業ごう

ご

う

Meanings

Buddhist term for the moral law of cause and effect, where actions in past lives influence one's present condition.

fate; destiny; karmic result

Extended from the Buddhist sense, used to refer to an inescapable fate or the consequences of one's past actions, often with a negative connotation.

uncontrollable temper

Used only in the set phrase 業を煮やす (ごうをにやす), meaning to lose one's patience or become exasperated.

業ごうを背負しょうto bear the burden of one's karma
彼かれは前ぜん世せの業ごうを背し負ょって生いきているという。
It's said that he lives carrying the karma of a past life.
業ごうが尽つきるfor one's karmic life to run out (i.e. one's fated time to end)
業ごうが尽つきたのか、彼かれは静しずかに息いきを引ひき取とった。
As if his karma had run out, he quietly passed away.
前ぜん世せの業ごうkarma carried over from a past life
この病やまいは前ぜん世せの業ごうによるものだと僧そうは言いった。
The monk said this illness was caused by karma from a past life.

自じ業ごう自じ得とくreap what you sow; suffer the consequences of one's own actions; get one's just deserts
ごうがわくget angry; take offense; be furious
業ごうが深ふかいdeeply sinful; past redemption; karmically burdened
業ごうの深ふかいsinful; deeply sinful; karma-laden
業ごうを煮にやすlose one's temper; lose patience; get fed up; become exasperated

宿しゅく命めいN1sense 2
宿命 is a predetermined fate seen as inevitable, while 業 specifically frames that fate as the karmic result of one's own past actions.
運うん命めいN2sense 2
運命 is a neutral, general word for fate or destiny, whereas 業 carries a Buddhist moral weight tying one's fate to past deeds.
因いん果が sense 1
因果 names the abstract principle of cause and effect, while 業 refers to the accumulated karmic residue that principle produces in a person.
カルマ
業 is the native Buddhist term for karma, carrying a heavier sense of retribution or destiny, while カルマ is a neutral Sanskrit loanword used in broader spiritual or New Age contexts.

業ぎょうN2
Written with the same kanji, 業 read ぎょう means 'work, business, industry', a completely different word from 業 read ごう meaning 'karma'.
劫こう
劫 (read こう, or ごう in compounds) denotes a vast span of time in Buddhist cosmology, whereas 業 (ごう) refers to karma, the moral consequence of one's actions; the two Buddhist terms are easily confused because of their similar readings.

業ごう火か
hellfire; flames of hell · raging fire; large fire · fire that consumes an evildoer
非ひ業ごう
unnatural death; untimely death
悪あく業ごう
bad karma; evil deed; sinful act
罪ざい業ごう
sin; evil deed; crime
三さん業ごう
three activities (action, speech, thought)

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業ごうUsage89%
Standard kanji spelling for the Buddhist concept of karma and its extended meanings.
ごうUsage11%
Kana spelling is sometimes used in casual writing or when the kanji is considered difficult.

Borrowed from Middle Chinese 業 (MC *ŋɨɐp̚), originally meaning 'work, deed, action', and adopted in Buddhism as a translation of Sanskrit karma.