Buddha’s interpretation of
Kamma
MN 101: Devadaha
Sutta - Translator's
Introduction:Thanissaro Bhikkhu
In this sutta, the Buddha refutes the
theories of the Jains — here called the Niganthas — an order of
contemplatives flourishing in India during his time. Although on
the surface this sutta may seem to be of strictly historical
interest, it makes two important points that are very relevant to
some common misunderstandings about Buddhism alive
today.
The first point concerns the Buddhist
teaching on action, or kamma (karma). The general understanding of
this teaching is that actions from the past determine present
pleasure and pain, while present actions determine future pleasure
and pain. Or, to quote a recent book devoted to the topic, "Karma
is the moral principle that governs human conduct. It declares that
our present experience is conditioned by our past conduct and that
our present conduct will condition our future experience." This,
however, does not accurately describe the Buddha's teaching on
karma, and is instead a fairly accurate account of the Nigantha
teaching, which the Buddha explicitly refutes here. As he
interrogates the Niganthas, he makes the point that if all pleasure
and pain experienced in the present were determined by past action,
why is it that they now feel the pain of harsh treatment when they
practice asceticism, and no pain of harsh treatment when they
don't? If past action were the sole determining factor, then
present action should have no effect on their present experience of
pleasure or pain.
In this way, the Buddha points
to one of the most distinctive features of his own teaching on
kamma: that the present experience of pleasure and pain is a
combined result of both past and present actions. This seemingly
small addition to the notion of kamma plays an enormous role in
allowing for the exercise of free will and the possibility of
putting an end to suffering before the effects of all past actions
have ripened. In other words, this addition is what makes Buddhist
practice possible, and makes it possible for a person who has
completed the practice to survive and teach it with full authority
to others. For more on these points, see the articles,
"Karma," "A Refuge in Skillful
Action," and
"Five Piles of
Bricks"; see also
the Introduction to The Wings to
Awakening,
along with the introductions to the sections on Skillfulness
and Kamma & the Ending of
Kamma in that
book.
The second important point touched on in
this sutta — how to put an end to pain and suffering — relates to
the first. If the cause of present suffering were located
exclusively in the past, no one could do anything in the present
moment to stop that suffering; the most that could be done would be
to endure the suffering while not creating any new kamma leading to
future suffering. Although this was the Jain approach to practice,
many people at present believe that it is the Buddhist approach as
well. Meditation, according to this understanding, is the process
of purifying the mind of old kamma by training it to look on with
non-reactive equanimity as pain arises. The pain is the result of
old kamma, the equanimity adds no new kamma, and thus over time all
old kamma can be burned away.
In this sutta, however, the Buddha heaps
ridicule on this idea. First he notes that none of the Niganthas
have ever come to the end of pain by trying to burn it away in this
way; then he notes that they have based their belief in this
practice entirely on their faith in their teacher and their
approval of his ideas, but neither faith nor approval can act as
guarantees of the truth. As he illustrates with his simile of the
man shot with an arrow, only a person who has succeeded in going
beyond pain would be in a position to speak with authority of the
method that actually puts an end to pain. (What is not mentioned in
this sutta is the Nigantha idea that the practice of austerities,
to succeed completely in burning away old kamma, must culminate in
a suicide by starvation. Thus there could be no living person who
would be able to vouch for the efficacy of their
method.)
The Buddha then provides his own account of
how meditation actually works in putting an end to pain and
suffering. His discussion shows that the problem underlying pain is
not past action, but passion — in the present — for the causes of
pain. In other words, pain is not inevitable. Present suffering can
be prevented by changing one's understanding of, and attitude
toward, the cause of suffering in the present. The Buddha
illustrates this principle with the simile of a man in love with a
woman: As long as he feels passion for her, he will suffer when he
sees her enjoying the company of another man; when, seeing the
connection between his suffering and his passion, he abandons that
passion, he will no longer suffer from that
cause.
Thus the practice must focus on
ways to understand and bring about dispassion for the causes of
stress and pain here and now. As the Buddha points out in
MN 106, equanimity plays an important role in this
practice, but it can also become an object for passion and delight,
which would then stand in the way of true release. Thus he notes
here that, in some cases, dispassion can arise simply from
on-looking equanimity directed at the causes of stress. In other
cases, it can come only through exertion: the mental effort —
through the fabrications of directed thought, evaluation, and
perception — to develop the discernment needed to see through and
abandon any and all passion.
The remainder of the sutta is devoted to a
standard map of how the practice develops over time, showing how
the proper mixture of on-looking equanimity combined with
fabrication and exertion can lead to dispassion, and through
dispassion to release from all stress and
suffering.