Bhikkhu Cintita

Category: buddhism

  • From Thought to Destiny: Rebirth

    Uposatha Teaching: First Quarter, October 16, 2010.

    Index to Current Series
    “    Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”

    Destiny, as I will understand it here, deals with the long-term consequences of Karma. We have tracked Karma from Thought, to Act (Karma is, most properly your intentional actions, and this arises with varying degrees of skill), then to Habit and Character (Karma shapes who you are, it determines those things that differentiate you from others). On this developmental path one of two things can be expected happen to you in this life. First and most likely, you might die in the midst of your Karmic evolution. In this case, according to classical Buddhism, your Karma will produce a new Rebirth. That permits character along with habit patterns simply to continue to evolve regardless of the failure of the physical body. Second, Karma can come to an end inthe state of Nirvana, which is the ending of your Karmic life. Without a Karmic life there will not be another Rebirth.

    This all probably sounds abstract to most readers, not only because it is rather doctrinal, but also because it will seem far removed from your daily practice. Buddhism tends to be about the here and now, present action, present experience. That is why we ground our study in Karma as intentional action in the first place. We moved beyond that, to frame practice in a larger context, when we considered Habit and Character, but there we could track observable cumulative consequences of practice, which are helpful as a guide and inspiration for practice. Destiny frames all this in an even larger context. In this series I plan to post the next five times on Rebirth; it needs clarifying because this concept gets away from what most of us can readily verify ourselves. Then I will take up Nirvana, the ultimate aim of practice.

    There is little doubt that the Buddha taught Rebirth. He did not, however, highlight it as tenet of Buddhism, but rather as a presupposition. For instance, he does not seem to have made a statement such as, “There is Rebirth,” but rather simply referred to the process of Rebirth as something already understood. On the other hand, he made Rebirth a presupposition integral in his teachings, making Karma a condition for Rebirth, and making the ending of Karma, that is Nirvana, a condition for its end. He even defined the goal of his teachings in terms of the escape from the round of birth and death. In addition, he claimed to be able to see his previous rebirths and often referred to actions that lead to rebirth in realms of deprivation or bliss, such as hell or heaven realms. The language he used to describe rebirth, often in terms of “after breakup of the body,” suggest that his reference to rebirth was not metaphorical. Some modern writers have discounted the Buddha’s belief in rebirth, but the textual evidence suggests differently. It is indeed true that any individual statement from the early texts may in fact be a later embellishment, but the large quantity of references makes the case that the Buddha never taught Rebirth flimsy. It is true, however, that relatively few of the references are significant in understanding the point of the respective discourses, and also that in certain later (post-Buddha) texts, such as the Abhidhamma and the Commentaries, rebirth plays a much more prominent role.

    Some Western writers have suggested that the Buddha simply accepted Rebirth passively, that is, simply as a universally held view, the best that Science had to offer in his day. Rebirth, was indeed widely accepted during Buddha’s time, though not universally. It was apparently not represented in the Vedic tradition until very late. The Buddha also lived at a time, perhaps much like our own, where almost every viewpoint about anything had some currency. In fact the Buddha’s early teachings contain some lists of what he considered erroneous views, all of which presumably had adherents, and among these erroneous views is Annihilationism, the idea that we cease to exist completely at death. The references to Rebirth that occur in the Suttas also do not seem to be geared specifically to a naive audience; they occur regardless when the Buddha spoke to close enlightened disciples or non-Buddhist laypeople. The Buddha, with a clear record of challenging many popular notions, must have considered the merits of the doctrine of Rebirth, yet decided to accept it as a presupposition in his teaching. Since Rebirth is right there in his most authoritative teachings, we must assume he had compelling reasons for including it. I will address how compelling these reasons are in the course of this series of postings on Rebirth.

    Lets jump ahead 2500 years and around to the other side of the world. Cyclical rebirth has little currency in the West; generally the closest we come to it is the eternal life in Heaven or Hell, and most people who come to Buddhism do not believe in that. Furthermore it has far from eager support in the scientific community, the great arbiter of Truth in the West. This lack of scientific support could also once be said, fifty or a hundred years ago, about altered consciousness or enhanced states of awareness. However the latter are at least verifiable in subjective experience, and now indirectly even in brain waves, whereas few of us have any means of verifying the validity of Rebirth. For this reason I would like to take up the topic of rebirth carefully in a way that respects all of the different current viewpoints on this topic, including the view that the Buddha was right about Rebirth in a very literal way, the view that Rebirth is a useful artifact introduced for purely pragmatic reasons, the view that Rebirth is properly taken as a metaphor for something else, and the view that Rebirth is simply a mistake and is best discarded.

    What is Reborn? The two most common questions about rebirth are What is reborn if there is no self? and, What are the mechanisms by which whatever is reborn targets a new physical body? The first is not actually as paradoxical in Buddhism as many assume. Most people reason that since there can be no Self that carries over from one life to the next, there can be no Rebirth. One can just as well reason that since there can be no Self that carries over from year to year in this life, there can be nothing to connect you now with you as a baby, or as a 5-year-old, etc. If there is in fact a continuity, a history, that connects the present with the past and that thereby gives the impression of an enduring Self, there can be a continuity that connects one life with a next life and that thereby gives the impression of a Rebirth of the Self. Just as connecting yourself to that baby that lived X years ago requires no unchanging self, connecting yourself to that deva, or frog, or whatever, that will live Y years from now requires no unchanging Self. Let me describe an analogy, based on the metaphor of one candle lighting another found in Questions of King Milinda.

    Think of the Self as a grass fire. Let’s say that one bright and sunny day at 11 am some kids, Bif and Skipper, playing with a magnifying glass in a field on Hill A, start a small fire, add a few dry leaves but get bored, jump on their bikes and ride home. At 12 noon Hill A is ablaze, and up goes Bill’s house. At 2 pm Hill A is smoke and ash, and Hill B is aflame, and up goes Mabel’s house. At 4 pm the fire fighters have finally left the scene, and Bill and Mabel, furious, together having discovered the origin of the blaze, confront Bif and Skipper. The kids say, “But the fire that we lit was a different fire, it was over there and did not look at all like the fire that burned up your houses; it wasn’t even big enough to burn up a whole house.” In a sense they are exactly right, this view is that of No-Self, but it would not hold up in court. Conventionally we think of all of this as the same fire on the basis of a causal continuity that holds the whole burning process together. The causal continuity is found not in fire as a fixed entity, but in fire giving birth to fire each moment over and over. Our selves are like this, this life is held together only as a causal continuity, not as the persistence of any fixed object.

    Now, the next day another grass fire of mysterious origin is blazing away on Hill D, two hills away from Hill B, and takes out Chester’s house. I’ll tell you something that is unknown to Chester: This new fire was caused by a burning ember from the previous day’s fire, carried aloft by the wind and by its own heat clear over Hill C to land in some dry grass on Hill D, smolder all night and burst into flame at daybreak. Not knowing its origin, where no causal continuity is suspected Chester will call it a separate fire. Rebirth is like this, it is actually a causal continuity, most likely a mysterious one, without a fixed entity to be reborn.

    In the case of Rebirth the continuity is not found in heat, flame and ash, but in consequences of Karma, the evolving habit patterns and other aspects of character, insofar as these have evolved by the time of the failure of the body. You can think of it as the mass of issues left unresolved at the time of death, which will continue, or as Trungpa Rinpoche said, “Your neuroses are reborn,” except that much of your cumulative Karma is actually skillful, for instance a propensity toward compassion.

    How Does Rebirth Happen? Delusion of a separate self perpetuates itself, the karmic impulses that wrap themselves around that delusion creates the will to existence. The will to existence conditions Rebirth. It is through the delusional nature of the self that it perpetuates itself. Now, heat and wind are the mechanisms behind the rebirth of a fire. What are the mechanisms behind rebirth of a self?

    Conception of a new life requires three things: an ovum, sperm and kammic energy, that is, the continuation of Karmically determined mental processes. In recent times science has learned a lot about ova and sperm and the way in which they combine to produce a differentiated individual. The third factor, however, is outside the realm of any research I am aware of, and raises questions about how transmission of this Karmic energy occurs, or, during transmission how kammic energy exists with no corporeal support, that is, how mental states exist without a brain. The absence of a plausible mechanism, along with lack of personal verification, leads many in the West to question the veracity of this aspect of Buddhist doctrine. Furthermore, the value the Buddha placed on personal verification and his dislike of philosophical or metaphysical speculation lead many to question whether the Buddha really taught rebirth at all.

    Where Does Rebirth Happen? We saw in the discussion of Habit that the character of one’s cumulative karma can thrust one within this life into a state of woe and despair or of ease and bliss, figuratively in hell or heaven. Last week we saw that this falls under what is described as the Law of Karma or the ripening of Karma. Being thrust into a State of woe or bliss in this life has a counterpart in being thrust into a Realm of woe or bliss in the next life. Death and rebirth provide new opportunities for the ripening of karma, broadening the scope of the Law of Karma. Karma that has not reached fruition before death, will generally, in classical Buddhism, reach fruition in the next life or in a life thereafter,  in one of various ways. The most commonly mentioned is to thrust you into one of these realms, described in classical Buddhism as real places or states of being:

    • Human realm.
    • Animal realm.
    • Hungry ghost realm.
    • Hell realm.
    • Angry titan realm.
    • Heavenly. realm

    There are a variety of hells and of heavens. There are also a variety of animal species one might be reborn into. It is mentioned that human birth is actually a very rare thing, but the realm most conducive to progress on the Path. Additionally within one of these realms your specific circumstances may additionally reflect a ripening of Karma. So, within the Human Realm one might be born into varying circumstances as follows (AN 8.40 Vipaka Sutta).

    • Longevity. For instance, killing in the previous life leads to a short life in the current life.
    • Infirmity. For instance, drinking in the previous life leads to mental derangement in the current life.
    • Physical appearance. For instance, kindness in the previous life leads to beauty in the current life.
    • Influence. For instance, telling falsehoods in the previous life leads to being falsely accused in the current life. Divisive tale bearing in the previous life leads to loss of friendships in the current life.
    • Wealth. For instance, stealing in the previous life leads to loss of wealth in the current life.
    • Family status. For instance, arrogance in the previous life leads to lowly birth in the current life.

    Within each life you will commit a wide variety of kammic actions. Which one or ones will propel you into the particular realm in which you will live out your next life? It is variously assumed that either the particular thoughts before death, or specific heavy actions, like having murdered one’s parents, or particularly entrenched habit patterns will place the next rebirth. Thoughts before death are likely to reflect previous karma, as one who has lived a virtuous life will tend to be calm and satisfied at death, whereas one who has done much harm or entertained much greed will be agitated and full of regret. It is probably rare for one to lie on his deathbed bemoaning having tended to too many sick people or regretting not having purchased enough shiny gadgets. That moment tends to put one’s life into its proper perspective, perhaps for the first time. If a heavy action is not the determining factor in rebirth, it is generally assumed that it will be for some subsequent life. Often texts attribute to a small action, such as offering alms to a monk or killing a chicken, not only a felicitous or woeful rebirth, but a long series of such rebirths. I think it is safe to assume that this is simply a rhetorical device for expressing approval or disapproval of some action; if it was literally true then every day we would be scheduling tens or hundreds of future rebirths, quickly leading to an unmanageable backlog. It is far more plausible that little actions blend into one another, which as Nagapriya suggests would be like adding ingredients in small amounts to a cake in which the various flavors are experienced together. On the other hand, the Salt Crystal Sutta states that even a trifling act can take one to hell if the one’s overall karmic state is poor. Maybe it becomes like adding hot chile to the cake.

    The Future of Rebirth. I have presented a classical account of Rebirth here. Because elements of this account are subjects of skepticism in the West my plan for next weeks will be to look at Rebirth from a variety of angles. Next week we will make a side trip to the general issue of Truth In Buddhism or Buddhism with Beliefs, the Buddha’s criteria for evaluating doctrine, to gain some clarity of where he was coming from. The following week we consider the Pragmatics of Rebirth, remembering the Buddha always had a practical purpose in his teachings. Around about November New Moon day we consider the mixed evidence, some of it from science, for the Actual Truth of Rebirth. Then the week after that I make an attempt to pull together An Alternative Account of Rebirth that might hopefully be a bit more satisfying to the scientifically minded at the same time preserving much of the pragmatics of Rebirth. My intention is not to give a definitive answer to any of the questions like Do I need to believe in Rebirth to be a Buddhist?, or Does Buddhism need Rebirth?. Rather my intention is to provide a number of perspectives along with what is at stake in each perspective, then to let you decide how to integrate Rebirth into your understanding of Buddhism.

  • From Thought to Destiny: The Law of Karma

    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon, October 8, 2010.

    Index to Current Series
    “    Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”

    “I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.” Upajjhatthana Sutta AN 5.57

    Whatever a hater may do to a hater, or an enemy to an enemy, a
    wrongly-directed mind will do us greater mischief.
    Not a mother, not a father will do so much, nor any other
    relative; a well-directed mind will do us greater service.     Dhammapada 42, 43

    There is a relationship between a karmic action and a later subjective result often called a ripening or fruition of karma that is also observed in the West as “One reaps what one sows” or “What goes around comes around,” “Virtue is its own reward,” or even, “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” That is, a skillful (wholesome) action has a favorable result, an unskillful (unwholesome) action has an unfavorable result, for the person who commits the karmic act, independently of the benefit or harm experienced by others. This is often called the Law of Karma or sometimes just the Law of Cause and Effect.

    The Law of Karma has often been misunderstood, generally in the direction of something much more deterministic than originally formulated in Buddhism, or as something much more mysterious than it needs to be. In the critically thinking West it has additionally been somewhat contentious because it is not clear from the perspective of modern science by what mechanisms it could possibly work. A typical instance of the Law of Karma as commonly conceived, for instance, would be for me to commit some horrendous misdeed one day, like murdering my mother-in-law, then being struck by lightening a year later as a kind of cosmic payback. Or I risk my life to rescue a damsel in the Middle Ages and many lives hence win the Texas Lottery. How would the meteorological elements or randomizing software possibly know to zap me in particular? It turns out that this last kind of case, though attention-provoking, rarely arises in the literature,

    The Classical Account of the Law of Karma. Traditionally a karmic act is said to be a seed that according to its variety will produce a fruit (phala), that is either bitter or sweet, that will reach ripening (vipaka) in a personally harmful or beneficial experience at some future time. All of our intentional actions (kamma) leave an imprint and this is something we should be acutely aware of in our practice. It is something we can observe directly and something that gives us immediate feedback on the development of our characters. For instance, if a woman has abortion, how does she feel about it afterwards, immediately, in a year and so on. Often, there seems to be some unanticipated heaviness there, a feeling that something is out of skew that won’t go away. That can be likened to bitter fruit. I personally prefer think of karmic effects metaphorically as heavy or light rather than bitter or sweet. The point is that you are shaping your own character with every action, like the picture of Dorian Gray, which you can leave in the closet or hang on the wall..

    At one point the Buddha describes this process very simply as follows:

    … these are the drawbacks one can expect when doing what should not be done:

    1. One can fault oneself;
    2. observant people, on close examination, criticize one;
    3. one’s bad reputation gets spread about;
    4. one dies confused; and
    5. on the break-up of the body, after death, one reappears in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell.

    Ekamsena Sutta AN 2.18 (numbering mine)

    He then presents “the rewards one can expect when doing what should be done” in opposite terms. The last drawback, being born in the plane of deprivation … will be taken up along with Rebirth when we discuss Destiny in future weeks. Apparently in Brahmanism the effects of Karma (which means ritual action rather than any intentional action) is realized only as 5., i.e., after rebirth. Today we will look at the Law of Karma primarily within the current life.

    We often confuse Karma with fate, probably because of different understandings of Karma in Hindu sects in India. Karma is the opposite of fate! By defining Karma as intentional action, the Buddha unmistakenly put the emphasis on the power of free will in shaping our futures over the inertia of our past in writing our biographies before they happen. This is what makes liberation or any progress on the Path possible. This is demonstrated by the answers to these questions: Is everything we do a result of past Karma? Is everything that happens to us a result of past Karma? Does our past Karma invariably ripen? The answer to each of these questions is No.

    Is everything we do a result of past Karma? Quite simply, no. The Buddha points out that this would make the religious life impossible, or useless. This would be strict determinism. If you are student of philosophy, your answer might actually be a strict determinist. Someone famous (I can’t remember who), when asked if he believed in determinism or free will replied, “I believe in free will. I don’t have any choice.” That is how we are in our practice. What we think is free will, practice and results might be predetermined, but that is beyond my understanding.

    Is everything that happens to us a result of past Karma? In Buddhism everything is interrelated by cause and effect, but Karma is only one or five kinds:

    • Environmental causation (utuniyama). For instance, cold causes ice, lightening causes fire.
    • Genetic causation (bhijaniyama). For instance, an apple seed produces and apple tree, dogs produce puppies.
    • Psychological causation (cittaniyama). For instance the smell or a certain flower evokes a memory of a childhood picnic.
    • Karmic causation (kammaniyama). This is what we are exploring here.
    • Natural causation (dhammaniyama). This is all of causation, including all the other kinds and any not included in the other four kinds.

    The reason that we talk about kammaniyama so much in Buddhism, to the extent that when we say “cause and effect” without qualification we are assumed to be talking about kammaniyama, just as in English when we say “drink” we are assumed to be talking about something with alcohol in it, is that only Karma falls within the scope of free will. Now if I get hit by a meteor, this is entirely within the realm of physical causation.

    Not all Buddhists share this understanding. I think this is particularly the case in Tibetan Buddhism, where it is commonly assumed that the Chinese invasion of Tibet is a Karmic payback for something that all Tibetans must have done in the past, or the Holocaust a result of some evil done by Jews. I have even heard some Burmese Theravadins make similar claims about auto accidents, etc. This viewpoint would entail some kind of Karmic control over the other forms of cause and effect. In any case, the

    Buddha clearly refuted this viewpoint:

    Now when these ascetics and brahmans have such a doctrine and view that ‘whatever a person experiences, be it pleasure, pain or neither-pain-nor-pleasure, all that is caused by previous action,’ then they go beyond what they know by themselves and what is accepted as true by the world. Therefore, I say that this is wrong on the part of these ascetics and brahmans. Sivaka Sutta, SN 36.21

    In the Questions of King Milinda, an early Theravada text, states, “The pain which is due to kamma is much less than that which is due to other causes.” It is pointed out that when the Buddha got a splinter of rock in his foot this was not because of some previous unskillful deed that he had committed in the past, but simply because his cousin Devadatta was trying to kill him.

    Does our past Karma invariably ripen? It is also not always the case that a particular action, skillful or unskillful, will have a karmic consequence, and if it does the severity of the consequence is variable. The overall karmic character of the agent can mitigate the effects of individual karmic acts to insignificance, where similar acts would have severe results for others. One also has the free will to completely overcome past evil deeds by refraining now and in the future and be developing an expansive mind of goodwill, compassion, appreciation and equanimity (Sankha Sutta, SN 42.8). The overall state of the mind can dilute the consequences of a new transgression as salt is diluted in a river. (Lonaphala Sutta, Salt Crystal, AN 3.99)

    The gist of this is that our practice can free us from the effects of our previous Karma. But this or the unassisted petering out of Karmic consequences might be difficult to verify; trying to trace karmic consequences, according to the Buddha, is so difficult it leads to “vexation and madness.” (Acinitita Sutta, AN 4.77)

    Pragmatics of the Law of Karma. The Buddha never taught out of philosophical, or scientific, speculation, only with a practical purpose in mind, only as an inducement or as an aid to practice and thereby purity of thought and action.

    The great benefit from belief in the Law of Kamma, according to Ven. P.A. Payutto, is that it encourages “moral rectitude.” A constant awareness that our choice of even the smallest unskillful and skillful actions not only brings immediate harm or benefit into the world but is continually shaping our character and destiny in a negative or positive direction is a strong motivator to stay on task. The result in found in personal well-being, and in the harm or benefit of future actions, since moral rectitude develops personal virtue.

    There are some common criticisms of the value of the Law of Karma. Foremost among them is that it encourages selfish motives: Rather than moral rectitude or compassion as a primary motivator, one does Good because the payback will be personally beneficial, for instance, happiness in this life, rebirth in a heavenly realm in the next. These are unskillful, in fact greedy, intentions. There is some truth in this objection, it set up provisional goal on this side of the Perfection of Character. However this is cogent only in the early stages of practice. At those stages one probably deals with a lot of greedy intentions, but working toward a provisional goal is likely to be mixed also with a degree of satisfaction in doing something beneficial and therefore is likely to encourage skillful intentions as well. It is like giving personal recognition to people for charitable giving; when people get into to spirit of giving they care less and less about the recognition. At more advanced stages of practice the distinction between what one does for oneself and what one does for others diminishes. For the Perfected Character there is no difference whatever. In Buddhism it is completely true that Virtue is its Own Reward. But we start out thinking otherwise.

    A second criticism is that the Law of Karma is a means of Social control, a way to manipulate people to benefit someone else. The Buddha, perhaps less emphatically than Jesus, a social rebel. He opposed the caste system, for instance. His intentions were never to protect the rich, nor to comfort the poor so that they would not give the rich a hard time. Buddhism does tend to create more personal satisfaction and social harmony even in the absence of significant social change, but has also produced some compassionate rulers. This criticism is most often expressed, albeit naively, with regard to the the Lay support of the Monastic Sangha, which often said to bring much Karmic merit. Undoubtedly such abuse does sometimes arise, this is very bad Karma for the monastics involved. However this institutional relation is bounded by the modest allowances of the monastics, more than offset by the benefits monastics generally bring to communities. It also sets up a powerful practice situation as a well-defined economy of gifts in which both lay and monastics never exchange favors, but only give willingly, and discover such immediate joy, as a Karmic effect, that it actually becomes unclear who is giving and who is receiving.

    I have already dispensed above with the misunderstanding that whatever happens to you is an effect of personal Karma. This misunderstanding leads to a compelling criticism of the pragmatic value of the Law of Karma. It would entail, for instance, that if you are rich, it is a necessary consequence of your past good Karma, if you are poor or handicapped, it is a necessary consequence of your bad Karma. The criticism is that this leads to social passivity, to not caring, and likewise becomes an instrument of social control. Carrying this to its logical conclusion, as a Buddhist I can do anything I want to you knowing that you must deserve it. However this would be a misunderstanding of the Law of Karma. It would also not be consistent with the Buddha’s view of Karma as an instrument to shape the future, not as a reason for passivity. It would also be inconsistent with the admonition of the Kalama Sutta, “When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are unskillful, … blameworthy, … criticized by the wise, … lead to harm and suffering’, then you should abandon them.” (AN 3.65)

    How the Law of Karma Might Work.

    The Law of Karma makes sense for pragmatic reasons, that is, benefit accrues from believing and acting in accord with the Law of Karma. But is it really true in a verifiable way? More to the point, how could it be true, what is the mechanism behind this principle of cosmic payback?

    If you do a quick check, the Law of Karma sure seems to work. If you do someone a favor, you often later find him doing a favor for you. If you use harsh speech, you often get punched in the nose, or something of that nature. If anger is a prominent part of your karmic activities, you often find you develop a less than attractive grumpy appearance, people eschew you, you never seem to be successful. If you act habitually with some kind of sensual greed, for instance, as in chronic overeating or alcoholism, your physical or mental health will commonly deteriorate. It seems to work for institutions as well as individuals. I have heard that the CIA has coined a phrase for this commonly observed phenomenon: blowback. For instance the CIA originally recruited and armed Muslim radicals to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, and America found itself targeted by the same radicals.

    As long as we confine ourselves to what we observe in this life, I don’t think the mechanisms that enable the Law of Karma are particularly mysterious. The cases that follow rebirth will be considered in subsequent weeks as we consider rebirth as a part of human Destiny. The effects of Karma are of three kinds: (1) mental, (2) personal appearance and deportment, and (3) effects that come physically from outside.

    (1) Mental Karmic Effects. These are easy to account for in general. As Spinoza says, Happiness is not the reward for virture, it is virtue. First, unskillful actions are accompanied by stress, skillful actions are not. Unskillful habits, as described a couple of weeks ago, repeated over and over eventually determine the emotional tenor of your life, sometimes to the point where you describe your life as “hell.” Skillful habits can make your life “heaven.” Single heavy Karmic acts can have similar effects.

    (2) Personal Appearance and Deportment. We have also seen that habitual Karmic acts begin to affect your appearance. If you are angry or greedy by nature you will generally develop an unpleasant appearance, if kindly an angelic appearance. Habits can radically change your appearance. If you habitually overeat you are probably plump. If you drink you probably have a perpetual blush. If you smoke your voice is probably unnaturally low. If you jog regularly you are probably slender. They also change your health and extend or reduce life-expectancy. Generosity or kindliness produces a personality that others find attractive. Anger is generally unattractive. Absence of unskillful habits generally results in industriousness, organizational abilities, equanimity, which are attractive to others and make your efforts more productive.

    (3) External Effects. Most of our lives are spent in an interpersonal context and interpersonal interactions follow some predictable patterns as people discover friends and alliances, obstacles and enemies. It is also a context in which natural retributive principles apply. People are naturally attracted to you if they think you can benefit them or you have qualities that they admire. People are repelled by you for the opposite reasons. If you harm someone, you will probably make an enemy and they will most likely seek some kind of retribution. Your attractive qualities, which we saw in (2) are correlated with skillful Karma, will probably make life easier for you, in personal relationships, in business deals, in reputation and popularity. Your unattractive qualities, correlated with unskillful Karma will be the opposite. Likewise your productivity generally correlates with skillful factors, and so on. The harm that arises from unskillful factors will revisit you as people withdraw their support, undermine your reputation or even commit violent acts. Some of the harmful things you might do come back at you directly as a kind of beehive effect; the damage is so widespread that you also become a victim.

    This leaves out cases like committing a murder and later getting hit by lightning, but these are so rare, so unverifiable and, although fun, probably so pragmatically thin that they can be discounted. Putting aside for now the application of the Law to span more than one lifetime, I suggest that we can say with a high degree of certainty fortified by the mechanisms laid out here that We Reap what We Sow.

  • New Essay Added

    I’ve added a new essay to this site.

    Sex, Sin and Buddhism (see all)

    A supplement to Sex, Sin and Zen by Brad Warner

    Brad Warner writes near the beginning of his recent book, Sex Sin and Zen: “I only really know Zen, myself, so that’s all I’m going to be addressing here,” which appears to be accurate, but then, “… we Zen Buddhists tend to be so arrogant that we just call what we believe ‘Buddhism’ without specifying the sect. I’ll be doing a little of that, too. Deal with it.” What follows is my attempt to deal with it. …

    More

  • From Thought to Destiny: Character

    Uposatha Teaching: Last Quarter Moon, October 1, 2010.

    Index to Current Series
    “    Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”

    If one man conquer in battle,
    A thousand times thousand men,
    And if another conquer himself,
    He is the greatest of conquerors.     Dhammapada 103.

    The defining verse of this series reads, “Sow a thought and reap an act. Sow an act and reap a habit. Sow a habit and reap a character…” Then it finishes with Destiny, but we are not there yet. Although our habit patters to a large extend define our character, they do not do so completely. In the next two weeks I want to round out the view of the character as a system of components. In fact character is a composite not only of habits, but also of thoughts and acts that may not have been repeated enough to have consolidated into habits. So as you sow a thought or sow an act you may also be reaping a character directly. In addition a character, like a character in a drama, is embedded in a physical and social context, that is, has a role to play in the ongoing soap opera of life that we call samsara. And then karmic fruit is all the while accumulating waiting to ripen according to the Law of Karma. This last topic I will postpone until next week since it is easily subject to misunderstanding.

    Habits. In summary of the last two episodes, habits arise from repeated thoughts or acts to become lodged in the character. For instance, repeatedly acting out of lust makes one a lustful person. Much of Buddhist practice is concerned with shaping an increasingly more skillful set of habits. Habits may also be learned from others or be instilled genetically. Buddhism also teaches that habits may carry over from a previous life by rebirth. I will take up the topic of rebirth in a couple of uposatha days, when we consider Destiny. One’s habits have a profound effect on one’s emotive condition, propelling one figuratively into a life in heaven or hell.

    Habits also have a way of spawning new, related, habits. As the Buddha points out:

    Few are those people in the world who, when acquiring lavish wealth don’t become intoxicated and heedless, don’t become greedy for sensual pleasures, and don’t mistreat other beings. Many are those who, when acquiring lavish wealth, become intoxicated and heedless … SN 3.6, similar SN 3.7

    Acts. Habitual acts are known in the Pali literature as cumulative acts (acinnakamma). Recall that I described them as being like dust particles that accumulate on top surfaces ot things. Their imprint is gradual but individually they are barely notices. Other acts are either heavy acts (garudakamma) or light acts (lakunakamma).

    Heavy acts are most commonly heinous actions like murder or causing a rift in the Sangha. Apparently the only skillful heavy acts mentioned in the literature are the jhanas, the progressive states of meditative absorption, and these are actually acts of mind, not of body and speech, so actually are confined to the level of thought. Heavy acts are always assumed to make a huge imprint on the character, generally described in terms of fruition. If you have murdered someone this is likely to haunt you, for instance, in years to come. Habitual heavy acts are the worst of all (except for habitual jhana, which is the best of all). A hit man or a trader in slaves would fall into this category. Now, it probably should be observed that many people do heinous things, such as declaring wars, or embezzling from employee retirement funds, and yet it seems to affect them no more than playing a winning game of Monopoly would. Generally is such cases it is assumed in the literature that the fruition is deferred til after rebirth. Whether that is an appropriate account or verifiable, I will discuss in a couple of weeks.

    Light acts generally have only a slight imprint on the character. This might be something like popping a chip into your mouth or raising your eyebrows.

    Thoughts. It is at the level of thoughts that skill and non-skill are determined. Recall from a few episodes ago that unskillful thoughts are rooted in greed, aversion or delusion, they are stressful, they easily distort reality, they lead to harmful actions and they inhibit the perfection of character, the path toward Nirvana. If your thoughts are skillful, your actions will be skillful and your habit set will evolve in a felicitous direction.

    Some of your thoughts are particularly significant in their pull on, or inclination of, a great deal of your thinking. Your values, aspirations and faith, for instance, and also your private vows. For instance, we can embrace generosity as a value and vow to be generous at every opportunity. This is different than simply trying to act on skillful and discard unskillful intentions because it has a certain focus that can begin to characterize your acts and habit patterns. If you instead embrace renunciation, your focus will be a bit different. Similarly infatuation with a particular person, to take an unskillful thought, can give actions and habit patterns yet another character, one that will be more self-serving.

    Also significant are reactions to experiences that we would call traumatic. For instance a bitter disappointment can shift your values. Suppose you suffer a great financial loss, and you ask friends and relatives to help you, you apply for government assistance and no one helps you. You end up homeless, and have to beg for survival, and even that is difficult. Then a rich uncle who you had not known of dies and you are back on your feet. Now, deeply embittered, you are not likely to value generosity to others. Witnessing a gruesome death may haunt you for years. Being the accidental cause of a death may have a similar result, even though your involvement might not be karmic, that is there may be no intention on your part, for instance in backing your car out of the driveway as you always do you discover that on this occasion a neighbor’s child is trying to recover a ball wedged under the wheel. The suffering that ensues for you might be much like the ripening of karma.

    The most significant thought are our views because they define the world in which you think and act, they provide justifications, the impression that your motives are pure when they are faulty, the whole conceptual framework that makes what you are thinking or doing meaningful. The Buddha said:

    All unwholesome states have their root in ignorance, they converge upon ignorance, and by the abolishing of ignorance, all the other unwholesome states are abolished. SN 20.1

    Ignorance significantly shows up in the Four Distortions of Reality: seeing permanence in impermanence, happiness in suffering, selfhood in non-self, and beauty in the ugly. Of these, the view that you are a self with a degree of autonomy from the rest of the world, which in contrast is a source of resources and dangers, underlies our greed and aversion. Without this view greed and aversion have no basis for arising. Much of Buddhist practice centers around gaining insight or greater wisdom as we examine and correct our mistaken views, with profound effects on our thinking and behavior, our habits and character.

    Samsara. We are born into lack, beginning with missing hugs, with hunger, diaper rash, and dog slobber in the eye. Sometimes we are sick but we cannot even foresee tragic losses that lie ahead, nor the relentless aging that will bring us ever closer to death. Soon we develop a sense of individual identity, but even that will turns into a nagging doubt about our significance, as if we can be swept away from the world and never missed.

    And yet in a few years the world will be our oyster! It will be like a candy shop full of delicious sights, sounds and tastes that we want to make ours. We begin a life of toys, electronic gadgets, later power tools, fast cars, fast women, fast food. From a young age our consumer culture with its relentless marketing of stuff cheer us on. We later learn to scheme, present ourselves favorably, exhaust ourselves at work, eliminate competition, sometimes steal or lie, whatever it takes to satisfy our needs. We begin to build up stature, to become somebody, somebody with money and influence. Then when we thought we would feel happy with what we have become instead we feel all the more threatened, since we have more to lose and to protect than before. The stock market, the kid riding his bike past our shiny new car, the gossiping voices that suddenly become quiet as we enter the room, the storm in the county where we enjoy our cabin on weekends, the irritable boss, all become threats that we counter with a larger portfolio, a two-car garage, a more loyal network of friends, an insurance policy, a position of more authority. Feeling even less secure, we don’t realize we have been slurped into a vortex of ever greater gain and threat.

    Our greed and aversion entangles us more and more in a web of unskillful impulses and habits and entangles others in the same, as others try to match our greed lest we take what they have or might want, try to match our hatred in self-defense, and seek revenge where our plans are most fruitful. Envy, resentment at the injustice, stealing a client, angry words. As our greed robs and impoverishes others and our fear and insecurity turns to hate and arouses fear, the world punches back, it tries to bring down what we have accomplished. All the while our search for personal advantage sets a poor example for others, destroying trust and ideals and turns others’ reserves of skillful intentions to cynicism.

    We start to divide the world into Good and Evil, what I like and what I dislike, what is reassuring and what is threatening, what is an instrument for me and what is an obstacle, who likes me and who dislikes me. There is *Me* at the center of a network of causality that includes these other elements and nothing else. The rest of the world has become irrelevant, we become indifferent to it. We share our distorted reality with others, or perhaps absorb it from others, as we form allegiances and spread infectious gossip. Shared, this reality becomes even more exaggerated and inevitably others are violated and angered by its biases and prejudices.

    And what of the pleasures life offers? We distract ourselves with parties, games and public entertainment and private sexual intrigue. There is enthusiasm, laughter, thrills but there is always tension underneath. We get fat and drink too often, and still we cannot wipe the lack away. We love and, while briefly rousing, there is no peace to be gained, either we stop or they stop and it turns to tragedy, sometimes hatred, depression, suicide, murder. Tension is the stuff of our lives, our sense of lack only grows, we even begin to lack kindness for those close to us, our feelings are blocked, we are emotionally dead. This is what they must mean by quiet desperation

    I have been describing the typical unexamined life, driven by unrecognized forces. Buddhist practice, on the other hand, is simple: Just make every moment a gift. In every moment let go of whatever unskillfulness is trying to arise, embrace the skillful, and act accordingly, with virtue, like a buddha, over and over until it becomes habitual.

    Unfortunately it takes a lot of work to gain the thrust needed to escape the bonds of samsara. We need to overcome not only our own deep-seated habits and viewpoints, which might start to appear possible when we go into the seclusion of a meditation retreat or a monastery, but we must at the same time overcome our worldly obligations, the expectations others have of us, all the ongoing stories we were cast some time ago to play a role in, that keep us forcibly enmeshed in our old patterns of thought and action.

    We need systematically to go through our lives and cut each bond which compels us to act unskillfully; well maybe keep a few that we just treasure too much. “I don’t need that; I can dispense with that; I’m just not going to play that game any more, you go right ahead.” The more you study samsara, to recognize its illogic, the easier this process will be; things will begin to drop of themselves the way children shed toys as they grow into adolescence. In fact, you will find that almost everything you had assumed before is exactly backwards. You gain happiness not by grasping, but by giving. You gain security not by building a bigger fence but by taking down the fence that you have. You gain self-assurance not by becoming a very important self, but by becoming small and eventually disappearing altogether. We live in a Looking Glass World. Things are not as they seem.

  • From Thought to Destiny: Habits in Context

    Uposatha Teaching: FullMoon, September 23, 2010.

    Index to Current Series
    “    Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”

    “Sow an act and reap a habit.” We read last week about this very comprehensible model of skill acquisition, that forms the basis of most Buddhist practice. Through repeated acts we develop habits; those habits reveal to a high degree what we have become. Before turning to the other aspects of human character I want to expand the scope of the discussion a bit by asking two questions. First, given that from repeated acts habits will arise, is there anything else that habits arise from? Second, given that our habits are a major influence in our external behaviors, what are the influences of our habits in the internal, emotive and cognitive, realms? Answering these questions will reveal additional points of Buddhist practice.

    Whence: Non-karmic Roots of Habit Patterns

    Habit patterns seem to arise rather spontaneously, especially in early life. Some children are easy to anger, others are very possessive, jealous, or generous. Some are sociable, some are shy. We might suppose these arose from repeated acts, but then what caused the acts to repeat in the first place, that is, before the habit had established itself? The easy answer has been that habit patterns carry over that were learned or transmitted in a previous life. Rebirth provides this elegant answer, if that mechanism itself is accepted. However, a variety of other factors explain the spontaneous arising of many of these habit patterns, entirely independently of rebirth. Some of these factors have become known only in modern times.

    Genetics. We know certain genetic encodings are responsible for the arising of certain behavioral patterns or at least play an enabling role. Most fundamental are those patterns that we all share as a species (human), or as a zoological order (mammal). For instance affection, anger, friendship, even revenge are habit patterns that have been passed on generation to generations not just in humans but in mammals for millions of years. From a Buddhist perspective these nevertheless have unskillful elements. Other behavioral patterns that run in families may be genetically determined. Certain people are even genetically predisposed to certain habit patterns, such as alcoholism, such that they go from act to habit particularly fast.

    The general lesson here for practice is that challenges run very deep; Buddhist practice requires corresponding effort. Sometimes I hear someone teach that Buddhism is about being natural. It is not. It is about looking from outside the box and seeing how what comes naturally gets us into trouble, no matter how deep-seated, and about developing new skills accordingly. Its tools, however, are natural to the human psyche, and its approach gentle, for the most part.

    Role Models. We readily acquire behavioral patterns from those we respect: a bigger brother, a mother, a golf pro, a teacher. An easy explanation is that we simply copy their actions, and pretty soon we’ve given rise to their habits. Recent research however indicates that neural mechanisms actually short-cut this process; that simply by observing another person, say, serving in a tennis game, activates many of the same brain patterns that would arise if the subject were serving the ball herself. In fact roll models play an important part in Buddhism:

    As he was sitting there, Ven. Ananda said to the Blessed One, “This is half of the holy life, lord: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie.”

    “Don’t say that, Ananda. Don’t say that. Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life. When a monk has admirable people as friends, companions, & comrades, he can be expected to develop and pursue the noble eightfold path. SN 45.2

    This is a strong endorsement. The monastic Sangha in Buddhism even institutionalizes this as one of its functions. Many Burmese Buddhists seek out the company of monastics at every opportunity, generally reserving free Uposatha Days for that purpose.

    The general lesson here for practice is to seek out the inspiration of strong practitioners and regard them with respect (Some of the ritual aspects of Buddhism in fact function to encourage feelings of respect). You will, sponge-like, begin to slurp up their skillful habits.

    Social Circumstances. Your family relations, social status, livelihood, the values and behaviors of the culture in which you are embedded, and prevailing governmental and (in modern times) corporate behaviors all influence one’s habit patterns because we begin to respond to manifestations of these circumstances in predictable ways. For instance, others’ greed or anger raises your level of fear. Someone steals from you and you seek revenge. You are oppressed by those more powerful and you begin to lie and steal to mitigate the harm to yourself. Your livelihood demands of you that you kill or cheat. You join a street gang for protection, then seeking status in that street gang, emulate its characteristic behaviors, and maybe even discover a role model in the gang’s leader. Hectic, complex, demanding circumstances obstruct stillness of mind. Favorable circumstances are conducive to the practice of developing skillful habit patterns, unfavorable circumstances can overwhelm any attempts to shape your habit patterns through Buddhist practice, even with a strong meditation practice.

    The lesson here for practice is to seek favorable circumstances. Many circumstances simply overwhelm the practice of even the most zealous. Choice of livelihood is highlighted in the Noble Eightfold Path, but many other factors are often subject to control, even if temporarily. Meditation retreats are routinely organized to remove participants from unfavorable social pressures, as is the monastic lifestyle. A Buddhist temple or center or community generally forms a safe environment that stands apart from prevailing social conditions. And most people have many choices of where to spend their time or who to hang with.

    The Media. Digital computer and communication technology is a particularly vexing concern for those who would like to develop skillful habit patterns. In the use of a large part of the media you are basically turning your mind over to corporate manipulation, exposing it to the relentless stimulation of greed for consumer products and services, through the incessant appeal to the addictive qualities of violence, lust and fear and to the hate mongering of politicians and pundits. You are presented with false role models often promoting, not humility or renunciation or compassion, but strong individualism and remarkable consumer needs.

    The imperative here is to practice moderation in the use of the commercial media. The media can of course be used wisely and productively, but is enormously seductive. I am pretty certain that it is almost impossible to make significant progress in Buddhist practice if your viewing and interacting habits are those of typical Americans, even if you have a strong meditation practice. Making the media, in its common manifestations, an integral part of your life is like propelling yourself into the most unconducive social conditions for Buddhist practice.

    Whither: Experiencing Habit Patterns.

    An unskillful thought, for instance a craving or a fright, is painful to some degree. An unskillful habit pattern is the habitual arising, acting out and further reinforcement of the tendency toward that thought. So whereas the single thought might be compared to experiencing a small scratch or a pin prick, the habit is experiencing the ache of an open wound that is continually being scratched and pricked. With changes, even day-to-day changes, one might cease to manifest one habit and take up another for awhile. But where a particular habit pattern has taken on a dominant role in one’s karmic life, the overwhelming emotional tenor of that life will be that For skillful karmic patterns, such as generosity, the opposite will pertain: Each skillful thought is experienced as uplifting and healing. The cumulative experience brings an abiding joy. into one’s life. This abiding emotional tenor is a ripening of one’s karma visible in the here and now.

    Ripening (vipaka) is an important aspect of karma that will be discussed in detail in terms of Character and Destiny in the course of this series. This is our first mention of it. The way it is traditionally described is that every karmic act is like a seed that grows into a fruit waiting to ripen at some time in the future. Of course our actions of body or speech produce consequences in the external world, but the fruit remains as an internal possession of the actor, even carried, it is said, into future lives. The ripening is experienced by the actor. If the original seed was skillful, the ripening will be felicitous. If the original seed was unskillful the ripening will be unfortunate. Often this is called the Law of Karma. The phrase, “I believe in karma,” is often taken to mean not, “I believe in volitional action,” but rather, “I believe that my volitional actions eventually ripen in my own experience.” In short, Ripening is a kind of payback mechanism. It is often regarded in modern commentary as somewhat mysterious and metaphysical, but need not be.

    Mind overcome with unskillful qualities borne of greed aversion delusion his mind consumed, dwells in suffering right in the here and now, feeling threatened, turbulent, feverish, and at the breadup of the body, after death, can expect a bad destination. AN 3.69

    The abiding emotional tenor of one’s life as a result of one’s habitual karmic acts is probably the primary example of the ripening of karma observable in the here and now. It is not at all mysterious or metaphysical. I already explained how it works above and every step of the process is subject to introspection. In this case the individual acts do not have individuated ripenings, rather there is a cumulative and abiding ripening. Think of the individual act as like a dust particle that might jump out of a cushion when you sit down in a chair. It will not noticeably make a room dusty, but a roomful of people sitting down and getting up over a period of time will produce an ever thickening layer of dust on the wooden floor, on the window sills, on shelves, on books, and on bald heads of old men who don’t move a lot. The ripening of our habitual karma is like this. In fact, not only one’s emotional tenor, but one’s whole perception of reality may be altered. For instance, the world and the people in it will actually seem kind or harsh depending on one’s karmic habits.

    A man who is greedy for fields, land, gold, cattle, horses, servants, employees, women, relatives, many sensual pleasures, is overpowered with weakness and trampled by trouble, for pain invades him as water, a cracked boat. Snp 4.1 Kama Sutta

    When combined with the idea of rebirth it often appears in the Suttas that karma ripens at the time of rebirth as one is reborn in Heaven, in Hell, as an Animal, as an Angry Titan, as a Hungry Ghost or as another Human. Modern commentary often points out that these Six Realms have clear psychological counterparts observable in the here and now. And in fact they provide a very effective way to describe the abiding emotional tenor of one’s present life or even of a day or an afternoon in one’s present life. It is interesting that English uses some of the same metaphors to describe the emotional tenor one experiences, for instance, “I am in Hell,” “I am in Heaven,” and “He is an animal.” The karmic sources of these states are roughly as follows:

    • Animal Realm. This is the somewhat frantic, restless state that arises in response to the habit of turning all impulses (lust, greed, anger, jealousy, vengefulness, torpor, etc.) into action without reflection. A person of a passionate disposition lives in a world which pulls him this way, then that way, keeping him forever restless, unable to get his coordinates.

      Hungry Ghost Realm (click to enlarge)
    • Hungry Ghost Realm. This is a state of constant lack or dissatisfaction that arises from the habit of trying to satisfy greed. A person of greedy disposition likewise lives in a miserly world, one that withholds what she seeks, who can never get enough.
    • Angry Titan Realm. This is the state of fury directed at all obstacles that arises from the habit of acting out of anger. A person of angry disposition, who thinks angry thoughts, who acts repeatedly on his anger, lives in a world that is increasingly threatening, that is frightening and uncooperative or specifically conspires against him, and encourages even more anger in response.
    • Hell Realm. This is the extreme, overwhelming state in which greedy or hateful impulses have completely lost any bounds. A person who has committed egregious acts of violence to others lives in hell, where everything seems painful.

      Hell Realm (click to enlarge)
    • Deva Realm. This is the comfortable, often complacent state relatively untouched by greed or hatred, in which one’s needs are satisfied. A person of a kindly disposition lives in a world of ease, where no personal needs are unmet, where others, even if not acting in an ideal manner, are forgivable.
    • Human Realm. This is a mixed state in which greed or hatred are present, but in which deliberate mastery of one’s emotional states are also possibilities. This is the best realm for Buddhist practice.

    Not only do habit patterns shape the emotional tenor of one’s life, but they actually begin to impact health and physical appearance. We are all aware that habitually angry people (titans) are subject to heart disease and other stess-related illnesses. They also take on the characteristic appearance of angry people; they enter a cocktail party and people immediately begin shuffling over to the other side of the room. For denizens of Hell this is all the more so. Animals and hungry ghosts take on the effects of overconsumption. These habit patterns begin also to shape the successes and failures in one’s life; people would rather do business with a deva than an animal, a human is more likely to have her act together than a hungry ghost. These habit patterns even to a large extent determine who your friends are; people attract others like themselves, or sometimes repel those unlike themselves.

    The general lesson here for practice is that:

    Your habitual actions in a very real sense make the world in which you live.

    Your life will be painful or joyful accordingly. And there is a kind of justice in this, since your world will probably correspond roughly to the amount of external benefit or harm you have brought into others’ worlds through the skillful or unskillful acts that gave rise to the habits that then gave rise to the world in which you live. Understanding karma underscores the urgency of Buddhist practice. You’d better get it together! Secondarily, when you begin to recognize the nature of the world they probably live in, your are more likely to experience compassion for those that have done you harm.

  • From Thought to Destiny: Habits as Karma

    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon, September 16, 2010.

    Index to Current Series
    “    Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”

    “Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking & pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with renunciation, abandoning thinking imbued with sensuality, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with renunciation. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with non-ill will, abandoning thinking imbued with ill will, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with non-ill will. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with harmlessness, abandoning thinking imbued with harmfulness, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with harmlessness.” Dvedhavitakka Sutta, MN 19

    We sow thoughts and reap acts. The verse after which this series of postings is named tells us we sow acts to reap habits. Actually habits are generally shaped as a cumulative consequence of many actions. This section begins to look at habits. In the following weeks we will turn to the character and then the destiny mentioned in the verse, all of which flow from our actions.

    The Products of Karma. Karma, in its base meaning, is volitional action. Actually since actions can be of mind as well as of speech and of body, karma can be volition (thought) with or without physical act. We have seen that thoughts are classified as skillful or unskillful (or neutral), and that unskillful thoughts tend (1) to be experienced as painful, (2) to distort my perceptions and (3) to lead to harmful consequences when I enact them. For instance, if I get angry at you, this is immediately stressful for me mentally (dukkha). Under this mental condition you are likely to appear before me as either a jerk or a schmuck, rather than the good supportive friend that would otherwise stand there. This compound condition might induce me to perform an unskillful action, for instance, to break the pencil you are using in two and to throw the two pieces onto the floor (That’ll show you!) or to issue an abusive slur (That’s telling you!), which is harmful to you and will also lead to further regret for me especially after you have remorphed back into your normal more amicable form.

    With regard to (3), we have seen that our actions lead to beneficial, or harmful results according to the triple criteria (a) of precepts, (b) of seeking benefit and (c) of encouraging or discouraging purity of mind. In the scenario just painted I would violate the precept of not taking what is not given or of right speech. I would also fail to use kindness and wisdom in order to seek benefit for all. Finally I would fail to purify the mind, instead probably reinforcing a bad habit, widening a fault in my character, maybe influencing my rebirth and chances for reaching Nirvana, and possibly leading later to an additional unfavorable experiential result. It will be helpful to clearly distinguish beneficial or harmful results into two groups, which I will call External and Internal results or consequences. Seeking benefit (b) focuses on external results, that is, harm or benefit in the world, Purity of mind focuses on internal results, that is, the consequences of an action for the actor’s personal development, including how it helps shape habits, character and destiny, and the actor’s future experiences. Notice that external results also impinge on the actor, but through a different channel. In a huff of anger I might feed what you have been fixing for lunch to the dog (a demonstrative stance to make some point the nature of which I will probably soon forget). This has an external result that both you or I go hungry, and an internal result that I reinforce my tendency toward anger, that I experience later remorse, etc.

    The word “karma,” and now “karmic,” has extended meanings. Many words extend meanings by association; this is called metonymy. For instance, the word “cup” in its root sense is used to describe a kind of container for (generally hot) liquids. However, it also is used to describe an amount of liquid, an amount typically contained in a cup. It is also used to describe other cup-shaped things, that may contain other sometimes non-liquid things, like a breast, for example. It is even used as a verb to describe a position in which hands together form something like the shape of a cup. The word “karma” is similarly used to describe things that carry forward into the future as a result of kamma in its root sense. These are exactly the internal results, that is, they impinge on the personality, the acting agent. The idea is that every action leaves a residue, that you are the heir of your actions. So “karma” is used to describe later habit patterns that develop under the influence of our volitional acts, any other factors that carry over to effect our character, then ultimately our destiny, insofar as this is shaped by our actions, including our capacity for realizing Nirvana.Internal results are also called Karmic results. The rest of this series of postings is almost exclusively about understanding karmic results.

    Now, there is a simple method that if followed scrupulously will result in the most virtuous habit patterns, a sparklingly clear character, and a destiny headed directly toward Nirvana. This is simply the practice of only acting on the basis of skillful thoughts, never on the basis of unskillful thoughts, the continuous practice of virtue in every situation, the practice of making your every action a selfless gift. “Simply” here means simple to describe, unfortunately not simple to live up to. A lot gets in the way, including our responses to external conditions, our own delusive perception, our laziness, our lack of faith in the efficacy of such a way of being in the world. Instead we do the best we can. The precepts and the ability externally track harm and benefit can help keep us pointed in the right direction, and so can the evolution of our karma in all of the extended senses. So understanding how our actions influence our personal development, our habits, our character and our destiny, also help us in choosing our actions. Our choice of actions are our practice, and the study of karma it its various senses is to develop an understanding of the Buddhist model of human development, which is necessary for fully understanding the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths. We use the words Merit and Demerit or Meritorious and Demeritorious to quantify the karmic influence of our actions.

    Habits as Karma.

    The bread and butter products of our karmic acts are the development of our (karmic) habit patterns, and this is the topic of today’s episode. Here Buddhism assumes a very commonsense model of behavioral learning: If you do something over and over, you get in the habit of doing that thing, that is, you are even more likely to do it over and over in the future; you will be better at it, it will be more natural. An analogy is the rut that a cart wheel makes in a road. With time a rut develops through repeated trips of the cart and that enforces more and more the habitual path of the wheel. Almost all of Buddhist practice works on this principle.

    For instance, each time I steal something, I am reinforcing my tendency to steal, and as I reinforce that tendency I am increasingly likely to steal in the future. I can turn myself rather quickly into an habitual thief. Similarly, each time I give something away selflessly I am reinforcing my tendency toward generosity. Each time I get on a bike without falling over I am moving myself more and more toward being like Lance Armstrong. Each time I act like a buddha I become more like a buddha. Each time I drink alcohol I move myself in the direction of alcoholism. All things being equal, the action creates or reinforces the habit and the habit in turn disposes one toward the action. On the other hand, if I fail to reinforce a habit the associated impulse will slowly fade, like atrophying muscles. For instance, if I have an angry disposition, by avoiding acting out of anger I will gradually come to be a less angry person and will eventually no longer even recognize that as an aspect of my character. Simple. If I as a matter of practice stop channel surfing my habit of channel surfing will begin to recede. If I stop gossiping I will later have less of an impulse to gossip. To develop skillful habits we choose skillful actions and avoid unskillful actions. Our skillful habits will then incline us toward skillful actions, they will come more naturally with less effort. Practice virtue and we become more virtuous, practice stillness and we become by nature still.

    Developing Skillful and Losing Unskillful Habits. The task of losing an unskillful habit is exemplified by an alcoholic on the path of abandoning that habit. He might join Alcoholics Anonymous as a source of advice and support. Buddhism is Samsara Anonymous, and in fact alcoholism is just one of the more vexing of the many thousands of samsaric attachments, so the program is actually similar to that of Alcoholics Anonymous. We begin by recognizing the faults in our habit patterns, generalizing from a keen awareness of the faults in our actions and in our motivations. Repentance is the important factor, which in Buddhism is to fully acknowledge our unskillful acts. This is by no means in order to develop a sense of guilt, which would be an unskillful thought, but rather with the same purpose of someone trying to improve his putt: He needs to acknowledge when the ball has gone into the hole and when it has not; dishonesty or denial only cheats himself.

    Each unskillful act arises out of conditions. Interrupt any of those conditions and the act will not arise. Most importantly, should you sow an unskillful thought, you do not actually have to reap an unskillful act; if anger arises, resist the impulse to act out the anger long enough for it to fall again; if greed arises, resist the impulse to act out the greed long enough for it to fall again. Following precepts can itself become a habit pattern that furnishes this resistance to unskillful impulses; basically your behavior follows a clear script regardless of what volitional thoughts might arise. Secondarily, if an unskillful thought arises, you can transform that thought into something skillful by reconsidering the preceding thought. Thoughts of hatred and revenge, for instance, can be transformed into compassion by implicating pain and suffering in the motives of the one who made you mad. Working directly with thoughts establishes new thought habit patters; recall that the volitional thoughts themselves are karma.

    You can instead learn to sow skillful thoughts directly, which will tend to displace the unskillful. For instance, you can use metta meditation to establish thought patterns pointed toward loving-kindness for all beings, even those we would otherwise identify as enemies. Stillness and mindfulness are skillful thought patterns that you can develop through meditation. Precepts also have the tendency to encourage skillful thought patterns. There is a tendency for the mind to attune itself to the body (or to speech) just as there is a tendency for the body to attune itself to the mind. So, for instance, you might scrupulously follow the precept not to kill any sentient being initially with no motivation other than to follow the precepts. After a while, pure motives of loving-kindness will begin to fill themselves in as you continue to follow this precept, displacing any inner grumbling you might have about the “stupid precepts.” Following rites and rituals will tend similarly to clear away any unskillful thoughts that you might have since such thoughts are not attuned to what the body is doing. Rites and rituals like food offerings to the Buddha might have no external benefit, yet as enactments tend to be filled in by corresponding skillful volition, and therefore bring internal benefit.

    Our external conditions tend to exert a strong influence on our behavior. Therefore changing those conditions can change the habit patterns we develop or lose. If we are alcoholics or smokers trying to clean up our act it is best not to frequent bars and night clubs or visit drinking or smoking friends. Right Livelihood is the avoidance of workplace conditions that obligate us to engage in unskillful behaviors, like slaughtering animals. Avoidance of angry people and stressful conditions will discourage the arising of anger and thereby the acting out of anger and the development of angry habit patterns. Many conditions of modern society are poorly conducive to skillful thought, action or habit. Employment is largely a matter of what has been called wage slavery in which the employee has little freedom to make his own decisions, works largely for the benefit and under the absolute authority of others, and therefore suffers a constant sense of resentment, spilling over into anger. Red tape and red lights make it difficult to get things done, cars, insurance, traffic tickets, long commutes are ways of life that cause much frustration. In general life has a kind of stuckedness we call Samsara, such that whenever we demand something of the world, the world demands more back from us, which escalates our demands. We desire a shiny new wide-screen TV, we are obligated to work more or go into debt. We worry about its durability and the day it will lose its shine, so we buy an extended warranty and worry about the possibility of theft. So we buy a home security system, go further into debt, and fear all the more for our financial security, and become infuriated should we lose our jobs. Tension leads to craving for distractions and we begin to overeat or drink ourselves silly. Because of this behavior our spouse eventually leaves us. It goes on and on, little of which is conducive to the cultivation of skillful personal qualities. This is the infamous Rat Race. Monastic practice and any progress we make in renunciation of the various points of stuckedness in samsaric existence are signficant contributors to developing skillful thoughts, actions and habits.

    In summary, karma is the key to the entire path and should be understood and practiced , as the Buddha says, “seeing danger in the slightest fault.” We might extend this to seeing benefit in the slightest virtue. Habit is the most immediate and observable results of our karmic actions. I will post one more essay on Habit, next uposatha day, in order to consider two questions important for the overall understanding of karma. First, Can habit patterns have non-karmic roots? This is relevant to our understanding or interpretation of rebirth. Second, How do we experience our habit patterns? This is important to our understanding of the Law of Karma, aka, the Fruition of Karma, the often observed retributive aspect of karma. Both of these themes will be fully developed when we discuss Destiny.

  • From Thought to Destiny: To Purify the Mind

    Uposatha Teaching: New Moon, September 8, 2010.

    Index to Current Series
    “    Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”

    Well-makers lead the water (wherever they like);
    Fletchers bend the arrow;
    carpenters bend a log of wood;
    Good people fashion themselves.     Dhammapada 145

    To review: Buddhism has not one system of ethics, … not two, but … Three! These are Avoiding Evil (or following precepts), Doing Good (or seeking benefit for self and others) and Purifying the Mind (developing personal virtue). The most interesting dichotomy is between Doing Good and Purifying the Mind, since actually Avoiding Evil just serves to support the aims of the other two. Doing Good focuses on consequences observable in the world. It is more objective. Purifying the Mind focuses on consequences for our personal habit patterns, for character traits, for our life situation and for our destiny. It is more subjective. While we make the world through our actions, we also make ourselves. While we perform virtuous actions, we become virtuous people. While we perform beastly actions we become cads. Purifying the Mind is the most uniquely Buddhist system of ethics as well as the most thoroughly elaborated within Buddhist teachings.

    Comparing Doing Good and Purifying the Mind. As expected, making a habit of Doing Good is a good way to Purify the Mind, and Purifying the Mind is a good way to ensure a future of habitually Doing Good. Both are practiced through our choice of actions, but they are not always practiced together. Some actions Do Good but fail to Purify the Mind. Others Purify the Mind but fail to do Good. This is similar to what the craftsman experiences. Throwing pots is a good way to become a master potter and becoming a master potter is a good way to ensure a future of Good pot throwing. However, there are some ways the potter can throw Good pots without Purifying his skills, and there are ways he can Purify his skills without throwing Good pots. For instance, he may choose a good technique for shaping cup handles that inhibits his ability to learn an excellent but more difficult technique involving moving his fingers in the opposite direction. A similar example is the tennis player who goes through a period of skill improvement as they blow games right and left in the process of learning a proper backhand. Or the potter may study painting, not even touching clay, to learn something that will carry over into how he throws future pots.

    Purifying the Mind deals with encouraging skillful thoughts and discouraging unskillful thoughts, that is acting with motivations grounded in renunciation, kindness and wisdom, with motivations that are not psychologically stressful and that tend to lead to external Good. In this regard there are nevertheless many practices which work with thoughts in isolation from actions of body or speech, that is, actions which would have objective consequences. For instance, sitting in meditation, letting go of greed and anger, developing mindful awareness in everyday tasks and so on are very important in developing Virtue, but are not themselves virtuous. Making a ritual food offering to the Buddha likewise is not Doing Good in an objective way (the Buddha does not actually get to partake in a meal) but is excellent for developing the positive mental states of the virtuous individual.

    Actions with harmful consequences in the world but useful in developing virtue seem to be rare. However, one example may be the practice common in Thailand and Burma of paying someone to release a bird or fish or other animal that he has captured live for the purpose of providing this service to you or other kindly people like you. Now, making such a payment supports an industry that would simply not exist without customers, sparing future birds and fish the trauma of capture in the first place, for ever. However, making such a payment benefits the currently captive bird or fish. Although it is questionable that it is a real act of Doing Good, it nevertheless mimics Doing Good maybe even in a more real sense than feeding the Buddha mimics Doing Good. It may have an overall positive consequence in the project of Purifying the Mind, but this may depend on the ability of the Doer to trace out the consequences of paying for the release of the bird or fish, which might blissfully overlook the prevailing market mechanisms of the Animal Release Industry.

    Failure to track consequence.

    Likewise there are certainly some actions that are not harmful in the objective world, but nonetheless Depurify the mind. Just as an enactment of generosity to the Buddha can Purify the Mind, the enactment or even witness of killing may reduce the Purity of the Mind, for instance, playing violent video games and watching violent television programs may train the mind to evoke thoughts of anger and fear. There may be instances of killing that can be justified in terms of sacrificing one life to save two or more, as in the baseball bat scenario above. However killing under any conditions is generally assumed to be harmful to the Purity of the Mind. The wielder of the baseball bat would have not only to satisfy himself that the greater benefit is thereby achieved, but also that the toll on his own virtue is not too great a price. Nowhere does the Buddha ever condone killing of another human being, even expressly in self-defense. Studies have shown that executioners in America, the people who conclude death penalty cases, whether or not they believe that the death penalty Does Good, have enormous psychological afflictions by the end of their careers.

    Mutual Support of Avoiding Evil, Doing Good and Purifying the Mind. Both Avoiding Evil and Doing Good almost all the time contribute to the Purity of the Mind, even if I initially practice these with mixed motives, such as responding to peer or authority pressure, or just a sense of obligation to practice. For instance, there is a precept not to kill living beings. Maybe I do not initially for the life of me understand why the life of an ugly tweedle bug matters one bit, but a tweedle bug is a living being, and I want to be a good Buddhist, so I don’t kill tweedle bugs. After a few months I discover something that was not there before: a warm heart towards tweedle bugs—they become my little friends—and not just toward tweedle bugs but toward other beings as well, even certain people that I had once put into the same category with tweedle bugs. My mind has become purer. Try it! Put away the tweedle swatter and the Tweedle-Enhanced® Raid and see if you don’t soften right up.

    Purifying the Mind requires a constant profound awareness of your thoughts, along with great care to avoid acting out of greed, hatred or delusion. This same awareness provides a fortuitous reality check on whether you are really Doing Good. Recall that greed, hatred and delusion tend to produce harmful actions and renunciation, kindness and wisdom tend to produce beneficial actions. Notice, for instance, that whenever you jot off an email note out of anger you always regret it later? A lustful or an angry mind has a way of distorting reality such that you it sure seems crystal clear that you are Doing Good while in fact you suffer from blind spots that become apparent only upon chilling out. As a rule of thumb, just in terms of Doing Good, do not ever do anything when greed, hatred or delusion is present. The results are almost always harmful, and Depurify the Mind in any case.

    How to Purify the Mind. In short, through the Noble Eightfold Path, the path to the Perfection of Character. The practice of Avoiding Evil and Doing Good constitutes the Ethical Conduct part of the path, that is, the factors of Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. Purifying the Mind per se from the perspective adopted here is Right Effort, and this works together with the other two factors in the Mental Cultivation Group, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, which also give the mental support for the Ethical Conduct practices, and help strengthen Right Resolve, the understanding of the importance of Renunciation, and Kindness in all aspects of life. The most recalcitrant impurities of mind are only resolved through deep insight into the nature of reality; Right View removes the last supports for Greed, Hate and Delusion.

    Reaping What We Sow. This brings us back to the Farmer’s Path of sowing and reaping, you remember, the one that starts at Thought, runs through Act, Habit and Character, and ends at Destiny, each step of which shares a common name: Karma.

    Whatever I do, for good or evil, to that I will fall heir. AN 5.57

    In acting with skillful intentions we develop skillful habits and a strong character. We also bring subjective benefit to ourselves, included in a destiny that will propel us through felicitous rebirths, much opportunity through development of a character tune with these in mind, to Do Good, to See Clearly and to Cast Off Suffering, and ultimately reaching realization of the unconditioned, Nirvana. Some of its elements are a bit controversial among Westerners, but this is the model presented by the Buddha, and that we will consider during the rest of this series of Uposatha teachings. Its purpose is not to define our daily practice—that is the role of the Noble Eightfold Path—but to give us an idea of where it is taking us, to keep our sails full and our rudder set.

  • From Thought to Destiny: To Do Good

    Uposatha Teaching: First Quarter Moon, September 2, 2010.

    Index to Current Series
    “    Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”

    Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do. Dhammapada 163

    We are considering the three systems of Buddhist ethics as advice for what actions we choose to perform. In last week’s episode we considered To Avoid Evil, which is To Follow Ethical Precepts. Next week we will consider To Purify the Mind, which is the most uniquely Buddhist approach to developing Virtue. This week we look at the most natural form of ethics, which arises naturally in humans as a result of our innate capacity for kindness, and that is, to seek the benefit of all and avoid harm to all.

    What is involved in Doing Good is not only to have a reserve of kindness and a willingness to sacrifice some personal benefit for others, but also to track as best as possible the consequences of one’s actions, whether completed, in progresses or under consideration. This entails the capacity to Do Good will vary considerably from person to person, particularly with regard to the last point. We live in a very complex world in which tracing consequences of action runs very deep, and ultimately, like the chess player who can only see a certain number of moves ahead, to Do Good we must all in the end follow our best hunch.

    Performing actions in the world is a huge responsibility. The depth of the consequences of our actions is captured in the Buddha’s exposition of causality, “because this arises that arises, because this ceases that ceases” as the pervasive operating principle in the world, but is most thoroughly expounded in the Mahayana philosophical tradition with the view that just as we depend on everything in the world (Joanna Macy writes, “The Amazon Rain Forest is a part of our lungs”), and everything in the world depends on us (we move our arm and the world moves). To see that this is true, consider the following:

    The actions you perform today will determine whether others live or die! This sounds implausible because we tend to think of the effects of our actions as extending only as far as we can track them, while they in fact extend forever. Suppose, for instance, you drive to the mall to buy a spiffy t-shirt, and as you enter the freeway a friendly car, cruising down the slow lane, slows down further to let you merge. However a less patient car behind that car decides it really wants to drive a bit faster and pulls into the middle lane, which then induces some further realignment for other cars further back. It is easy to see that the process of realignment will propagate, but even as the adjustments settle is likely eventually to influence the timing of entries onto and exits from the freeway further down the highway, entailing further realignments. In fact the realignments will propagate down the highway you are on, then onto roads and highways that intersect with this highway, then back onto the highway but in the opposite direction, and eventually deep into Canada, and deep into Mexico. Traffic flow will differ slightly over the map in the hours and days to come for your having made this trip to the mall. Now every day accidents happen on our highways and roads, many of them fatal. An accident generally arises due to faulty split-second decisions in the context of the particular immediate alignment of vehicles. Since your actions have propagated realignments throughout the road map, it follows that accidents, some fatal, will now happen that would not have happened if you had not driven to the mall, but also that accidents will not happen that would have happened.

    In meteorology they similarly talk about the Butterfly Effect, the influence the flight of a single butterfly will have on the occurrence or non-occurrence of storms and hurricanes in the decades and centuries to come. Similarly your actions will result in wars happening or not happening, corporations rising and falling, and so on. You are not a sole cause of any of it, but an enabler for virtually all, past a certain time horizon. Being in the world is a huge responsibility, whether you are a human or a butterfly. Not that we can actually track much of this.

    One way we extend our limited ability to track consequences is to deal in probabilities. This is called Being Careful. So, leaving a tool box just inside the door of a poorly lit room is probably not Doing Good because of the likelihood, not certainty, of an unfelicitous consequence for someone’s bodily well-being. Another way to extend our ability to track consequences is research or investigation. This is called Being In The Know. For instance, I might learn the many ways my purchasing and consumption choices harm the environment; cause pollution of air, rivers, ground and oceans; cause global warming; sustain harmful social and economic conditions, and I might adjust my choices accordingly so that the consequences of my actions move away from harm and toward benefit. In the modern globalized world both the need to understand consequences is enhanced since they propagate so rapidly, and our ability to track consequences is extended since scholars and journalists explain many causal relations for us. Being Careful and Being In The Know are huge obligations for humans (butterflies, I suppose, are off the hook).

    The most ancient discussions in Buddhism in this area of Doing Good is the ethics of eating meat, an issue which is debated to this day. A number of precepts from early Buddhism touch on this issue. One is the precept not to kill living (breathing) things. Another is the broad rule of Right Livelihood, one of the eight folds of the Noble Eightfold Path, which lists among wrong livelihoods that of slaughtering animals. And a third is the monastic guideline laid down by the Buddha concerning eating meat (Jivaka Sutta, MN 55). This permits monks and nuns to eat meat, but with a caveat:

    “Jivaka, I say that there are three instances in which meat should not be eaten: when it is seen, heard, or suspected [that the living being has been slaughtered for the bhikkhu]. I say that meat should not be eaten in these three instances”

    In the later East Asian Mahayana tradition one of the Bodhisattva Precepts, common to all monastics and many laypeople, simply prohibits adherents from eating meat altogether.

    Now, killing an animal is in itself considered harmful. However, at the Buddha’s time many lay people would kill animals to feed themselves and also offer to any recluses who came by in search of alms, Buddhist or otherwise. Doing Good entails that one’s own choices should not have killing an animal as a consequence. But notice how the Buddha’s caveat works to ensure exactly this. If the lay donors have already killed an animal for family conception and general recluse consumption, acceptance of meat by the bhikkhu seems not to have killing as a consequence. The bhikkhu has a clean bill of mental purity. Accepting the carnivorous meal furthermore also avoids offending, confusing or disappointing the donors. If, however, a family offers to provide a meal to some Buddhist nuns, say, and to kill a pig, say, to to do so, according to the Buddha they would have to refuse.

    However, the modern food industry works differently than this pastoral scenario. First, the person who slaughters the animal is generally far removed from the situation in which the meat is consumed. The donor more likely simply buys the already slaughtered meat at a grocery store, but creates a market demand such that new meat is killed to replace what is purchased. Second, harm to animals is greatly magnified in corporate farms. The Buddha refers in the Jivaka Sutta to “the pain and grief on being led along with a neck-halter” and “the pain and grief on being slaughtered.” Now we have to consider that these are often done in a much less humane way as heretofore, by poorly trained and poorly paid employees, and add to that the pain and grief of being raised indoors in crowded, smelly, poorly lit conditions, and of chickens having their beaks clipped off to prevent them from pecking each other out of stress. Tracing further we have to consider the impact of producing feed for the animals, which we know to be environmentally enormous, contributing significantly, for instance, we now know, to Global Warming. (We also have to compare the alternative to meat, that is the consequences of vegetarian food production, including the modern use of pesticides, etc., which can also cost many animals their lives.) In sum, whereas the Buddha traced out the consequences of accepting meat for his time, modern conditions entail that in the hopes of Doing Good, we do this work ourselves.

    Modern Buddhist controversy around eating meat I think has two sources, one having to do with how much weight is given to Avoiding Evil relative to Doing Good, and the other having to do with how much weight is given to Doing Good relative to Purifying the Mind. These are not always in accord. In the first case, the Buddha provided us with a clear guideline for Avoiding Evil in meat eating, and for some that is enough. For instance, in Theravada countries it is normal for monks to accept meat knowing it has been specifically purchased to feed the monks, since it has not litereally been slaughtered to feed monks. In the second case, the actual consequences of the development of Virtue seem to actually diminish the further one is removed from the act of slaughter. The karmic consequences for the monk who accepts meat will be much less than for the monk who kills the animal himself, as we will see beginning next week.

    Doing Good tends to be emphasized, at least doctrinally, more in Mahayana than in Theravada. It is neglected, for instance, in the Theravada Abhidhamma, but is highlighted in the Mahayana as part of the Bodhisattva ideal. This might partially explain the difference in the respective attitudes toward meat eating (allowing however that in Tibet not eating meat is hardly an option in the harsh agricultural environment). However, in general practice Theravada monastics are well known for their good works, for Doing Good, and there are, in fact, many Theravada monastics and sometimes monasteries are strictly vegetarian, citing ethical reasons. I have, or instance, met some very senior Burmese monks who have encouraged me never to accept meat from donors.

    Although Precepts can point out consequences that might otherwise be missed, occasionally they may contradict our commitment to Doing Good, for instance, in the case where the Gestapo shows up at your front door and asks you, gleefully aware that a Buddhist will not lie, if you are hiding Jews in the attic, or where you just happen to be returning from a softball game with a baseball bat in your hand and walk in right behind a man who has “gone postal” and is about start shooting at fellow employees. The inclination is greater in the Theravada tradition to obey the letter of the Precept, and in Mahayana to abandon Precepts more readily where this seems the more compassionate thing to do. The early Suttas give little advice on handling these contradictions, but one exception is MN 58, where the Buddha draws an analogy to the necessity of painfully digging a swallowed stone out of a baby’s throat with one’s finger, thereby causing harm but preventing greater harm. However the Buddha is not known ever to have justified anything remotely like a Just War or for that matter any taking of human life.

    A final point concerning Doing Good concerns who is the beneficiary of our kindness. It is a commonsense idea that certain people do not merit Goodwill, for instance, that criminals, torturers, murderers and people whose opinions or certain other attributed differ from ours, do not deserve to benefit from our deeds, in fact deserve to suffer from any misdeeds we might cook up. This idea is anathema to Buddhism (although there is a common misunderstanding in Buddhism that all personal suffering is caused by individual kamma and that helping them to alleviate the suffering means they will just have to burn it off later, a wrong view that I will discuss in future weeks). In fact, just as we try to develop Metta (loving-kindness) for everyone without discrimination, even for our worst enemies, all beings properly fall withing the scope of Doing Good. The thoughts of retribution that tell us differently are simply unskillful, and rooted in hatred. Thought they may be pervasive it is our aspiration to let them go and to Do Good without discrimination.

    Not the perversities of others, not their sins of commission or omission, but his own misdeeds and negligences should a sage take notice of. Dhammapada 50

    Here are questions to consider on this Uposatha Day: When is punishment Doing Good? You can consider punishment of children or punishment of criminals. What consequences of punishment can you trace that are harmful for others in addition to the person being punished?

  • Does a Buddhist lose Ambition?

    Terasi asks:

    Would you talk about Buddhism and motivation please? Ever since I learned Buddhism few months ago (I am a newbie!) I’ve become more restrained, able to restrained anger, annoyance, craving to shop junks, etc. It’s wonderful, I am happier and calmer now.

    But then I wonder if all the stress on unruffled mind, upekkha, contentment, restraining from grasping, etc could lead one to be lacking ambition in real life? For example, no ambition to become successful at work, no wish to take up further study because “well, why would I want to be a manager if I am content and happy enough just to be a clerk?”, no wish to get better things “why should I look for another place to stay, this old apartment can still shelter me even though the bathroom is leaking.” and so on.

    This is a good question. There is a tendency to think of Buddhism as complacent or passive. Buddhism is actually about action, that is why we talk about karma (action) so much. However Buddhism does make a distinction between skillful motivations and unskillful motivations behind our actions.

    Human beings tend to be primarily motivation by the quest for personal advantage, to do what it takes so I get that manager’s job rather than my colleague, so that I have a better home than my friends, and so on. We do have an obligation to protect our physical and emotional health, but there are many motivations that do not put me and mine on center stage, such as those based in compassion and loving-kindness. The latter are skillful motivations; they are skillful because they lead away from personal stress toward lightness and joy, they do not present a distorted view of reality but open the heart, and they tend to produce great benefit, including for yourself where that is needed.

    With skillful motivations action actually becomes more effortless, more fluid. It no longer needs ambition. Ultimately on the path there is no sense of personal effort at all, but what needs doing is done. Here is my very favorite Buddhist verse, by Hongzhi, a Twelfth Century Chinese Zen master:

    “People of the Way journey through the world responding to conditions, carefree and without constraint. Like clouds finally raining, like moonlight following the current, like orchids growing in shade, like spring arising in everything, they act without mind, they respond with certainty.”

  • From Thought to Destiny: To Avoid Evil

    Uposatha Teaching: Full Moon, August 25, 2010.

    Index to Current Series
    “    Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”

    This mind of mine went formerly wandering about as it liked, as it listed, as it pleased; but I shall now hold it in thoroughly, as the rider who holds the hook holds in the furious elephant. Dhammapada, 326.

    Last week I introduced the three ethical systems that inform our actions in Buddhism, Avoiding Evil, Doing Good and Purifying the Mind. This week I discuss the first of these in detail, which is in fact a variety of systems of vows or precepts.

    Precepts take the form of rules or regulations. Examples are “Do not kill living things,”Do not tell a falsehood. There are systems of five, eight, nine and ten precepts. The full set of monastics vows runs into the hundreds of precepts. Almost always stated as abstentions, precepts are valuable for their clarity in stating minimal standards of physical conduct. In Buddhism they are almost always a matter of vow rather than imposed by an outside authority such as the Commandments that Moses brought down from the mountain as a gift from God, or traffic laws imposed under threat of fine. Exceptions might be temple rules like, “Take your shoes off before entering.”

    Precepts can inform important karmic decisions, like whether or not to murder your annoying neighbor, or simply provide standards to ensure harmonious relations, much like many traffic laws, or simply to express some point of etiquette, like always bowing to the Buddha when entering a temple. One can, and will, create personal precepts, like feed the dog at 6:00 pm. And in fact personal vows are how we best live deliberately, how we take a stand and boycott banks or insurance companies, or food from factory farms, and stick with them.

    Westerners often have some resistance to precepts because they regard rules and regulations as infringing on personal freedom, or would like to keep their options open rather than to commit themselves to anything. Doing Good or Purifying the Mind seems to afford more opportunity for personal creativity, they reason. However, the notion of personal freedom referred to is almost always at odds with the Buddhist concept of liberation; the latter is not the freedom to do what you want but rather the freedom from having to want anything, that is, it is freedom from the tyranny of the self with its endless desires and needs, dislikes and fears.

    Precepts put these requirements of the self into a box that if useful will create an initial level of discomfort, but give an opportunity to understand that self’s needs and to develop humility and contentment. It will also expose consequences that might have happened along with intentions that might have been enacted; these will be left dangling where they can be clearly observed as harmful and ill-conceived. For instance, many Buddhist codes include a precept to abstain from gossip, which gives one pause as certain situations open up this enjoyable option. Without that precept that behavior is likely to go unnoticed as something that causes problems, in its consequences for the mind and for others, we will tend to be careless in that behavior.

    In following precepts we learn better to care for consequences and to cultivate skillful karma. There is a Zen saying that if you put a snake in a bamboo tube it will discover its own shape. In fact one of the common expressions for precepts is sekiya, rules of training; one might think of them as training wheels for the bicycle of practicing Doing Good and Purifying the Mind. Precepts will also in the end create a sense of ease as a break from the burden of the self.

    Taking this one step further, all of ritual falls withing the range of precepts. In ritual there is no direct moral component, yet there is what is considered proper behavior. But like moral precepts they afford the opportunity to engage in activities independently of the tyranny of the self and thereby to develop wholesome qualities of mind, and to experience a joyful sense of liberation. Ritualizing everyday activities has similar advantages in eliminating opportunities for personal choice.

    Last week I described precepts as naturally porous and rigid. The rigidity often shows up when two precepts contradict. For instance Just War might involve killing for some greater good. With the Gestapo at the door and Jews in the attic, a little lie might be justified. In Zen circles there is generally an assumption that precepts almost always contradict one another and that through wisdom one arrives at the appropriate call. It is interesting that the Buddha rarely sanctioned violating precepts. The one example I am aware of is in MN 38 where the Buddha was challenged for using disagreeable speech against Devadatta, his cousin who tried to create a schism in the Sangha, tried to kill the Buddha and other disagreeable things. The Buddha said that sometimes it is necessary to dig a pebble out of a child’s mouth even though it causes great discomfort.

    Next week we consider how to Do Good, that is to plan actions that are of benefit, even where the bottom line of the precepts does not require it.