Actions of an Enlightened Being

allkosong SG

Hello there -

It is said that after enlightenment, the body continues to live out its habits and karma till the body drops. My questions are:

1. How do we know if an action from an enlightened one is due to habits/karma or arising from Emptiness?

2. Actions of enlightened being do not create further karma. Is that correct?

Thank you in advance for your response.

Aik TC SG

1. How do we know if an action from an enlightened one is due to habits/karma or arising from Emptiness?

Zen believes that an empty mind is not apart from an ordinary mind. When one is transformed after enlightenment, daily living is enhanced rather than transcend. Below is an example:

A monk came to ask the master Da-zhu, “what is the way to Zen?’ He answer, ‘When I am hungry, I eat and when I am sleepy, I go to bed’. The monk said, ‘Anyone can do that; is there any difference between you and an average person?’ Of course there is a difference,’ the master answered. ‘Many people don’t feel like eating when it is time to eat, and don’t feel sleeping when it is time to sleep because their mind cannot settle down with the thousands of concerns floating in there.

So would ordinary folks like us know whether the action of an enlightened one is due to habits/karma or arising from Emptiness? – No, no is there a need to know.

2. Actions of enlightened being do not create further karma. Is that correct?

An arahant is supposes to have overcome the 10 fetters and would have the 7 qualities of enlightenment. This would have made the person perfectly altruistic, calm, tranquil, mindful and equanimous in nature. Whatever actions he takes would not be for his self-interest but would be for the benefits and welfare of others. But I believe eventually, he will still have to bear the affect in body only, not his mind, consequences that may arise due to karmic effect good or bad resulting from actions he has taken.

lce SG

"For every Action , there is an equal and opposite reaction" - Newton's 3rd Law of Motion

If emptiness is NOTHING then how can there be an ACTION?

Kfcheong SG

Emptiness is not nothing. Emptiness means that everything is dependent on everything to exist, so the "thing" itself is empty, because it does not have a defining "self".

lce SG

everything in this world is science and to everything there is science on how we behave n what we believe in. same as the church where the pastor was found guilty yet there are still so many followers but there are still logics on what they want to believe.

to some , Logic is not maths and 1+1 does not always equal to 2. the world was flat in the olden days , perhaps its still so only in different outline.

Aik TC SG

Everything in this world is science. Can science prove your statement is true? Can science prove that such moral issues as killing, false speech, rapes are all evil? Can science prove that God does or does not exist? What about such places such as heaven and hell, do they or do they not exist? Other than by demonstrated behavior or by precedent, can such experiences such as love, hate be scientifically proven?

lce SG

greed is still an element of science in human behavior, everyone has his own agenda on what he is doing.

like u are louder with your bigger fonts coz u need attention or u think others are as blind

Kfcheong SG

Science should be a subset of Buddhism. Buddhism is primarily evidence-based. If something is found to be untrue in terms of Science, then Buddhism should reject it as such.

But of course, there are something that science can't prove yet. The operative word is "YET" because as civilazation advance, there might come upon a time where we would be able to prove whether "Reincarnation exist" or "God exist"

Actually, it's possible to prove experiences such as love, hate with science now through neuro-research.

As a side note, in the past, ppl had difficulty with the concept of origination dependence because science in the past were not able to prove it. But as science advance, we are able to prove that matters cannot exist alone because it is made up of atoms. Atoms are then made up of neutrons, protons and electrons. And each of these components are in turn made up of other things.

In conclusion, I believe that Science is a subset of Buddhism. The truth can always be tested, and if Buddhism is true (which I believe to be), then it should be able to stand the test of science and logic. Anything that is proven wrong by science should be rejected as such.

Darcos.marux SG

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