After the terrible disasters
recently in China and Myanmar, Sharon Stone famously suggested that
the suffering was due to kamma:
"I'm not happy
about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans… and then all
this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that
karma?"
This received widespread condemnation,
despite the fact that she merely raised the question and did not
assert anything. Recently, in an interview on the ABC radio PM
show, the Dalai Lama was quoted
as saying in response to Stone’s comment:
Of course from
a Buddhist viewpoint, every event is karma, due to karma. So the
tragedy on Tibetan, tragedy in Burma, tragedy in China, all this is
karmic.
It should be noted that the Dalai
Lama is not demonizing any country here, as he pointedly includes
Tibet among those countries suffering due to kamma.
Nevertheless, I don’t believe this
view accurately represents the teachings of the Buddha, nor are
they rational. This matter is of great concern, as many people see
such assertions as blaming victims for their sufferings. In modern
India, for example, similar ideas are used to justify the
inequalities of the caste system. I am not, of course, suggesting
that this is the Dalai Lama’s own view, but merely pointing out how
such views can be taken. With all my great respect for His Holiness
and his teachings, I think it is important that we should consider
for ourselves whether such views are an accurate reflection of the
Buddha’s teachings.
Here are some Suttas, taken directly
from the Pali canon, the earliest records of the Buddha’s teaching,
so that you can make up your own mind.The translations are by
Venerable Thanissaro. To emphasize the current issue, where
Thanissaro translates 'what was done before' I substitute 'past
kamma'. Also, I highlight the crucial passages.
AN 4.77:
Unconjecturable
"There are these four
unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured about, that would
bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them.
Which four?
"The Buddha-range of the Buddha is
an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would
bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about
it.
"The jhana-range of a person in
jhana...
"The results of
kamma...
"Conjecture about [the origin,
etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be
conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to
anyone who conjectured about it.
"These are the four
unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured about, that would
bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about
them."
This sutta immediately tells us that
we cannot pretend to use kamma as a catch-all explanation. We
simply cannot know, given the vast complexity of the webs of cause
and effect, how kamma is actually operating in any given situation.
This is even more so in the context of widespread disasters, such
as in China and Myanmar. If the acts of the leaders are the cause
of the disasters, how come the leaders seem to get out unscathed,
while thousands of innocent people, who have not contributed to the
problems, must pay with their lives? This is not the law of kamma
at all, it is something quite different.
This point is emphasized in the
following sutta, which explicitly states that not all our
experiences are due to kamma. The examples used by the Buddha for
alternative causes of pain and pleasure - bile, phlegm, etc., -
were the standard causes of diseases recognized in Indian
medicine.
AN 36.21 Sivaka Sutta
On one occasion
the Blessed One was dwelling near Rajagaha in the Bamboo Grove
Monastery, the Squirrel's Feeding Place. There Moliyasivaka the
wanderer went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, exchanged
courteous greetings with him. After an exchange of friendly
greetings & courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting
there, he said to the Blessed One, "Master Gotama, there
are some priests & contemplatives who are of this doctrine,
this view: Whatever an individual feels — pleasure, pain,
neither-pleasure-nor-pain — is entirely caused by what was past
kamma. Now what does Master Gotama say to that?"
[The Buddha:]
"There are cases where some feelings arise based on bile.
You yourself should know how some feelings arise based on bile.
Even the world is agreed on how some feelings arise based on bile.
So any priests & contemplatives who are of the doctrine &
view that whatever an individual feels — pleasure, pain,
neither-pleasure-nor-pain — is entirely caused by what was done
before — slip past what they themselves know, slip past what is
agreed on by the world. Therefore I say that those priests &
contemplatives are wrong."
"There are
cases where some feelings arise based on phlegm... based on
internal winds... based on a combination of bodily humors... from
the change of the seasons... from uneven care of the body... from
harsh treatment... from the result of kamma. You yourself should
know how some feelings arise from the result of kamma. Even the
world is agreed on how some feelings arise from the result of
kamma. So any priests & contemplatives who are of the doctrine
& view that whatever an individual feels — pleasure, pain,
neither pleasure-nor-pain — is entirely caused by what was done
before — slip past what they themselves know, slip past what is
agreed on by the world. Therefore I say that those priests &
contemplatives are wrong."
When this was
said, Moliyasivaka the wanderer said to the Blessed One:
"Magnificent, lord! Magnificent! Just as if he were to place
upright what was overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to point
out the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp into the dark
so that those with eyes could see forms, in the same way has the
Blessed One — through many lines of reasoning — made the Dhamma
clear. I go to the Blessed One for refuge, to the Dhamma, & to
the community of monks. May the Blessed One remember me as a lay
follower who has gone for refuge from this day forward, for
life."
Bile, phlegm, wind, a combination,
Season, uneven, harsh treatment,
and
through the result of kamma as the eighth.
This is straightforward. The
teachings of the Pali canon are clear: not everything is caused by
kamma.
This understanding is preserved in
the Pali commentarial tradition, which speaks of various systems of
natural law (niyāma),
for which I give an approximate modern equivalent: genetics
(bījaniyāma),
physics (utuniyāma), psychology
(cittaniyāma),
kamma, and Dhamma (which includes such things as the Four Noble
Truths, Dependent Origination, etc.) These are not meant as an
exhaustive system, just a few important examples. From this we can
see that, according to Theravadin views, an explanation of the
world that ignores kamma – as does modern science – is incomplete.
But equally inadequate is a view that reduces everything to
kamma.
The various conditions, such
as bile, etc., which arise in the body during the course of life
are not due to kamma, but to combinations of natural causes – diet,
exercise, environment, and so on. This is accepted and understood
universally in the world. While kamma may, of course, be playing a
role in such matters, to insist that disasters and suffering
generally experienced by people in this life is the product of past
kamma is to misrepresent the Suttas. Kamma is always a teaching
which encourages us to accept personal responsibility for our acts.
Leaders of countries who make decisions to go to war, to kill or
oppress will certainly have to accept the results of this. But this
has nothing to do with what the people experience. I noticed that
the Burmese junta leaders seem to be doing fine after the
cyclone.
It is simply irrational to
point to large scale events affecting thousands of people and
assert that somehow they have all done the same kamma, and
therefore are experiencing the same results. The crucial thing
about kamma is not finding a simplistic way to externalize blame,
but to use as a reflection for purifying and perfecting our own
ethical choices.
For those who wish to read
further, following is a more lengthy Sutta on the same topic. This
is a great Sutta, one of my favorites, and you should read the
whole thing. But here I just give the section dealing with the
non-Buddhist doctrine that everything is caused by past kamma. You
might also be interested in reading a longer discourse on the same
topic, the Devadaha
Sutta. Incidentally, the fact that there are
several discourses dealing explicitly with this topic shows that
this was an active question in the religious debates at the
Buddha's time, and one which the Buddha took a definite and
consistent position on.
AN
3.61 Tittha Sutta "Sectarians"
See
also: MN 101 Devadaha Sutta at: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.101.than.html)
By
Bhikkhu Sujato, 14/6/2008