Within Yiguandao, karma is understood as a moral law of cause and effect that extends across lifetimes, shaping both present circumstances and future destinies. Actions generate either merit or karmic debt: virtuous conduct, filial piety, vegetarianism, charity, and especially the propagation of the Dao are seen as powerful sources of merit, while harmful behavior and moral failings create burdens that must eventually be repaid. This perspective is not merely individualistic; it resonates with Confucian moral cultivation and responsibility within family and society, so that fulfilling one’s roles becomes part of karmic accountability. Negative karma is not regarded as fixed fate, but as something that can be transformed through sincere repentance, ethical discipline, and sustained good works.

Reincarnation is viewed as a repeated cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, unfolding across multiple realms that include human, animal, and spiritual planes. This cycle is driven by the balance of one’s karmic ledger, with wholesome and unwholesome actions determining the conditions of subsequent lives. The round of rebirth is regarded as fundamentally bound up with suffering, and thus something from which the soul seeks release. Yiguandao places this process within a larger salvific vision: the ultimate aim is to transcend samsara and “return to the Origin” or “Original Home,” reuniting with the Eternal or Unborn Mother (Wusheng Laomu), who is regarded as the compassionate source to whom all beings are meant to return.

A distinctive feature of this tradition is its teaching that the present cosmic era constitutes a special, urgent opportunity for liberation. History is divided into great periods, and the current age is portrayed as one in which the Eternal Mother opens a final, all-encompassing work of salvation. Through receiving the Dao, engaging in repentance, maintaining vegetarian practice, and diligently cultivating virtue, adherents believe they can exhaust karmic debts and bring the cycle of rebirth to an end, whether in this life or after at most one further lifetime. Participation in Yiguandao rituals and, above all, the effort to guide others toward the Dao are regarded as especially potent means of generating merit and hastening this return to the primordial source.