"Message from Suan
Mokkh"
Kamma in Buddhism
action and the result of action
As Buddhists, we must understand kamma
(action and the result of action) as it is explained in Buddhism. We
should not blindly follow the kamma teachings of other religions;
otherwise, we will pitifully spin around according to kamma without
being able to get beyond its power or realize its end.
Why do we need to know the essence of Kamma? Because our
lives are inseparable from it and happen according to it. To be more
precise, we can say that life is actually a stream of kamma. Desire
to do deeds (kamma) causes one to perform actions and receive the
results of those actions; then, desire to do deeds arises again and again
endlessly. Therefore, life is merely a pattern of kamma. If we
rightly understand kamma, we can lead our lives at peace, without
any problems or suffering.
There are two primary kamma doctrines. One has been
taught since before the Buddha’s time and is still taught outside
Buddhism; the other is the Buddhist principle of kamma. The first
doctrine presents only half of the story. In that doctrine, one cannot
conquer kamma and remains always under its domination; one actually
desires to be under its power and asks for its help, without ever trying
to fight for one’s own liberation. One thus performs kamma as if
accumulating assets for more satisfactory rebirth. One never thinks of
ending kamma. One expects to rely on it instead of trying to end
it. In Buddhism, we can understand kamma up to the level that we
can conquer it and be liberated from it, that is, not carry the
burden of kamma any more. We neither sit waiting for things to
happen, nor leave our fate in the hands of gods, nor follow superstitions
like purifying our kamma in sacred rivers.
To be beyond kamma seems incredible to most people; they
may consider it a deception or a salesman’s trick. Nonetheless, it
really is possible if we take the Buddha as our True and Noble Friend.
This will help us in practicing the complete set of Ten Rightnesses: the
noble eightfold path plus right insight knowledge and right liberation in
accordance with the law of specific conditionality (idappaccayata).
In such practice, there is no foolish feeling that leads to desire for the
various results of kamma (actions). A doctrine master from
Southern India and contemporary of the Buddha heard that the Buddha taught
the cessation of kamma. He then sent his disciples to ask the
Buddha questions and to ask for His instructions. This well-known story is
told in the Solasapanha, Parayanavagga of the Khuddakanikaya
in the Pali Canon. Many people learn the Buddha’s answers from this
story and take them for study and practice.
Nowadays, wrong teachings concerning kamma are publicized
in books by various Indian and Western writers under titles such as "Kamma
and Rebirth." Although they are
presented in the name of Buddhism, they are actually about kamma
and rebirth as understood in Hinduism. So the right teaching of Buddhism
is misrepresented. This should be recognized and corrected so that the
Buddhist kamma principle can be preserved in its undistorted
essence. The Buddha accepted as correct — that is, as not a wrong
understanding of kamma — the half-formed teaching concerning good
and evil deeds and their results that was presented before his time and
outside his teaching. However, he added to it a final aspect, namely, the
end of kamma, which is the essential Buddhist principle, thus
completing the teaching on kamma. This cessation of
kamma goes by two names. It can be
called “the third kind of kamma” because there are good deeds, evil
deeds, and the kamma leading to the end of both good and evil
deeds. Sometimes four kinds of kamma are distinguished: good deeds,
evil deeds, mixed deeds, and the kamma that is the end of all
kamma. When enumerated in this fourfold way, the additional kamma
taught in Buddhism becomes the fourth kind of kamma. However, if we
take mixed kamma as falling under good actions and evil actions,
then there are only three kinds of kamma, with the kamma
that ends all kamma as the third kind again. This three-fold
formulation is easy, convenient, and concise. If the third kind of
kamma is left out, the teaching misses the essence of kamma in
the true Buddhist sense.
Kamma and Rebirth:
Rebirth occurs every time one does a deed, and that rebirth occurs
spontaneously at the moment of action. We need not wait for rebirth to
come after death, as is generally understand in the worldly sense. When
one thinks and acts, the mind is spontaneously changed through the power
of desire and clinging, which lead immediately to becoming and birth in
accordance with the law of Dependent Co-origination (paticca-samuppada).
There is no need to wait for physical death in order for rebirth to occur.
This truth should be realized as the true teaching of Buddhism, as a core
principle of the original, pristine Buddhism that states there is no self
(atta) to be reborn. How the concept of rebirth after death crept
into Buddhism is difficult to explain, and we need not concern ourselves
with it. Simply preventing rebirth within the stream of Dependent
Co-origination is enough for us to be free. Stopping egoistic rebirth is
truly in accordance with Buddhism, and such action will be the kind of
kamma that can be taken as refuge. When a good deed is done, goodness
spontaneously arises; when an evil deed is done, evilness spontaneously
arises. There is no need to wait for any further results. If there will be
any birth after death, that rebirth only occurs through the kamma
one has done in this very life and the results of which have already
occurred here. We need not worry about rebirth such that it obstructs our
practice.
Receiving the Fruits of Kamma:
We should see the truth that a mind performing a deed is kamma
itself and the subsequent mind is the result of that kamma. Other
results that follow it are only uncertain by-products, since they may or
may not occur, or do not keep up with our expectations due to other
interfering factors. That the results of actions occur for the minds
performing them is most certainly in line with the Buddhist principle that
there is no self or soul to be reborn, as stated by the Buddha in the
Kevatta Sutta. To hold the view that a soul or somebody is reborn deviates
from the truth of not-self. Whenever a good or evil deed is done, goodness
or evilness spontaneously arises accordingly without having to wait for
later results. Nonetheless, most people expect certain results according
to their wishes; then, they are disappointed when other factors interfere.
Such intervening circumstances may lead one to hold a wrong view that good
actions brings bad results and bad actions brings good results. We should
be careful of this wrong view and should develop right understanding
concerning the fruits of kamma.
Our understanding of how the results of
kamma are received must always be self-apparent, immediate, and
inviting of inquiry, and should never contradict the truth that the five
aggregates of human life are not-self. Mind is merely a phenomenon pushed
this way and that by conditions, stimulated to do things by environmental
factors. The resulting reactions are accepted and regarded as good or evil
according to one’s feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Either
kind pushes us into suffering, thus we should aim at ending kamma
and getting beyond it. Then, we will have realized, awakened, and fully
blossomed, which is genuine Buddhahood.
There is a moralistic teaching of kamma
that retains an illusion of self that owns
this and that. This version contradicts the principle of not-self stressed
by the Buddha. We should correctly understand this perspective; otherwise,
we will not benefit from practicing kamma teachings, since we will
not be able to go beyond kamma. Endlessly remaining under the power
of kamma is not the kamma teaching of Buddhism. Instead,
wholeheartedly practice the kamma that ends all kamma. This
will prevent us from unwittingly going astray.
Activity & Reactivity: The
actions or movements of sentient beings that are done with volition,
particularly that of craving and arising through defilements, are called
kamma. An activity that is not caused by defilement, for example,
one with an Arahant’s intention, is not called “kamma”; it is
called "kiriya (activity)." The result of kiriya is called "patikiriya
(reaction)," while the result of kamma is called "vipaka
(fruit of action)." These results occur justly in accordance with the law
of nature. Ordinary people have ordinary volitions (cetana) as the
causes of their actions, which are consequently kamma. Good
volition leads to good action; evil volition leads to evil action. Through
moral and cultural training, everybody is taught to do good deeds that do
not cause trouble to others and bring good results to everyone. Therefore,
kamma concerns the law of nature and is scientific.
Types of Kamma: There are many types of kamma
depending on the characteristics of the deeds and their doers. Some act
with selfishness concerning the selves they desire to be. Some perform
actions that lead to the ending of the self-illusion and the realization
of Nibbana. Some people are pleased with worldly prosperity, others
with heavenly prosperity, and some with the realization of Nibbana, such
that they always seem to contradict each other. Some like to show off
their good deeds, while others perform their good deeds secretly. Some
proclaim their meritorious deeds with fanfare, while others do not need
such fanfare. Some do their deeds with excessive ritual, while others do
theirs without any ceremony at all. Some do theirs out of magical or
superstitious fear, while others do theirs properly as Buddhist practice.
Obviously, there are many types of kamma. Nevertheless, they all
can be classified into two categories: those with self and for the sake of
self, and those that aim for the ending of self-clinging and selfishness.
Some do deeds in a business-like manner, expecting excessive profits.
Others wish for the end of the vicious circle of life and death. Look for
yourselves! Ordinary people do good deeds merely for the sake of
inordinate profits.
Kamma and Not-Self: The question of kamma and
not-self is confusing and difficult to understand for various reasons. A monk
once asked the Buddha, "How does kamma done by not-self give
results for self?" This question arose because of the teaching on
not-self that points out how the "actor" is merely a mind-body
process void of self. After an action (kamma) is done by a selfless
mind-body, how could it have any results for a "self"
who is the "doer" who intentionally did
that deed. The new concept of not-self contradicts the old concept of
self. There is a self that claims to be not-self and does things in the
name of not-self, but the sense of self still exists to receive the
results of the deeds. Hence, this monk’s question. If we see it rightly,
we will understand that when the mind-body is not-self, the results of its
actions will happen to a selfless mind-body, also. However, if that
mind-body is full of a sense of self, the results of its actions will
always happen to this apparent self If kamma
is not-self, its result will be not-self, and what occurs in accordance
with kamma will be not-self. The things, whether human or animal,
that we conventionally speak of as "actors (doers of kamma)"
will also be not-self. The facts of kamma and not-self are never
separate and never oppose each other.
The ending of kamma is the same thing as Nibbana, in
other words, is synonymous with Nibbana. From where, then, come
the teachers who instruct the people that death is the end of kamma?
When someone dies, people murmur, "oh well, his kamma is
finished." Moreover, they often say that one dies according to ones
merits and kamma, without realizing that what is happening to them
now is also according to their good and bad kamma, until they
really reach the end of kamma, namely, Nibbana.
Nibbana is freedom from kamma and its results. Further,
Nibbana is freedom from the vicious samsara (cyclic
existence) that keeps spinning according to kamma. Nibbana,
therefore, is lovely and loveable, not frightening in the least. Even so,
people prefer being trapped within the vicious cycles of birth and death
according to their kamma, particularly the kamma they desire
as a result of their defilements, although they never really get what they
wish. Those who have big egos will
normally hate and fear the end of kamma because ego-self desires
kamma-results that appear lovely according to its viewpoint.
Kamma is attachment (upadhi) or burden. When one
performs kamma, life happens
according to kamma, that is, one is bound by kamma no matter
whether it is good or evil kamma. Good kamma makes one laugh
and bad kamma makes one cry, but both weary us almost to death.
Even so, people still like to laugh, since they misunderstand that good
kamma is great virtue. When kamma does not bind our lives, it
is as if there are no chains on our legs, whether iron chains or
diamond-studded golden chains. Life becomes a burden when it is weighed
down by kamma and we have to carry and support it. The end of
kamma makes our lives light and free, but only a few people appreciate
this as it is obscured by the veils of atta (self).
In conclusion, as Buddhists let’s try to do only the kamma that
is the end of kamma. When we see that kamma has occupied and
ruled our lives, we will strive to practice, improve ourselves, and
fight in every possible way to triumph over both good and evil kamma,
so that none of them will oppress our minds. Let’s develop minds that
are clean, clear, and calm because no kamma and no results disturb
it. Nowadays, most people understand kamma as something bad and
undesirable. This is correct because both good and evil kamma are
despicable in that they cause the vicious cycles of birth and death to go
on without cessation.
Kamma in Buddhism is that kamma (action) which
leads to the end of all kamma so that life is above and beyond kamma.
Far from despicable, it is something to be understood and fully integrated into our lives.
"Living beyond kamma" is something to be realized and
attained.
Mokkhabalarama, Chaiya
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The best way from http://www.suanmokkh.org/
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