bring bad things to your life. There are certainly many people who are engaged in New Age spirituality, contemporary spirituality, and then get very interested in Buddhism, and become more committed to studying Buddhism, and so those people might have a deeper understanding of karma. I think karma, maybe, has become less important in New Age spirituality. So people do believe that their own actions give rise to their experiences, but that is explained much more by the concept of manifestation than by the concept of karma. In a very basic understanding of karma that we see in contemporary spirituality, if I wanted to buy a big house, maybe I try to do good things in the world, be kind to other people, and maybe karma will then somehow facilitate me being able to buy this house that I want. Whereas in a manifestation model, it actually doesn’t matter if I’m a good or bad person in a moral sense. I just have to think positive and believe that I deserve to have the house and that I will have the house, and that’s what brings it to me. So it’s interesting because in both cases, it’s your own action that kind of generates your future, whether your future is good or bad. So there’s that sense of personal responsibility for creating your own circumstances, but it’s not really about being moral. It’s about, you know, believing or imagining something in…into reality.
JP: I guess in that sense because the ethical one of karma is not foregrounded in contemporary spiritual practices, the notion of karma doesn’t seem to play a central role in these practices that manifest wealth or produce good results.
RC: Yeah, I think there is very much a sense in New Age spirituality that everyone is getting what they need, what they deserve. Everything that’s happening is ultimately good, even if it seems bad. Karma is one way of explaining that, and reincarnation is another big way of explaining that. Because there’s an idea that people are living many lives. So if I am Taylor Swift and I’m a billionaire in this life and I have a really nice cat and you are, you know, very poor and you have a very mean cat, I think actually New Agers, they could draw on the concept of karma to explain that. But another thing that they would draw on, maybe even more often, is the idea that we are both going through a learning process. So in this life, I’m learning what it means to be rich and have a nice cat, and in this life, you’re learning what it means to be poor and have a mean cat. And that’s teaching you things. And it’s this idea that everything is ultimately equal because we all live so many lives and we’re all just learning and all of them. So it’s a way of interpreting inequality as ultimately equality because of this concept of how New Age spirituality understands the nature of reincarnation.
EW: Does this mean that for New Agers, reincarnation is actually interpreted as a positive thing? And I’m asking this because in Buddhism and also in many early South Asian religious traditions, rebirth is generally perceived as something negative and something that people want to be liberated from. Liberation is the ultimate goal. It does seem to me that for New Agers, they have reconceptualized rebirth, and reincarnation, as a prolonged process of learning and self-cultivation, rather than a cycle of suffering that people want to escape from. And.. is this right?
RC: I think that there is an idea that you would probably eventually escape rebirth, but it’s not something that’s emphasized or talked about.
EW: It also makes me think that how in Buddhism, the concept of karma actually carries three layers of meaning. So we have causality, the idea that every action has a result. But then we also have rebirth, that’s the idea that karma not only operates this lifetime but also across lifetimes, and even drives the very cycle of rebirth. And then we also have the moralization of actions, that we have to think about actions in terms of whether they are morally meaningful. It’s also interesting how different traditions or people draw on different parts of these three layers. It seems to me New Age spiritual movements engage more with the idea of causality and rebirth, but maybe less so with the moral dimension. While as in Taylor Swift’s version of karma, we don’t see any mentioning of rebirth at all.
Song, “Karma” by Taylor Swift: Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend, karma’s a relaxing thought. Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not? Sweet like honey karma is a cat purring in my lap cuz it loves me, flexing like a goddamn acrobat, me and karma vibe like that.
RC: To bring it back to apricotpeach 11, let’s try to give her an answer to her question, which is basically she’s looking up this Taylor Swift song, and she’s thinking this doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t seem to be getting karma right? How would you guys respond to apricotpeach as sort of a final take away?
JP: My response will be that the song does sound like what karma means, but one version of it, which understands karma as a form of justice that rewards her own individual work with good fortune. But also the song is not what karma means, if seen from the Buddhist notions of compassion and collective interconnectedness, which we’ve discussed. And according to that perspective, it would interpret that Taylor Swift’s fortunes are not the results of karmic justice per se, but a consequence of her work, her fans, the society at large, etc.
EW: I also just wanted to say that even though on through the episode, we have been saying how there are many different ways of understanding karma. This does not mean that there were no Buddhists, whether in the past or present, who haven’t understood karma in the same way as the song has presented it. Actually, if we look into historical records, we may find a lot of Buddhist narratives that present karma exactly as… the same way or in the same tone as we see in the song. Instead of calling the song a misunderstanding, I will actually say that the lyrics reflect one of the popular and commonly received understanding of karma.
Song, “Karma” by Taylor Swift: Me and karma vibe like that. Karma is my boyfriend. Karma is a god. Karma’s a relaxing thought.
RC: Preaching to the comments is produced by the media team at the Center for Culture, Society, and Religion at Princeton University.
Song, “Karma” by Taylor Swift: Karma’s a relaxing thought…
RC: For transcripts and more information, please visit our website at: ccsr.princeton.edu
“Karma” © Taylor Swift, Republic Records / Used under fair use for educational purposes
Speakers:
Jae Pi is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. Her research focuses on Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, with particular attention to the intellectual virtues which premodern Buddhist scholars regarded as essential for properly interpreting and teaching Buddhist scriptures.
Echo Weng is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. Her research examines conceptions of the body and disability in medieval Chinese Buddhism. She is particularly interested in the relationship between pain and embodiment, as well as in the religious techniques developed to address physical afflictions.
Rachel Carbonara is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Center for Culture, Society, and Religion at Princeton University. You can find her work at ccsr.princeton.edu and on Instagram at @drrachelcarbonara.