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<\/a> <\/p>Cathal Costello Costello<\/p>
<\/a> <\/p>\n
Karma: The Choice Is Yours<\/strong><\/em>\r\nBY\u00a0AJAHN BUDDHADASA|\u00a0OCTOBER 20, 2017\r\n\r\nThere are two ways to understand dependent origination, teaches Ajahn Buddhadasa. But only one leads to liberation.\r\n\r\nAjahn Buddhadasa. Courtesy of Buddhadasa Indapanyo ArchIves (Bangkok).\r\nIn the Pali suttas there are two descriptions of what occurred under the Bodhi tree at the time of the Buddha\u2019s great awakening. In one version, appearing in various texts, the Buddha realized the three supreme knowledges. In the first true knowing, as it is generally understood, he recollected his former lives. In this account, as traditionally understood, he is able to recall his own previous births far into the distant past. These are invariably described as happening to the same person. In the second true knowing, he reviewed how beings carry on according to their actions (cutupapata\u00f1ana), how beings pass away and reappear according to the karma they have done. Through the third true knowing, he realized the destruction of the impulses (asavakkhya\u00f1ana). The out-flowing fermentations (asavas) are the deepest level of defilement; when they are completely ended, no further defilement, egoism, or suffering is possible. This is the more commonly recounted description of the night of the Buddha\u2019s awakening.\r\nElsewhere, the\u00a0Pali texts\u00a0state that the Buddha awakened to dependent co-arising. There also are accounts of the Buddha contemplating dependent co-arising immediately after his awakening, while he was still sitting under the Bodhi tree. Together, these give a second description of the Buddha\u2019s great awakening. In the immediate aftermath, during the first four-hour watch one night, the Buddha examined dependent co-arising in the forward order, starting with ignorance, then concoctings, and so on, one after the other. During the second watch of the night, he reviewed dependent co-arising in the reverse order, starting from suffering, then birth, becoming, clinging, and so on all the way back to ignorance. Then for the third watch, he examined dependent co-arising in both forward and reverse orders until dawn.\r\nBetween these two versions, the second is more reasonable and acceptable in light of the overall themes and threads of the Pali suttas. In the other account, the first knowledge concerning the recollection of past lives is in the language of eternalism, just as in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads, which speak of a self or an individual being born again and again over many lives. The belief that the same person is repeatedly reborn is eternalism, which Buddhism aims to eliminate. This idea has more in common with popular beliefs and the philosophy of the Upanishads than with the core of the Buddha\u2019s message.\r\nAt heart, Buddhism teaches the end of karma, living beyond karma, rather than carrying on according to karma.\r\nThe second knowledge is about beings passing away and reappearing according to karma. This is generally understood to mean that the same being disappears from one existence (bhava) and reappears in another according to karmic influences somehow carried over from one existence to the next. However, this is not directly or specifically a Buddhist teaching. At heart, Buddhism teaches the end of karma, living beyond karma, rather than carrying on according to karma. The noble path is for freedom from karma; living under the sway of karma is limiting, distressful, and burdensome. It is not good enough to merely surrender to karma, to die and be reborn according to the fruits of our actions. In Buddhism, liberating insight must go further than that.\r\nNeither of these first two knowledges can be considered truly Buddhist principles. Why, then, are they included in the Pali scriptures? My own view is that perhaps the compilers of the discourses included these passages for the benefit of ordinary people. For those people unable to understand dependent co-arising and the end of karma, these passages were included for the sake of morality. Consequently, this is an account of the Buddha\u2019s awakening for the moral benefit of ordinary people.\r\nThe second account puts dependent co-arising at the center of the Buddha\u2019s awakening. Not only did he express his awakening in these terms but he also described how he pondered and contemplated dependent co-arising both before the awakening and immediately after. After experiencing the bliss of liberation for a week, he examined and investigated dependent co-arising throughout at least one night, the first watch of which focused on how dependent co-arising occurs. He repeatedly investigated this in the forward order from ignorance to concoctings on through suffering. He spent four full hours thoroughly penetrating this truth. In the next four hours, he investigated the causality of dukkha in careful detail all the way back to ignorance. In the final four hours, he examined dependent co-arising in both directions, forward and backward. This shows the central importance of dependent co-arising. The formula recorded is brief and succinct\u2014the Buddha looked into it forward and backward for twelve hours without a break. He had the most profound spiritual experience of this through each of the watches: forward order, reverse order, and both forward and backward, each for four full hours. Please consider how profound, how difficult, how subtle, and how important this is. This ought to be of great interest to all serious meditators.\r\nThe words we have translated as \u201cforward order\u201d and \u201creverse order,\u201d or \u201cforward\u201d and \u201cbackward\u201d\u2014anuloma\u00a0and\u00a0patiloma\u2014can be understood rather broadly. Thus, for clarity\u2019s sake, we can explain\u00a0anuloma, \u201cwith the hairs,\u201d as the examining of the arising sequence, that is, dependent co-arising. The reverse,\u00a0patiloma, \u201cagainst the hairs,\u201d is the quenching of dependent co-arising, that is, dependent quenching. In the first watch, the Buddha investigated and reviewed how dependent co-arising arises. In the second watch, he investigated and reviewed how it quenches. In the final watch, he investigated and reviewed both. This understanding is eminently reasonable and fully supported by the core themes of the discourses.\r\nPlease consider this important question: Have you ever practiced like this? Have you ever investigated dependent co-arising in the way that the Buddha did before, during, and after his awakening? We suggest that you examine and scrutinize dependent co-arising in the same great detail, with the same sincerity and intensity. Then, you might understand it like he did. You will find it worth your while to follow the Buddha\u2019s example.\r\n\r\nTwo Understandings of Karma\r\nThis is a good place to consider karma. After all, it parallels the dependent co-arising teaching, though with less precision and depth. In the first account of the Buddha\u2019s awakening, the second knowledge suggests that beings carry on after death according to their karma. The difficulty with this understanding is that we cannot take this as the understanding of karma in line with core Buddhist principles. Rather, this understanding is simply the standard version of karma that existed in India before the Buddha\u2019s time. Before the Buddha\u2019s awakening, the Upanishads already taught that beings are reborn after death according to the workings of karma. Even Christianity, at least mainstream forms, teaches pretty much the same. If that is not the true Buddhist teaching, then what is?\r\nIn Buddhism, the central teaching on karma is about the practice that makes karma meaningless, \u201cthe karma that ends karma.\u201d This karma transforms us beyond all the influences of karma, which is the unique, more profound aspect of the Buddha\u2019s karma teaching. The idea that doing good deeds leads to good results and doing bad deeds leads to bad results was a general teaching that existed before the Buddha\u2019s time. The Buddha did not deny or object to such karma doctrines, which were already common before he appeared and are found in some form in all religions. However, such teachings were not sufficient for his purpose: the end of suffering. Therefore, the Buddha went further. His real teaching is about not being trapped by karma, thus transcending karma and its consequences.\r\nTo be trapped forever in the prison of karma is not Buddhism. If everything constantly happens to us according to karma, there could never be any liberation.\r\nAllow me to reiterate that most of the books on Buddhism with chapters on \u201cKarma and Rebirth\u201d are not correct, not if they really intend to represent Buddhism. If we are to explain \u201cKarma in Buddhism,\u201d it is not enough to teach that good actions bring good fruits, bad actions bring bad fruits, and we inevitably receive the fruits of our good and bad karma. Properly, a Buddhist explanation must focus on \u201cthe karma that ends all karma.\u201d The practice of the noble eightfold path is that karma that ends all karma. The Buddha\u2019s teaching on karma is to be free of karma, not trapped by it, so that karma has no more power over our lives.\r\nThe Buddha Perfected the Teaching of Karma\r\nTo be trapped forever in the prison of karma is not Buddhism. If everything constantly happens to us according to karma, there could never be any liberation. For a teaching and practice to be Buddhism, we must be liberated from the power and oppression of karma. A teaching that merely reiterates the old approach cannot be the true Buddhist teaching. It must be completed to the extent of liberation to be Buddhism. Thus, the Buddha needed to teach the karma that ends karma. He took the kind of karma that does not explain liberation and perfected it so that liberation from karma became the central point.\r\n\u201cBeyond karma\u201d is a teaching above and beyond the world, or a\u00a0lokuttara\u00a0teaching. The ordinary karma teachings are part and parcel with the world (lokiya).\u00a0Lokiyadhamma\u00a0is for the mind still trapped in worldly conditions.\u00a0Lokuttaradhamma\u00a0is for the mind free of and beyond worldly conditions. The Buddha accepted a number of the old teachings, perfecting them within his\u00a0lokuttaradhamma\u00a0system as he did so. The Buddhist teaching on karma\u2014the noble eightfold path that ends karma\u2014is a perfect example of how the Buddha completed the old teachings and traditions.\r\nThe Buddha accepted some teachings that existed in India before his awakening, such as non-vengeance (avera), non-harming or nonviolence (avihimsa), the five\u00a0sila, various\u00a0samadhi\u00a0practices, and the form and formless\u00a0jhanas. All of these are older teachings and practices that he did not reject. Instead, he further developed, completed, and perfected them. Please be aware that Buddhism contains a certain amount of older teachings and practices that the Buddha included, deepened, and completed for the sake of quenching dukkha. Understanding this fact is important so that we will not confuse the old versions of such teachings with the new, perfected versions.\r\nThe Buddha completed the Upanishadic teaching on karma and the like. To do so, he taught the end of karma.\r\nTwo Levels of Teaching\r\nThese examples clearly show that there are two levels of teaching, both of which are necessary. One is for the sake of morality, for those who still believe in and hold to self. The moral level of teaching is necessary for those who can only understand things in terms of me and mine, who require moral and therapeutic teachings that operate on a worldly level. It teaches people how to live in the world morally and peacefully, to be less selfish about the selves to which they cling, and thereby suffer less.\r\nYou can continue rebirthing yourself in a worldly way, but with healthy morality, not harming others and living relatively peacefully.\r\nFor those aiming higher, the Buddha\u2019s teaching focuses on letting go of self, that everything is not-self and nothing is worth clinging to as me or mine. This level does not ignore or reject the moral teachings; it simply goes beyond them. This is the more comprehensive transcendent level of ultimate truth that truly liberates from all suffering. If both levels are understood, there is no conflict between them. They can coexist for the sake of both those who want to live in and of the world (lokiya) and those aiming to live above and free of the world (lokuttara), in it but not of it.\r\nEach person decides their own preference and way. If you want to travel the paths of the world and have no wish to transcend the world, you can follow the worldly teachings and receive the moralistic explanation of dependent co-arising given by various commentators. You can continue rebirthing yourself in a worldly way, but with healthy morality, not harming others and living relatively peacefully. If you want to be free, to transcend the world and no longer be caught by all its trappings, you must study the transcendent teachings such as \u201cthe end of karma\u201d that do not involve self. For this, we have the dependent co-arising of ultimate truth that enables us to see through all the concoctings of self. Dependent co-arising also has these two levels or two models. The choice of which to follow is yours.\r\nAdapted from\u00a0Under the Bodhi Tree, from Wisdom Publications, 2017.\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/h6>\n