Karma and epigenetics - exciting stuff!

In this post I wanted to talk a little about karma and the exciting (pretty new) field of epigenetics. My knowledge on both subjects is a little shaky, but it seems that new research in epigenetics is showing hints of how the effects of events from our lives and those of our ancestors may be passed down through our genes.

Firstly lets look at what karma is. The idea of karma was around in India before the Buddha, but it was the Buddha who explained and formulated it in the form we have it today.

According to Buddhist philosophy, there are five orders or laws of nature and mind:

• physical order/law: winds, rains, seasons, time
• organic order: characteristics of plants, their tastes, cells, genes, heredity
• karmic order: I'll come on to this one more below
• universe order: gravitation and other similar laws of nature, the natural phenomena occurring at the advent of birth
• mind order: thoughts, consciousness, will, intention.

In this traditional view-point, the law of karma is only one of these five that govern the unfolding of the universe.

Why is there inequality in this world? According to these laws, inequality is due not only to heredity (organic order), environment (physical order), "nature and nurture", but also to karma. Karma is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. Karma is the law of moral causation. (So says Wikipedia) any action is a "seed" in the mind that will sprout into the appropriate result when met with the right conditions - be that "good" or "bad". It's equivalent to saying "what goes around, comes around."

In Buddhism, 'samsara' is the continual repetitive cycle of birth and death that arises from grasping and fixating on a self and experiences. (Here birth and death traditionally refers to re-birth but it could also be thought of as periods/times/events within our life.) This is what gives rise to feelings of dissatisfaction or dis-ease with the world. The root cause of samsara is our belief in a single, independently-existing self, which gives rise to wanting (attachment), aversion and delusion/confusion - and it's these that create karma.

The Buddha taught of a way of breaking out of this repetitive cycle through wise/enlightened/true intention, speech, action, livelihood, thoughts, etc. This is how we neutralise all that built-up karma and start along a different path.

Ok, so you can take this or leave it. But one thing that has sparked my interest recently as an ex-scientist is the field of epigenetics and how that relates to this idea of karma.

We all know about how DNA is inherited from your mother and father. Our genome (our "genetic makeup") is encoded in DNA (or sometimes RNA) and includes all our genes that control biological traits such as what eye/hair colour, how many limbs you have(!), blood type, your pre-disposition to certain diseases/illnesses, etc.

But we now know that genes aren't a fixed, predetermined program simply passed from one generation to the next, as was once thought. Epigenetics has shown that genes can be turned on and off by experiences and environment.

Epigenetics is the is the study of changes in your genes caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. Epigenetic processes do not change the DNA sequence, but tell your genes to switch on or off, like a light switch. For example, in cell differentiation, it tells certain cells that they are a part of your skin (not a neuron or a liver cell), even though (for the most part) they all have the same DNA.

So genes can be turned on and off by experiences and environment, huh!

Here's an example: according to this great article, "a woman's diet during pregnancy seems to have a major impact on her baby's epigenetic tags. Prenatal diets that are low in folic acid, vitamin B-12, and other nutrients containing "methyl groups" — a set of molecules that can tag genes and cause epigenetic changes — have been linked to an increased risk of asthma and brain and spinal cord defects in children. Stress, too, can alter fetal epigenetic tags. Pregnant women who were traumatized at the World Trade Center on 9/11 were far more likely than other women to give birth to infants who reacted with unusual levels of fear and stress when faced with loud noises, unfamiliar people, or new foods."

Changes to our genes by epigenetic processes can also happen during our life (i.e. they're not just inherited). For example twins may inherit a gene that predisposes them to cancer, but only one will develop the disease because diet, toxins, or smoking turn on that gene. According to Andrew Feinberg, director of Johns Hopkins University's Epigenetics Center, even eating foods rich in methyl groups — such as soybeans, red grapes, and green tea — might protect against disease by silencing detrimental genes.

So it seems we can control anything up to 70% of our genetic makeup with things like lifestyle, diet, exercise, what we put on our skin, stress, etc. Isn't that exciting?!

As far as I can see this is the closest science has come to karma. How we live our life - the actions we take and environments we put ourselves in - can have a direct effect on our genes through these epigenetic processes. If negative actions lead to negative consequences for our genes, then positive ones must lead to positive consequences. If that's not karma I don't know what is!

"Enlightened (wise) action leaves no wake" - Zen Master Jiyu-Kennett

If you're interested in some positive experiences in south London, why not come down to one of my zen yoga classes, or sign up for a course in mindfulness!

 

I'd love to hear from you

If you're interested in this topic of epigenetics and how it connects to the Buddhist concept of karma, I'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, join the discussion. 

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