ABSTRACT
This chapter largely focuses on Hindu and Buddhist themes, albeit with some references to Christianity and Islam to emphasise the ubiquity of reciprocal dynamics underlying processes of human identity and destiny. In the age-old combination of karma and caste, the ethical worlds of action align with previous theoretical work on meaning-making, moral-rules, and merit. To follow social rules results in good karma, to disregard earns bad karma. Caste and karma embrace the issue of embodiment through skin colour, occupation, food rules, and marriage options. By reflecting the moral state of a previous life, karma drives merit. The Buddha's approach is often described as a middle way, practised primarily by monks who live in community (the sangha), where their capacity to observe the precepts and make merit is easier than that of the laity whose engagement with the teachings and the ideal way of life is less possible because of their duties in making a living.
