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Vol. III No. 1

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The LIGHT of the DHAMMA

VOL. III No. 1

2499 B.E.

June 1955 C.E. 3

THE LIGHT OF THE DHAMMA

1. Please regard this not just as a quarterly magazine but as a continuing service for Buddhism. Your frank criticism will be welcomed in a Buddhist spirit and if there are any questions pertaining to Buddhism that we can answer or help to answer, we are yours to command. 2. Any articles herein may be quoted, copied, reprinted and translated free of charge without further reference to us. Should you care to acknowledge the source we would be highly appreciative. 3 Foreign subscription. (including postage to any part of the world) is but the equivalent of sh 9/- (Nine Shillings) sterling per annum.

HOW TO REMIT

In any country subscribing to the International Postal Union, International Postal Certificates are obtainable from the post office. TRADING BANKS can usually advise, in other cases, how small remittances may be made. THE EDITOR, “THE LIGHT OF THE DHAMMA” Union Buddha Sasana Council 16, Hermitage Road, Kokine Rangoon, Union 0f Burma 4

Vol. III 2499 B.E. June 1955 C.E. No. 1 CONTENTS

Editorial Page Buddhist View of Religion (by Bhikkhu S²l±c±ra) ...... 5 Shrines of Burma No. 9—Mandalay (by U Ohn Ghine) ...... 19 The Ten Fetters of Existence (by Mr. F. M. Rajakaruna) ...... 23 Eve of Departure (by Mr. Francis Story) ...... 39 The Dasa Dhamma Sutta (by Venerable Kassapa Bhikkhu) ...... 40 The Beautiful Pagoda (by Miss Ethel Mannin) ...... 45 The Buddhist Doctrine of Kamma and Rebirth (by Venerable N±rada Mah±thera) 53 The First Utterance of the Buddha (by Venerable M. Paññ±sir² Thero) ...... 78 The Case for Rebirth (by Burma Buddhist World-Mission) ...... 85 Courageous Faith (by Venerable Nyanaponika Thera) ...... 89 Buddhism—Lesson. No. 1. (by Venerable M. Paññ±sir² Thero) ...... 91 Report on the Chaµµha Sang±yan± ...... 96 Glossary ...... 98

The original issue also contained: Paµµh±nuddesa D²pan² (by Venerable Ledi Sayadaw) 5 Buddhist View of Religion Bhikkhu Sil±c±ra WHAT is religion? That question is given by different teachers and founders one that has been asked by many. And it of religion in different quarters of the is a question to which many different globe, constitute the different religions answers have been given. Some have that have been, and are, believed in by asked it out of a genuine desire to probe the various races of men in different parts the why and the wherefore that men of the world. should concern themselves so much with We have just said that the thoughtful something having no very obvious man asks these questions to which the connection with the world the ordinary differing religions give their differing man lives in, the common world he replies. But what about the vast majority perceives with his five senses. These are of the thoughtless, the unthinking? These those commonly called materialists latter, who have not yet become men in because they have little interest in the full sense of the word man, thinker, anything that is not in some way for the most part simply accept without connected with the world of matter, and much question the answers given by the are genuinely surprised and puzzled that religion current in the region of the earth any one else should be concerned about where they happen to have been born. anything not belonging to that world. We As indeed, what else can they do, hope it is not being too unkind to classify supposing them to pay any attention at such men as those who have not yet all to the matter of religion? These may become men in the full sense of that word. be quite fairly termed the child-minds of For the plain English word man is surely our species, and are to be found in all derived in direct line of descent from the countries, in the so-called civilised Sanskrit word, Manas, Mind. So that a countries quite as much as in the countries man who truly is a man, is a mind, and called uncivilised, professing belief in a not just a body. And being a mind, he must hazy way in whatever religion they find be a thinker, since thinking is the specific current around them. With these we are function of a Mind. And being a thinker, not here concerned. so soon as he has arrived at the age when Rather are we here concerned with the power of thought has attained to some those who, having passed the stage of development within him, there arises in mental childhood, have arrived at mental his mind insistently a question that refuses manhood, and are asking for themselves to be set aside: “What is all this business the questions just indicated, and want to of life about? What is it all for? Is it only get for themselves the answer to them. just to eat, drink and sleep so many years, These, when given the ready-made and then die? Surely there must be more answers to their questionings furnished in it than that. What is it?”. by the various established religions, ask: This, succinctly put, is the question “How do I know that this that you say is which arises in the minds of nearly all true? I don’t say that it is untrue. I only thoughtful men as soon as they begin to want to know where I can find think at all. And the various answers to it corroboration—if that should be the 6 case—of its truth?” And when told: private uses he may choose to make of “You must have faith that this that we the latter. He cannot sacrifice his intellect say is true,” they next ask: “What is this any more than he can sacrifice his hands faith that you speak of?” And when a or feet. Hands and feet are there for his further exchange of question and answer service and use, and equally so is his in the same strain has gone on for a while, intellect. To refuse to make full use of it the questioner finally says: “It seems to in contradistinction to his other faculties, me from all your replies to my questions, is simply senseless, foolish, absurd. There that this ‘faith’ of yours is just a boundless is no more ground in right reason why a capacity for believing what all my man should cut off his reason and throw experience and reasoning, thereupon, tells it away, than there is for his cutting off me cannot be true.” And with that he turns and throwing away hand or foot. away from them, wholly unsatisfied and In the exercise of his reason, of his disappointed with those forms of religion intellect, then, the mentally adult which before all else demand of him individual cannot help but question a “faith” in what they tell him. For this type good deal that is presented to him as truth of questioner, the man of full-grown by the faith- religions of the world—all mentality, is not looking for “faith”— of them. These set before him rules of right which, be it noted, cannot be found by conduct, bodies of doctrine concerning a looking for it, its own protagonists variety of undemonstrable matters, which themselves say: What he is looking for is they call upon him to accept simply upon fact, positively demonstrable reality that their say-so. But this he finds himself can be made clear to his reason, the reason unable to do. And so he feels strongly which he uses to the best of his ability in inclined to cast overboard all concern with his investigation of all other subjects that religion of any kind as something that has engage his mind apart from the subject to do only with the irrational. In the of religion, which latter subject, he makes irrational, however, he is not in the least bold to believe, must be demonstrable to interested, but rightly regards it as matter his rational faculty as much as these other that can only engage the minds of children, concerns. or those with the minds of children. Has the mentally adult human being But here he would be mistaken, as in any justification for such a belief? He fact, so many people are. Religion is not possesses an intellect just as he possesses essentially irrational. It is only the faith- hands and feet. And it is his duty and religions which present it in a manner privilege to make the utmost possible use that—putting it at its mildest—strongly of that intellect of his, in the same way tends towards the irrational. Nevertheless, that he makes all the use he can of his let us not fail in justice towards the faith- hands to make things and of his feet to religions where they deserve it. Though bear his body over the earth beneath them. they set forth their vision of truth in a And he cannot accept any limit that any manner that makes little appeal to the man or body of men may seek to impose rational mind, still, they do set it forth, upon his use of the former, any more than and in their own fashion seek to impress he can allow any to put a limit upon the it upon the minds of their adherents. 7 All of them that are worthy of the name Needless to say, men do not all at once of religion at all, as well as all the great arrive at this height of right conduct. It is philosophies of the world in East and only gradually, and by a steady evolution West, as for instance, Confucianism in the in this direction, that they eventually draw Orient and Stoicism in the Occident, have near to what is the culminating point of inculcated, one might almost say, are all right action,—freedom from all self- founded upon, a belief in each man’s regarding considerations in the conduct responsibility for his actions. All these of their lives. At what may be called the religions and philosophies alike hold that lowest levels of the pursuit of right a certain class of men’s thoughts words conduct, we have the ethically primitive and bodily actions, are to be regarded as man’s fear when he has done something “right” and another class as “wrong.” wrong, that some great unknown Being, They also teach that there is some power he knows not very well what, will in this in the world that awards recompense to lifetime or in some other—punish him for those who do what is good, brings his wrong deed. And along with this idea retribution more or less severe upon the there naturally also goes the hope that the man who does evil. All the religions same unknown great Being, when a man which teach thus, do not indeed, have the does a good deed, will reward him for same scale of measurement for what is the same, in some substantial way, in this good and evil in men’s conduct: far from world or another. After this, with further it! The differences between them in this growth, the man’s conception of right respect, are very wide, and very various. conduct leaves behind all ideas of gaining Yet they all do have the idea of righteous something for himself by such conduct, and unrighteous conduct at the basis of and widens out into the idea of gaining all they teach. Morality of some code or some good for his city for his nation, for other forms the foundation of all religions his country, by the course of conduct he deserving the name, that have ever pursues. From being a narrow individualist influenced men for good in the history of he has become a lover of his townsmen, the world. In fact, they are, and have been, of his fellow countrymen, and of the land of genuine value to the human race just they and he spring from. This is a great in so far as they inculcated a right way of advance; but there is still more to be living, apart from all that they have taught attained before he can be called a true in other directions. They have done real man, a practiser of right conduct in its service to humanity precisely to the fullness. He has to become—and this is a degree that they have taught that the great achievement indeed—a lover of the natural desire of the “average sensual whole race of mankind in every country man” for the securing of what he regards and clime, and not alone in his own native as his own private pleasure and land, and have all his conduct dictated satisfaction, must be subordinated to by that love. something less narrow and restricted, In these latter days when men are namely, the good, the well-being, of other ceaselessly engaged on all hands in men, and eventually extended to a concern searching into the reasons why things are for the weal of all his fellow men. as they are in all domains of human 8 activity, this question of what constitutes mind asks, as he has every right to do, right and wrong in their conduct has also for a religion which shall do no violence come in for much criticism and to his sense of what is just, reasonable, investigation, and a good deal that used rational, there is only one religion in the to be accepted without question is now world which meets this his demand, just very much questioned indeed. Intelligent one and no other, and its name is men no longer believe that just because Buddhism. It is this religion alone which many thousands of years ago some great answers his requirement that it shall set Being—called a god or what not—laid forth a moral teaching based on sound down a set of rules for men’s conduct in logic and common sense. Such a moral which he declared such and such deeds teaching is to be found in the records of to be “wrong” and such and such other the Buddha’s own words, as handed down deeds to be “right”, that therefore without by word of mouth—as was the custom in any question, those deeds must be ancient India—and then later in writing accepted as quite wrong and these other incised on palm leaves, at a Council called deeds as positively right. In those past together for the express purpose of days of man’s mental childhood, it might gathering up all the words of the Buddha be enough for man that the expounders remembered by those called to the of theologies of one brand or another, Council, and there given the stamp of declared with high decision that this and authenticity for all future time. In that this men must do, and that and that they teaching as in all religious teaching, the must not do. effect it has had on the social life of But those days are long past. Men today mankind is that which weighs most with want a moral code that is based on the modern man. It is with this aspect of something other than the ipse dixit of no Buddhist teaching, therefore, that we are matter what body of grave and reverend now going to concern ourselves. seigniors, even of the most imposing Taking Buddhist teaching as a whole, ecclesiastical claims. Today men feel the first thing to note about it is that in it more than ever that a system of right there is nothing whatever of the nature of conduct that has no firmer foundation a theology. “A strange omission in a than the word of some supposed great religion!” many will say, and scarcely be Being is not good enough. They require able to believe it. Yet it is a fact. Buddhism that it shall spring from something more is a religion, that is, it is a guide to men rational than the capricious interposition through life, and a comfort and a solace in the affairs of mankind of such a in death. And it is this, without reference hypothetical invention. To-day men want to any kind of god as being necessary to that any system of morality offered them, either the one or the other of these two shall lead to definitely visible and useful qualifications. All Buddhism has to teach results here and now in this world we all mankind, is in line with, is based upon, are living in, and not in some vague the facts of life and strictly rational remote future that is to ensue after death. deductions drawn from these facts. And It is a large claim to make, yet we in setting out upon an examination into boldly make it. When the man of adult the character of this — to many — 9 surprising religion which is founded, not hypothetical universe which we have upon any supposed divine revelation but constructed out of our states of quite simply upon facts and logic, reason consciousness. For it is a genuine, and truth, we must get a clear idea as to indisputable fact that what we all know the exact nature of the matter with which and alone can know, at first hand, is just we are going to deal. our states of consciousness. The supposed Ethics, as usually understood, has to universe outside ourselves is no more do with right and wrong, with what is than an inference from the data we find good in conduct, and with what is bad in in our consciousness. So that when we conduct. That, to begin with. Next it talk about the universe, as we cannot help considers what are the effects of good and doing sometimes, we are actually talking bad actions, what follows from them, about changes and variations in our own regarding them as causes. And finally, it perceptions of we do not precisely know enquires into the manner in which these what, and in the mental changes and causes, good and bad actions, bring about variations that follow upon these changes the results that follow from them. And in in our perceptions. Buddhism, in fact, our investigation of what makes an action deals with the actual world, the only actual to be right or wrong from a Buddhist world there is, the world that each man standpoint, we find ourselves faced with knows immediately within himself, the a view of this question entirely different other being only a hypothetical one drawn from what we find in other religions, from that one within him. Essentially the leaving out the Vedanta and S±½khya Buddha is always a psychologist, never a systems and some of the other great cosmologist. philosophical systems of India. Here the To come back to the question we are great line of cleavage between Buddhist dealing with: Right and Wrong are no teaching and the religious systems of the more than particular modifications of our West in particular, is most clearly marked states of consciousness. The world we out by the fact that in Buddhism there each carry about with us in our individual cannot be found a term which with any consciousness is just made up of good, approach to accuracy can be translated bad, neutral states of mind, constantly into the language of western religions as changing. But the Buddhist conception sin or evil, as these words are understood of what is good, bad, and neutral, as in the West. Buddhism knows nothing of regards our thoughts, or mental a quality, and essential characteristic of changes—which, be it noted, lie at the anything which stands out in opposition foundation of all our saying and doing, to the quality of good. of all our words and actions—is quite Unlike the the majority of the great different from what we find in the religious teachers of the world, the religions established in Western lands. In Buddha is strictly a psychologist. True Buddhism, the idea of “sin”, of a teacher that He is, he makes his concern something infecting some of men’s the states of consciousness we find in man actions like a positively harmful blight, a and, in the ultimate analysis, takes nothing downright evil principle, simply has no to do with the states of matter in the existence. In Buddhism “good” just 10 means fitting, appropriate, skilful; as such as it had never seen before. If “bad” means unfitting, inappropriate, beforehand the boy had known, had unskilful. understood the burning, pain-producing And so a good or skilful thought is just nature of a candle flame, such a desire one that conduces to happiness; as a bad for it could never have arisen in him; he or unskilful thought is just one that leads would never have done the foolish, to unhappiness. From this it follows that unskilful deed. His deed was a bad deed ignorance, lack of understanding, is the because it led to pain. And in this case, source whence springs all that we call the pain was felt immediately by the one bad,— ignorance of the law of nature that did the unskilful deed. But the action governing the actions of our mind. It is of the child would have been equally bad, through a lack of right understanding, of equally unskilful, if he had used his correct knowledge of these laws that evil kitten’s paw in place of his own hand, to thoughts arise in our minds, evil words perform it, for this also no less would have issue from our lips, and we come to the been a cause of pain, of suffering. And doing of evil deeds. For if we truly saw even if, at the time, the child might not and understood beyond all peradventure have experienced any of that pain yet, as how such thoughts, words and deeds we shall see later, in the long run he would produce, and can produce, nothing but find out that it was to himself he was suffering and sorrow, we should never causing hurt, even more than to his kitten. think, say, or do, such thoughts, words or So then, the true foundation cause of deeds. all that is bad in men’s conduct is simply Take the case of a little child,—and, ignorance. Consequently, the sure and more or less, we are all only children. certain cure for all that is bad in men’s “Men are but children of a larger growth,” conduct, is completely to get rid of as the poet Dryden truly says. It sees a ignorance from men’s minds. But in order candle flame,— such a beautiful bright, to do this effectively, we have to shining object, as it imagines in its simple, understand before everything else the inexperienced mind. Surely it would he precise character of the ingnorance that splendid to lay hold of such a splendid we are trying to get rid of. And this brings looking thing! No sooner thought than us immediately to the foundation of done! It grasps, or tries to grasp, the Buddhist cosmology,—so far as it has dazzling object, but by its action only gets one—and to Buddhist ethics. For we are its little fingers painfully burnt. Its action not overstraining speech if we say that was an unskilful one, very much so, since the world we live in is made by this it resulted in so much pain. And how did ignorance; and that all the suffering that it come to do this so unskilful deed? is to be found in this, or in any other world, Simply through lack of knowledge or has been caused, and all the time is being understanding of the true nature of candle caused afresh, by our lack of knowledge, flames as burning fire. Through that by our lack of understanding. ignorance or defective understanding, Yes, it is through our not knowing, there arose in it the desire to seize and through our not understanding, that makes its own, the lovely, shining toy, sorrow and suffering come to be. It is 11 through not knowing and not every creature that is alive suffers, but understanding, only from these, that suffers only because it does not desire arises in man and all that follows understand things rightly, and in its mental from desire, in brief: To a Buddhist these confusion does the deeds that bring upon two things are the cause of the arising of it the suffering it encounters. Finally it is all that is evil in the lives of men. If only the seeing, the comprehending, the insight one little ray of genuine understanding that there is not, and never was, a separate were to enter the mind of a murderer as self-entity in this, or in any other world he raised dagger or pistol to do his cruel that can be known to man, whether high deed, he would not, he could not, do it. or low, subtle or gross, long-living or brief Or if an intended thief could only see of years, whether god or man or insect rightly, have true vision of the succession under our feet. And the man who of causes and consequences that would possesses this correct seeing, this true follow on his action, his craving to seize vision, this true understanding of the to himself another’s goods would die nature of all things and of that which he before it was born. deems himself, cannot crave the This ignorance, potent origin of all the possessions of another any more than he evil that is in the world, is the active, can hurt or kill another in a passion of growing root from which spring these hatred, increasing thus in the- world the three main stems: the craving to possess heap of suffering already great enough the things which move the thief to robbery, there, without his adding yet more to it. the passion of hatred that causes the The Noble Eightfold Path which is the murderer to raise his hands and kill, and one way to general wellbeing which all the belief in a separate self,—his own men must eventually follow, if not now individual self—which thief and murderer then in the future, if they wish to attain mistakenly believe is going to secure lasting happiness, starts out with Correct benefit to itself by their deeds of violence. Seeing or Right Understanding. And this This great tree of evil, along with these right seeing or comprehension of things, its three main branches from which all above all else is the seeing, the other lesser evils spring like offshoots on understanding, that there is no such thing any growing piece of vegetation, can be in the world as self-existent entity, cut off at its root so it can never grow whether called “eternal soul” or whatever again, only with the axe of right, true else one likes. Even to lay hold of this understanding, and with nothing else. This truth merely with the intellect, is to have right, true understanding which we may taken a great step towards peace. By deep equally well call at once, right seeing, is meditation to have actually realised this the perception, the seeing, the perceiving truth for oneself in mind and heart, is to that all things and beings whatsoever are have reached the supreme height to which characterised by three typical marks and Buddhism seeks to lead humanity. Let us qualities, namely, that they are continually then proceed to examine its opposite pole, changing in all their parts; ceaselessly that contradiction of right comprehension assuming other shapes. It is also the which is ignorance, namely, the belief in seeing, the perceiving that everything, the existence of a lasting entity called 12 “soul” or “ego”, and try to see what separate self, seeks to carry forward, to relation such a belief bears towards the perpetuate, the delusion of self even past question of the cause of evil, and how far the portals of the grave. This it is that has the removal of such a belief from the been responsible for all the awful cruelties minds of men will be likey to remove their of which men have been guilty in the suffering, to further the wellbeing of name of god and religion, from the “holy” mankind at large. wars of Saracen and Christian and the In the lives of the ordinary members horrors of the unholy Inquisition, to the of humanity we have little difficulty in hatred in the name of religion which has finding many examples of what the belief kept alive almost down to our own day, in separate self-ness—let us just call it the bloody persecutions carried on by plainly, selfishness—leads to. In the zealots and fanatics of all kinds. It is this common man’s desire to get and enjoy kind of selfbelief which has encouraged things for himself, regardless of what men to imagine that the most horrible distress or suffering his acquisitiveness cruelties perpetrated upon their may cause to others, in his passionate fellowmen who did not hold their determination to secure the preservation particular beliefs, might be well pleasing of his own life at the cost of no matter to their god, that war with all its iniquities, whom else, we see clearly and the burning pyre with its living victims, unmistakably what is done by man to man and wrenching rack, might ensure to the through this prevailing selfishness of his. slaughterer and the torturer of others, a By far the larger proportion of human place among the highest ranks of the blest misery is caused just by this. As the poet after death. This delusion of an immortal truly says: “Man’s inhumanity to man self continuing on after death has begotten makes countless thousands mourn.” in men a frightful readiness to ignore every impulse of kindness, or even common But there is a more deep-seated decency, towards their fellow men, if only manifestation of selfishness which they might, as they imagined, make sure produces no less evil fruits on the tree of of a splendid hereafter for themselves in humanity than the more obvious a supposed future life. And it is also this manifestations seen in men’s daily lives. same delusion of immortal selfhood which It is that form of the self-delusion which at times imparts even to some of the in the field of religion is responsibie for noblest actions of men, a repellent tinge some of the blackest crimes against of selfishness, turning much of their humanity that have ever stained the annals benevolence and well-doing into of our race. It is what, for want of any something very like a tradesman’s better word, we must call “spiritual” bargaining for future gain or profit. selfishness. It is the belief that after death an “immortal soul”, a superior, refined In saying this we do not by any means sort of separate self, will still go on wish to assert that every one whose existing, and garner in the results of his professed creed teaches the continuance past deeds in the present life. This of self right on through all eternity, has “spiritual” selfishness it is which, hungry throughout taken the bargainer’s view of for the continued existence of its own all he has done for the good of others. 13 But still, where this creed holds secure such pure altruism is not conspicuously place in any cranny of a man’s mind, it is present among Buddhist peoples any bound to have a good deal of influence more than among the generality of those on his religious and moral thinking, and who profess the eternal-self creed of the so mix in with his otherwise purely West. They will call attention to the fact altruistic actions for the good of his that the ordinary Buddhist in any Buddhist fellows, just a little tinge of what he country does his good deeds for the sake himself hopes to gain in the future as the of the “merit” they bring him, just like outcome of his deeds of this kind. So any Roman Catholic of Christian Europe: Buddhists cannot help thinking that the that, as reward of his good actions, he many great souls throughout the world’s expects to reap a happier lot in life in history who worked and toiled and some future birth upon this earth. In fact, suffered for the good of their race, with the missionaries in the East of the Western no expectation of reaping any reward for faith, far from that charity that is long- themselves in any future life, were of a suffering, kind, without envy or self- nobler cast than those who went to praise, and is not puffed up, who spend scaffold and stake, looking forward to an much of their time and energy in seeking eternity of bliss beyond the grave. out all the supposed evil they can find in In the eyes of the Buddhist, the greatest every other form of faith but their own, virtue of all, indeed, the basic foundation make it one of their chief charges against of all other virtues, is compassion, pity Buddhism that a Buddhist is as selfish as for the suffering and sad among their any other religionist in his constant fellow mortals, accompanied by every endeavours to gather together all the merit possible effort to relieve that sadness and he can, so as thereby to offset what of suffering, with no admixture whatever of evil he may chance to do. To a certain thought as to what oneself might “get out degree, it must be confessed, this charge of it”. (The very idea of anything of this is a true one, but not to the extent some sort mingling with the thoughts of the have tried to make out. But where it is heroes of our race, is simply nauseous.) true, it is so only where some Buddhists And the feeling and action that spring have not succeeded in laying hold of, and from pure undiluted pity and compassion, living up to, the teaching of their Master. can only exist at their purest in those who That teaching, however, is divided into know that they have no self- dependent three main compartments. Thus to the existence of any kind, but belong in the commonest sort of man who only most literal sense of the words, to the understands rewards and punishments as world; and that because this is so, all their respectively inducements to do right, and good thoughts and words and deeds go deterrents from doing wrong, Buddhism to make the world better and happier, as teaches: “If you do what is wrong, you alas: equally so do all the evil thoughts and words and deeds they may happen will be punished in a state of suffering, to do, go to make tne world worse and and will be kept there till you have more unhappy. expiated all the evil deeds you have done.” This is the teaching given on the At this point some readers of Western first reach of the Path of Good. It is the birth will almost certainly point out that 14 teaching given to the poor creature whose not merely with his brain as an intellectual main motive in all his actions is fear for concept, but with his whole being, with himself. And it works in keeping him heart as well as mind, there is no away from the commission of much permanent self to be found anywhere, wrongdoing. The second stage of within him or without, thus rightly seeing Buddhist teaching is a little more elevated. and comprehending things as they are, It makes its appeal to the man who in his he no longer thinks of himself as a actions is mainly moved by his desire for suffering or happy being. Perceiving happiness; and to him it says: “Do what clearly that there is no self at all within is right and you will get a reward for your him, it is no longer possible for him to good actions, after death, in heaven. work for the benefit of a “soul” of his own; “Accordingly, he does what is good and, he cannot work for what he has now come following his righteous ways, he acquires to see, is a pure fiction. And so all his some wisdom, some of his ignorance is religious feeling assumes a grander, wider removed. Then, through the purification sweep. The future for which he works is of his mind gradually brought about by one into which the illusion of himself does his following courses of right action, he not and cannot enter. The one sole motive is ready, and in some measure able, to of all his thoughts and words and deeds comprehend and grasp the ultimate truth is compassion, pity for all the sufferings taught by the Buddha, that in very truth and sorrows of the world, his one desire there is no individual self that gains a desire to do all he can to make less these rewards or suffers punishments—though sufferings and sorrows. reward and punishment will certainly This is a tremendously high ideal; follow upon good and evil action—but indeed, it is the highest man can reach. that wrong is to be avoided and right to Yet it is not so high but that something of be practised, out of pity for later it, a little, has reached the minds of the manifestations of life which will be the common folk in Buddhist lands. And the heirs of deeds now being done. Good is making of “merit”, to be found as a to be followed and evil shunned, out of favourite religious activity of such, when compassion for the generations of men looked into, turns out to be not such a who will be born upon the earth in the very selfish pursuit as some would like to future. And these three ways of meeting have the world believe. the various grades of mental development In Burma the people will readily build in men with their differing possibilities of a new pagoda, but do not care about understanding Buddhist truth, are each in repairing one already built that is falling its place and mode of presentation, into ruin for want of attention. And on perfectly true. There is heaven; and there this account some people take pleasure is a hell to cure the wrong-doer of his will in saying that the Burmese Buddhist wants to do wrong. But wisdom, when we attain to get to himself all the merit of any good to it, tells us that heaven and hell are alike deed he does, that he does not wish that here within us due to the lesser or greater his neighbour should get any merit degree of ignorance that infects our through his repairing the pagoda that minds. The moment when a man realises, neighbour has built. This conclusion, 15 however, is quite erroneous. The Burman vision of the truth in this matter, in such is not as selfish as all that. It is only those wise that we may truly know, and not who delight in discovering faults in every merely hold it as a matter of pious religion but their own, who would say so. opinion, that it is delusion, and so live When a Burman builds a new pagoda, our lives for the sake of the good of all he does so out of a deep regard and life, the suffering of which we increase veneration for the Founder of his religion or decrease, precisely as we continue to whom he desires to commemorate in this cherish, or strive to get rid of, this manner. If we have a relative or friend delusion? There is only one way here, and we love to whom we wish to give that is by a clear, unprejudiced facing of something as a token of our regard and the facts of our own nature, and deep and love, we should not like to patch up some continuous meditation upon these facts old thing given to them by someone else, until their full purport is open and and give that to them by way of showing manifest to our minds. When we do these our love and esteem. No! We should want two things we find that our whole make- to give them something fresh and clean up is a transient compound, regarded as and new, as the only thing worthy of them. a whole, and in every one of the elements And that is how the Burman feels when that compose that whole. We see that it is he builds a new pagoda. He wishes to something that has no independent present a gift that is bright and new not existence of its own, but is constantly second-hand, to the memory of the One coming into being—more properly, into he loves; and to do this worthily, does not becoming—at every fresh moment, in care if he spends all he possesses,—as in response to the sights and sounds and so fact he very often does. Besides, there is forth, constantly playing upon it, and in Buddhism what is called “transference constantly ceasing to be at every fresh of merit”. In all Buddhist countries, when moment, in brief, a purely relative thing, there is performed the little ceremony of no constant positive entity. When we have pouring water over the hands of the giver meditated upon these things long enough of any religious gift, the words that giver to have become penetrated by their utters as the ceremonial water is poured truth—to some degree at least—then forth, are an express invitation to all living comes the first glimmering vision of what creatures in all the three worlds—this follows from their truth, this, namely— visible one and the two invisible ones— since there is no positive entity that can to accept a share in the merit of the good rightly claim to be such, under the name deed that he, the donor, has done. So of “I”, all attempts to secure anything much for the selfishness of the Buddhist.* solid and lasting for that supposed “I” must fail. But let us go back to our proper subject. Let us enquire how the delusion What then? What rests? What of eternally separate selfhood which is the remains? Nothing but this: that since life root cause of all the misery in the world, cannot be lived for self since there is no may be overcome, and so all misery fixed self to be lived for, it can only be overcome. How may we men come to a lived for all life. This is the final shattering * Also, the old, crumbling pagoda is a lesson in Anicca (Impermanence) and of value thus. Ed. 16 conclusion that breaks up in a Buddhist the Buddhist than it does to other people. all his selfishness, or at least, plants in him It means abstaining from taking any life, the seed that, growing up into a mighty and not human life alone. Also harsh and tree, with its ever- spreading roots seeks slanderous words are to a Buddhist wrong out all the nooks and crannies of his self- conduct in speech, and not the telling of ideas, and slowly, surely reduces that falsehoods only. And it is not drunkenness seeming block of solid granite into alone that to a Buddhist is evil; it is the ultimate dust. And since self and the partaking of alcohol in any quantity striving to get and gain for self, is the except where required as medicine, or as ultimate root of all evil, in this getting rid an ingredient of some medicine, by a of all notion of self from our thinking, in physician’s prescription. Though there are the clear perception that it is pure delusion, many Buddhists who will not take alcohol we have found the root from which into their system for any reason whatever. springs all in the world that is good. It is An ordinary physician will sometimes just ignorance of this truth of the delusive tell a patient that he must not use this or nature of self that keeps suffering alive in that article of food, or such and such a the world of sentient life. All evil is born drink, but give no reason for his of this ignorance as all good is born of its prohibition—as is the way of physicians opposite, right knowledge, clear seeing, sometimes, like all other custodians of correct perception of the entirely delusive mysteries that must not be profaned by nature of the notion of self in any of its revelation to the common herd. Such a protean forms, not least, its “spiritual” physician the Buddha is not. In anything form. that concerns his patient’s welfare, he has Wrong behaviour, then, in Buddhism no secrets, that he keeps back in a tightly is simply behaviour that is the expression closed fist. His whole intention is to let of self-seeking, and is therefore them know all about their case, to give productive of suffering. On the other them a proper comprehension of how hand, right behaviour is all behaviour that matters stand with them. And so there is a is the expression of unselfishness, and by good reason, a reason that is not that fact is productive, not of suffering concealed, for each of the Five Precepts but of happiness. bearing on Right Conduct, that are given The practical rules of right behaviour, to Buddhists by their Teacher. We are told as promulgated by Buddhism, are now that we shall bring future sufferings upon well known, and except for the last of the ourselves if we kill or steal or lie or five, are common to all religions that have practise sexual misconduct or partake of any value. They are counsels or intoxicants, in addition to the immediate injunctions or recommendations—not in ill consequences we shall incur if found any sense of the word, commands; never out doing so by our fellows. How does that—to abstain from taking life, from this future suffering come about? stealing, from illicit sexual conduct, from It does so very simply. If a man kills lying and harsh and frivolous speech, and another living creature, human or sub- from using narcotics and intoxicants. The human, from self-regarding motives, in first of these injunctions means more to order to satisfy any feeling of ill-will or 17 hatred, or so as to gain possession of the and wrong-headedness of the worst kind, property of the persons he has killed, so so that in a very craze of selfness, he is doing he increases, intensifies his own ready to commit any foolishness, any sense of being a self, separate in his crime whatsoever, prone to break any and interests from the person he has slain, all of the rules of decent and right wholly divided from that person. Indeed, behaviour. But unfortunately there is little his act of violence was just an outward need to elaborate this effect of indulgence expression of such a sense of separate in the use of alcoholic liquors. It can be selfhood. And in giving his sense of seen all too plainly in the criminal statistics separate selfhood outward manifestation of those countries whose current religion in an actual deed he has made it all the unfortunately contains no injunction stronger within him, therefore all the against the use of alcohol as a beverage. longer lasting; and so he has lengthened And its pernicious psychological effect out the period during which he will be a is no less evident from these statistics. An separate self, and consequently come utterly reckless assertion of self at its most again and again into a world of separate blatant is the dominant motive to action selves like himself, and there meet with of all alcoholised brains, and the most all the unpleasantnesses and sufferings outstanding feature in the conduct of the which life in such a world inevitably alcoholised individual. entails on all who inhabit it. Coming now to the deeds that in Again, if he deliberately practises theft Buddhism are considered “good”, we find on any scale, large or small the same thing that those actions are regarded as happens. His desire for gain for himself righteous and befitting and “skilful” is gratified and accentuated. The line of which tend to reduce in man his belief in demarcation he has made in his mind self, those deeds that are not the outcome between the interests of others and of of self-assertion but in some degree, great himself, is graven deeper in that mind. or small tend toward its opposite, self- His feeling of self is sharpened, abnegation. intensified, by so much as he goes on First of all, on the Buddhist path we taking others’ goods without their are advised to practise Charity, giving, knowledge or consent. If he gratifies his liberality in assisting others with our sexual instincts without regard to the hurt worldly goods. Such action has a twofold and wrong he may do to others thereby good effect. It blesses him who receives. either in their persons or their feelings, His physical wants are met, his need again he heightens his sense of his own relieved. Then in no less measure is it a selfness. If he lies for his own benefit, blessing to the giver himself. If a man again his lying magnifies in him the belief gives a few pence to one poorer than in a self of his own who gains by his lying. himself in order that he may buy a meal And finally, if—In Shakespeare’s of food or a bed to lie down in at night, phrase— “he takes that into his mouth thereby he has done a deed that to some which steals away his brains”, well, there degree however small, has diminished the is hardly anything he can do which more desire for possessions. He has also immediately begets every sort of delusion somewhat reduced in himself the delusion 18 of separate selfhood. For his action is, in in any creature whatever, that in none of fact, a product of the compassionate us is there, or has there ever been, feeling within him, however obscure and anything at all that in final, ultimate truth subconscious, that this poorer, less can be rightly be called Me or Mine, and fortunate fellow man, is not another being so winning free from that egoism, that wholly apart from him, but in some way selfness, which is the one cause of all the himself. And in thus attenuating his own evil that is in the world of life. selfness, even to this slight extent, a man Good were it if only the whole world is lessening in himself the forces that might begin to set its feet upon the path make for evil, that is, for egoism, and so that leads to the subdual and final lessening the powers that make for abrogation of the very notion of “I”. suffering in the world at large, as well as Good were it if all mankind were to in himself. The character of each one of accept the high teaching which, hinted at, us is his destiny. There is no other destiny set forth dimly, obscurely, in fitful gleams, or fate ruling mankind. By your deeds and clouded with many impediments in make your character less self ish, more the dicta of other religious teachers, is and more unselfish, and you have done a presented, plainly, clearly, without any little, rather a great deal, as much as it is disguise, in the religion called Buddhism, in the power of any one man to do, for then humanity would be well on the towards making yourself and the world way to the ceasing of strife and contention, in which you live, better and happier. And to the ending of the sadness, the madness, you cannot do this more effectively, more that weigh so heavily upon it today. Then surely, than by earnestly dwelling in mind would open before it a new era when man upon that ultimate, highest teaching of all would truly begin to leave the brute the Buddhas, that in good sooth, in behind, at last start out to be truly man in profoundest verity, there is no lasting self the full and proper sense of the word.

On the murky morning when I first saw it, Shwedagon pointed like a tongue of fire into the sky. At noon on a clear day it was peaceful and sublime. On a moonlight night it had a mystic cast. The Shwedagon can be seen from any point of the compass. Its moods are the moods of man; and yet its dignity, its plain beauty, its purity make it the symbol of the noblest things for which man has strived. I have seen sunsets and storms, glaciers and peaks, flowers and faces that have moved me more. But of all the things that man has created by his hands, the Shwedagon is the loveliest I have known. It made my heart leap when I first saw it; and its beauty keeps coming back to me no matter how distant I am. —Extract from p. 216 of NORTH FROM MALAYA by Justice Douglas of Supreme Court, U.S.A. 19 Shrines of Burma, No. 9 MANDALAY U OHN GHINE THERE are names that thrill by some Pagoda”, in the southern quarter of innate magic, striking by the music of their Mandalay. syllables a basic chord in the hearts of Just over 170 years ago, King men. Whether it be their call to the pursuit Bodawpaya of Burma brought from of the exotic, the swing and jingle of their Mrohaung (the Ancient City) in Arakan a sound or something deeper in their sheer huge (12’ 7”) cast metal Buddha Image, power of evocation, they make the old reputed of great antiquity and which had men to dream dreams and the young men certainly been venerated for many to see visions. Such a name is centuries by the Arakanese. The image is “Mandalay”, the old city that sits today in a sitting posture and the original metal rather somnolently in the very centre of has been so lavishly covered with gold Burma, pondering past glories but awake leaf by devotees that soft gold, inches nevertheless to the possibilities of a more thick, overlays the original metal. The glorious future. temple was damaged by fire in 1884 and Modern trains roll in and out of the present pagoda with its terraced, gilded Mandalay and modern planes alight and roof, dates from after that fire. take off daily, yet the bullock carts jog There are, here, bronze figures brought along the roads and the old magic still to Pegu from Ayuthia (Thailand) three clings round its ancient pagodas and hundred years ago, then taken to Arakan monasteries. and in 1784 brought with the “Great Of the many pagodas and monasteries Image” to Mandalay. in and around Mandalay one of the most A still larger Buddha Image (16’ 8” interesting is the Shwe Kyi Myint, right high), of bronze, is in the Thetkyathiha ( in the heart of the city. This has become Sakya S²ha) Pagoda in Mandalay. This the repository of the ancient images image also is of the Buddha in the sitting collected by successive monarchs and posture and was cast by skilled Burmese brought from the palace after the artisans at Ava, at the instance of King dethronement by the British of the last Bagyidaw, just over 100 years ago. The King of Burma, King Thibaw. pagoda was badly damaged during the Built 800 years ago by Minshinsaw, last war but has since been reconstructed. the exiled son of the great King Mandalay Hill overlooking the city and Alaungsithu, the Shwe Kyi Myint the old palace has at its base the enshrines the original image consecrated Kyauktawgyi Pagoda. It was built 100 by its builder. years ago and enshrines an image of the But perhaps the most famous of Buddha carved from a single block of Mandalay’s shrines is the Mahamuni marble from the mines of Sagyin, a few Pagoda, also known as the Pay±gyi or miles north of Mandalay. “Great Pagoda” and as the “Arakan 20

The Eindawya Pagoda—historic shrine in Mandalay, Built in 1847 by king Pag±n, contains the famous Mahuya Paya Sacred Image which was brought from Gaya in India in 1839. The image, completed 90 years ago, On the Hill itself are numerous shrines is surrounded by 80 figures representing and images, the works of a pious hermit, the 80 Arahat disciples of the Buddha. It the late Venerable U Khanti who obtained was dedicated in the presence of the King great public support in establishing these. with great rejoicing by the people. In the western quarter of Mandalay is Also at the foot of the Hill, near the the Eindawya Pagoda built by King Pagan Kyauktawgyi pagoda, are the huge just over 100 years ago. marble slabs, 729 of them, on which are Seven miles south of Mandalay is the inscribed the Tipiµaka Texts (the Buddhist former capital of Amarapura. It was Canon) as authorised by the Fifth Great founded in 1783 but deserted, as a capital, Buddhist Council, held in Burma in 1861 in 1857 when King Mindon moved the C.E. They are enshrined at Kuthodaw capital to Mandalay. The palace and its buildings fell into decay with the pagodas Pagoda built in 1857 by King Mindon. built at the time of its establishment and The inscriptions of Aµµhakath±s these joined in ruin the ancient pagodas (Commentaries) are in the dagobas around nearby, which date from the 12th century. the Sandamuni (Cand±muºi) Pagoda Today the jungle is again retreating which is situated not far from the and the ancient pagodas are being restored Kuthodaw Pagoda. by the activities of independent Burma. 21

The famous Mah±muni Pagoda in Mandalay, located in the Kyun-lon-ok-shaung Quarter, is greatly venerated by the people, who flock to it to worship in large numbers on all Buddhist feast days.

The embrasured wall of the old palace of Mandalay looking accross the lotus-filled waters of the moat. The City of Mandalay was founded and built by King Mindon in 1856-57 22 Thirteen miles to the south-west of From Sagaing stretches the bridge to Mandalay is the town of Sagaing on the Ava yet another former capital of Burma west bank of the Irrawaddy. This also is (founded in 1364 C.E.) an early capital and there are seven or About 7 miles north of Mandalay is eight ancient pagodas of great beauty and Mingun, where is an enormous bell, one interest dating from some 500 years ago. of the largest in the world, and the Mingun Among these the most famous is the Pagoda covering 450 square feet, and 162 R±jamaºicu¼± Kaunghmudaw Pagoda, feet in height. It was never finished and erected by King Thalun Mintara in 2180 was to have been almost 500 feet in height B.E. (1636 C.E.). In this pagoda is Though unfinished, and cracked by the enshrined a Tooth of the Buddha, a relic earthquake of 1838, it is one of the most presented by Dhammapala, the then king imposing structures that exist. of Lank± (Ceylon). There are dozens of other pagodas and But this pagoda, which is being monastery buildings round Mandalay that repaired by the Government of the Union are a delight to the archaeologist and the of Burma, is important enough to form, historian; that cast their spell on the with some mention of the other pagodas inquisitive stranger and redouble the awe in this area the subject of a special article of the devout Buddhist. in this series for a future issue. THE GOLDEN LOTUS This periodical is published in the United States of America. It contains articles by noted contributors, news, book reviews, poetry, glossary, and list of books for sale. It has been dedicated “to those who seek The Way”, to Buddhism, and to Eastern Philosophy. Subscription $2.50 per annum, ten numbers and index: Sample copies upon request. Complete Volumes available from year 1944 to 1952. The Golden Lotus Press 7011, Woolston Road Philadelphia, 38, Pa., USA.

THE SANG¾YAN¾ Rates of Annual Subscription (Including Postage) Burma: Kyats 2-50; India and Ceylon: Rupees 3; Malaya: Straits dollar 1.85; Britain and British Commonwealth Countries: sh. 4/6 (sterling or equivalent); United States of America: $.65. THE SANG¾YAN¾, A MONTHLY BULLETIN OF BUDDHISM Union Buddha S±sana Council, Sixth Buddhist Council P.O., Rangoon. Telegram: “BUDHSASANA” Rangoon. Monies may please be remitted to the Chief Executive Officer. 23 THE TEN FETTERS OF EXISTENCE (DASA SAþYOJANA) (Translated by Mr. F. M. Rajakaruna and revised by Ven. Nyanatiloka Mah±thera.)

Introduction Sphere; after death, while living in the “There are 10 Fetters, by which beings Fine-Material Sphere (r³pa-loka), he will are bound to the wheel of existence. They reach the goal. are The Arahat, i.e., the perfectiy Holy I. Self-Delusion (sakk±ya-diµµhi), One, is freed from all the 10 Fetters. II. Doubt (vicikicch±), Each of the aforementioned four III. Clinging to mere Rule and Ritual stages of Holiness consists of the ‘Path’ (s²labbata-par±m±sa), (magga) and the ‘Fruition’ (phala). IV. Sensual Lust (k±ma-r±ga), The ‘Path’ consists of the single V. Ill-Will (paµigha), moment of entering the respective VI. Greed for Fine-Material Existence attainment. With ‘Fruition’ are meant (r³pa-r±ga), those moments of consciousness, which VII. Greed for Immaterial Existence follow immediately thereafter as the result (ar³pa-r±ga), of the Path and which, under VIII. Conceit (m±na), circumstances, may repeat for IX. Restlessness (uddhacca), innumerable times during lifetime.” X. Ignorance (avijj±). (Word of the Buddha.) One who is freed for ever from the first 3 fetters is called a Sot±panna, lit. Stream- I. Self-Delusion (Sakk±ya-Dµµhi) Enterer, i.e., one who has entered the stream leading to Nibb±na. He has Self-Delusion is the belief in a so- unshakable faith in the Buddha, His called Ego, or Entity (att±) It may refer to Doctrine and His Holy Order, and is the “Corporeality-Group” (r³pa) or to the incapable of breaking the five moral rules four “Mental Groups” (n±ma), i.e., to to abstain from killing, stealing, adultery, Feeling, Perception, Mental Formations, lying and drinking of alcoholic drinks. He or Consciousness. If we, e.g., consider will be reborn seven times at the utmost, one of the five groups as [identical to] and not in a state lower than the human the “Ego” [and disappearing completely world. at death], then we get five materialistic “Views of a Temporary Ego” (uccheda- One who has overcome the fourth and diµµhi); and if we consider the Self as fifth fetters in their grosser form, is called owner of one of the groups—or [that a Sakad±g±m², lit. Once-Returner, i.e., he particular group] contained [within the will be reborn only once more in the Self],—or the Self contained in one of Sensuous Sphere (k±ma-loka), and the groups, then we get 15 Views an thereafter reach Holiness. “Eternal Ego” (sassata-diµµhi), that is The An±g±mi, lit. Non-Returner, is altogether 20 Ego Views. [The bracketted wholly freed from the first 5 Fetters which words were added for clarity:—Editor] bind one to rebirth in the Sensuous 24 This Ego-Belief, or Self-Delusion, has obsessed with fear and unable to reach a detrimental effect on the person who place of safety. Doubtfulness should be holds such a belief and he becomes liable understood as a parallel to the state of to be born in states of woe and subject to mind of the traveller. Doubtfulness is the endless suffering, associated with the state of mind that makes a man puzzled repeated cycle of births. It is therefore as to which way he should proceed, when advisable to dissociate oneself from such he has arrived at a junction of cross-roads wrong belief and also from those who on an unfamiliar way; but doubtfulness profess such belief. It should therefore be which constitutes the “Fetter of Doubt”, realized that, what is conventionally is not the uncertainty that arises on referred to as I, or Ego, or Personality, ordinary factors, but on the eight factors etc., is but the arising of the five groups regarding the Buddha and matters of Existence; that it has Craving for its associated with His teachings. They are:— origin, that the Extinction of this (1) The doubt that arises regarding the Personality-Belief is the Extinction of Blessed One. This doubt is again twofold, Lust, is Nibb±na, and the path leading to regarding both the outer form and the this Extinction is the Noble Eightfold Path. inner virtues of the Buddha. The outer Having understood these four aspects, form refers to the 32 major signs on the one should strive to remove all false body of a noble being. It has been said beliefs by following the noble eightfold that even the universal kings do not path and realise Nibb±na, the supreme possess these signs in their fullness. The bliss, the final release, the extinction of persons who are obsessed with this state suffering. of mind, entertain doubts regarding the physical perfections of the Buddha, whose II. Sceptical Doubt (Vicikicch±) beauty of form could be compared with a fearless work of art, whose sculptor was Doubt being one of the 10 Fetters that the perfection of Virtue practised through “bind” a person to Sa½s±ra, by innumerable periods of time. obstructing his path to Emancipation, should be understood as that state of (2) The doubts regarding the uncertainty, with which the person who Omniscience of the Buddha, and whether seeks after the true nature of things, is it includes the power of seeing the past, sometimes beset. Failing to decide the present and future. correct perspective, man becomes (3) The doubts regarding the Ninefold fatigued through doubt; and this Super-Mundane Virtues of the Buddha’s doubtfulness reaches an incurable state. doctrine, i.e., path and fruition of Stream- It is this state that is referred to as “Doubt”. Entrance, Once-Return, Never-Return, A man who journeys along a road Holiness, and Nibb±na. reputed to be haunted by robbers, is (4) The doubts regarding the alarmed by the slightest noise produced existence of the Holy Order consisting of through the falling of leaves or the Noble Disciples who have attained the twittering of birds, is bewildered, and Four Paths and their Fruits, and the doubts stands undecided as to whether he should of the resultant benefits of offerings made proceed on his journey, or retreat, and is to this Holy Order. 25 (5) Doubts regarding the resultant of those who follow Wrong Views, for benefits of being disciplined in the such things are in the nature of the threefold exercises of Virtue, worldling. Therefore those who would Concentration and Wisdom. aim at unchanging and eternal happiness, (6) Doubts about the Existence of the should have an unchanging and steadfast 5 Groups, the 18 Elements and the 5 faith and understand the Virtues of the Senses in the past; and the doubts whether Buddha. Therefore has it been said: these would exist in the future. “He who sees the Dhamma sees me”. (7) The doubt whether there was a He who “sees” the Buddha and past (existence), and whether there will “recognises” Him, is the one who be a future. entertains no doubts regarding the Buddha, His Doctrine and Order, holds (8) Doubts regarding the Teaching of in high esteem the words of the Teacher, Dependent Origination of existence. follows it in spirit and strives hard to Doubt is surely an unwholesome eradicate doubt by achieving the wisdom mental state and is rooted in Greed, Hatred of the Paths. and Ignorance. An ignorant person cannot The Doubts regarding the Buddha believe in, or realize the Virtues and cease at the attaining of the Wisdom of Powers of the Buddha. As it has been said: the Path of the Stream-Enterer. By reason “He who finds pleasure in thinking of of this extinction of doubt, the Stream- the Buddha, is possessed of wisdom. Just Enterer is freed from rebirth in the four as it is not possible for a hare to cross the stages of woe; and if reborn again in this ocean by swimming, so it is impossible world, such a one will not be liable to for the ignorant to fathom the depths of commit the five heinous actions, or to take the vast ocean of the Buddha’s Virtues.” to Wrong Views; for, with the springing The ignorant worldling, whose one up of the wisdom of Stream-Entering in dominating passion is the craving for one’s mind, one becomes relieved of the worldly good and the pleasures of the first three Fetters: Self-Delusion, Doubt senses, attaches no value to the Virtues. and Clinging to Rule and Ritual. Only the wise one who sees the appalling nature of the cycle of rebirths and its III. Clinging to Rule and Ritual attendant suffering, through the wisdom (S²labbata-P±rm±sa) gained through seeing the Truth, attaches value to Virtue. And only they who The person who believes that by understand the value of Virtue, have no following mere rule or ritual, or both of doubts regarding the Buddha, and are these, [i.e.,]follows the heretical non- happy in thinking of Him as the Buddhistic theories regarding the self- embodiment of all Virtue, will entertain purification and escape from the cycle of no doubts whatever with regard to the Rebirth, may be said to be bound by the Buddha. There is room even for those Fetter of Attachment to Rule and Ritual. who profess to be Buddhist by religion, According to the Dhamma-Saªgaº²– to entertain doubts on matters regarding Commentary, Rule and Ritual may be the Buddha and thus fall into the category understood in this connection, as the 26 taking up, e.g., of bovine and dog reborn and suffer thereafter in the world practices, taught by some heretic religious of demons’. Thereupon Sunakkatta went teachers who were devoted to the habits to that heretic, reported to him what the of cow-grazing, lying on the ground and Buddha had said, and advised him thus: moving about on all fours, etc. In the same ‘Therefore, Sir, take as little food as way they imitated the movements of a possible during this week and endeavour dog, sleeping near the fire, lying down, to avoid the slightest ailment. Then can often scraping the ground with the feet, we accuse the Buddha of Mendacity’. barking and eating food without help of Having given this advice he visited the their hands. If a person wishing to gain heretic twice or thrice everyday and purification or salvation by such imitation plotted to malign the name of the Blessed of animal behaviour and by observing One. In pursuance of his advice mere Rules and Rituals, as mentioned in Korakkattiya refused food, and on the the sixty-two forms of heresy, and seventh day of his fast, being offered some thinking that such observances would lead rice and pork, and being tempted by it, to purification and emancipation and decided that, whatever happens to the attainment of Nibb±na, and clings to such Buddha’s prediction, it was better to take observances in blind imitation of those that meal, and if the worst should happen, who follow them, such clinging or he would die happily after a good meal. attachment is a “Fetter” which binds him Accordingly, he ate as much as he could, to the round of rebirths. and was reborn in the Demon World. Once when the Blessed One was Thus, if anyone clings to the belief that residing in the city of Ves±li, a certain such outward Rules and Rituals, as Licchav² Prince named Sunakkatta, who imitating the behaviour of a dog, etc., are had joined the Order of Buddhist Monks, conducive to the extinction of the was greatly taken up with the habits and defilements of mind, then such belief is observances of a certain heretic recluse called Clinging to Rule and Ritual named Korakkattiya, who practised the (s²labbata-par±m±sa) and is as such Dog-Vows, and moved about on all fours included in the 62 Wrong Views given in and, like a dog, ate his food without using D²gha-Nik±ya (7). Such Wrong Views his hands, having smelt it first, according take hold of the mind of those that have to dog-fashion. He ate only food kept on no interest in the search after Truth, and the ground and slept on the ashes near shun the company of noble friends and the hearth, and wore no clothes. their association and teaching. Sunakkatta, although a follower of the The origin of such wrong views can Omniscient Buddha, entertained the be traced to the habit of heedlessly foolish belief that Korakkattiya was a accepting, through a false sense of genuine Arahant and that in morality he respect, the words of unorthodox teachers was peerless. The Blessed One who learnt as Sunakkatta did. Other causes of this of his misunderstanding, said to him ‘O, misbelief are the association with friends Ignorant and misguided One. who entertain false views and avoid the Korakkattiya, whom you think an Arahant, teachings of noble qualities such as will die seven days hence and he will be 27 Mindfulness (sati). The lack of restraint Intentional sensuality means the is to be controlled in conformity with the insatiable thirst for sensual pleasure. If Disciplinary Code, the faculties, Personality-Belief, Sceptical Doubt, mindfulness, wisdom and the overcoming Clinging to Rule and Ritual, the five of such false views. Indulgence in unwise groups, the course of existence, the consideration and captiousness produce process of existence, take pleasure in such false views as well. conjunction with the results of wholesome and unwholesome volitions, then they are called Fetters. As they bind beings to the IV. Sensual Lust (K±ma-Cchanda) round of Existence, they are called Bonds. This fourth fetter may be defined as Further it should be understood that the intention to indulge in sensual something that binds and ties a being to pleasures, indulgence and attachment, the round of wholesome and sensual craving, attachment to happiness unwholesome volitions, to the round of in sensual pleasure; thirst after sensual defilements and the round of births, that craving, love, sensual love, burning, this is called a Fetter. Beings suffer till they sensual fire, torpor, brought about by attain Arahatship by breaking this Fetter sensuality, and attachment which aims at that binds them to the round, of existence sensual pleasures. owing to their greed for sensual pleasures. Sensuality (k±ma) now, may be For the five sensual organs—Eye, Ear, considered as twofold, namely: as Nose, Tongue, Body—visible form, Objective Sensuality and Subjective sound, odour, taste and touch form the Sensuality. Objective Sensuality (vatthu- objects. Craving arises in the beings who k±ma) are the sensual objects such as claim the pleasing and alluring sense- alluring forms, sounds, odours, tastes, and objects as “I” and “Mine”. With this bodily impressions. Subjective Sensuality craving there arises suffering in the mind. (kilesa-k±ma) denotes sensual intention, The sense-objects that are pleasing to the sensual greed, pleasure in sensibility, ignorant are void and empty to the wise. intentional sensuality, intentional greedy It should be wisely analysed as to what sensuality, imaginative sensuality, does constitute the beautiful form that is imaginative, greedy sensuality. Here, the capable of satisfying eye-consciousness. intentional sensuality is greed through There are no gold, jewel, silver, sweet aspiration. Greedy sensuality is odours to be found in this body. In short, attachment to the aspired object. it consists of nothing desirable. It consists Intentional greedy sensuality is a greater only of thirty-two impurities. As long as greed than that. Imaginative sensuality is ignorance obstructs clear thinking, the greed that helps the formation of objects. right understanding of the five groups of Imaginative greedy sensuality is a greater existence is impossible. greed than both of them. These are In the past, the intelligent ascetics who included in subjective sensuality. passed through the air, lost this psychic Objective Sensuality and Subjective power owing to their desire for beautiful Sensuality are both included in the term forms, by seeing flowers that resemble the “Sensuality”. pleasing form of a woman. Once a 28 peacock greedy of sweet sounds, was But once one falls back, then the lured by the sweet cry of a peahen and defilements come to arise. fell into the hands of a hunter. The bees One may be well trained in the that approach the ears of the elephant, Eightfold Path, and may have attained discarding all the sweet nectar of flowers, even all the mental absorptions. But as get crushed by the flapping of the ears. soon as one loses one’s psychic powers The fish born in deep water, despite the through clinging to a pleasant object of abundance of food available, swallows mind, the defilements will again arise. the bait of the angler and dies because of Wise consideration of loathsomeness its greed for taste. Therefore, the craving of objects brings about the extinction of for sensual pleasure bears terrible fruits. Sensuous Lust. It is extinguished by deep The main factors that induce sensuous insight into the Impermanency, Misery lust to arise, are the pleasant objects in and Impersonality of Existence. mind. The root cause of it is Unwise There exist six factors that help to Consideration. Pleasant Objects in mind destroy Sensuous Lust: (1) Learning to are that which helps craving to rise. concentrate on the Impurities; (2) Unwise Consideration prompts the mind Meditation on the Impurities; (3) Closed to accept something impermanent as Sense-doors; (4) Moderation in eating; (5) permanent, something miserable as Presence of virtuous friends; (6) Good happiness, something impermanent as conversation. ego, something evil as good. One who takes hold of tenfold objects “No other Object do I know, O! of loathsomeness (cemetery meditations) monks, through which in such a degree and who partakes of food moderately, will Sensuous Lust comes to arise, and once overcome Sensuous Lust, just like the arisen ever will grow on, as a pleasant elder Asabbhakamma-Tissa. Those who object. Who is not wisely considering the associate with noble friends and meditate pleasant object, in him there will arise lust, on the Impurities, also overcome and once arisen it will ever grow on.” Sensuous Lust. When Sensuous Lust is (Aªguttara I). suppressed by these factors, it will not rise In the heart of a worldly man the again before the attainment of Arahatship. defilements may be stronger. But anyone With the attainment of Arahatship the who is engaged in noble deeds, can complete extinction of Sensuous Lust suppress them; as soon, however, as the takes place. This twofold sensuality mind becomes relaxed, the defilements (subjective and objective) haunt the six come again into prominence. heavenly worlds, the human world and One may begin the study of the P±li the four lower worlds. Even the animals Texts together with their commentary, but born in the lower worlds have the desire later on, after relaxing one’s energy, the to live. They do not like death, though defilements begin to arise again. they undergo untold suffering. If the beast One may begin to practise the thirteen is such, how glad will a human being be ascetic exercises; and no defilements will to live without dying! If a human being is arise as long as one is zealously striving. such, what need be said of a Heavenly being who enjoys great pleasure? 29 V. Ill-Feeling (Paµigha) (7) This person did good to This Fetter consists in repugnance, or my enemies. anger, or hatred that arises in mind defiled (8) This person does good to my by such feelings as “This person did me enemies. wrong”, etc. (9) This person will do so to them in “This person did me wrong in the past; future. he does me wrong now; he will do me These are the circumstances in which wrong in future”. “This person did wrong one person hates another one, depending to my beloved ones; He does so now; He on the way he treats him, his friends and will do so in future”. “This person did foes in the past, present and the future. good to my detested enemy in the past, These are nine sources of hatred. If then, and does so at present; And he will do through one’s own fault, one stumbles good to him in future”. If with such a against a stone and for the pain one motive a man hates another, or if in the experiences, hatred arises in one’s mind, absence of such motive a man hates then this is the tenth form of hatred. anyone or anything without reason, then According to the Sutta-Piµaka there are such hatred, anger, or ill-will is called the nine more forms of hatred like those that Fetter of Ill-feeling. arise when one thinks that so and so did That which disturbs the original state not do one a favour, that he does not do of serenity of the mind, is repugnance or so now, and that he will not do so in future hatred. It corrupts all other states of mind either. Thus, with these nine, there are and spoils their original purity. As soon nineteen forms of hatred in all. They are as one of the “inlets” of the body, such as all similar in their ultimate sense, and their eye or ear, meets a person or thing root-cause can be traced to the absence abhorred by the owner of that “inlet”, the of clear and discrete thinking. Greed, too, original state of his mind vanishes and, is a source of hatred, and hatred invariably owing to the absence of clear thinking and is a source of evil which makes man feeling, displeasure arises in the mind. suffer. With that displeasure comes hatred. This A person, whose mind is corrupted by hatred is ninefold according to the manner hatred, is unable to judge whether a thing of its origin; and with the hatred that is good or bad, or whether an action is comes up without causes or reasons, it is right or wrong. Hence the Buddha has tenfold. The first nine forms of hatred said that those in anger are like the blind. originate when one thinks The owl cannot see in the day-time, (1) This person acted against me. and the crow is at night blind. But a person (2) This person acts against me. driven to heights of hatred, does not (3) This person will act against me. observe anything either by day or night. The blind does not see the path and does (4) This person acted against my not walk properly. In the same way, the beloved relatives and friends. person corrupted by hatred will fall a prey (5) This person acts against them now. to great suffering in the lower worlds. (6) This person will act against them A Fetter is what binds beings to this in future. round of rebirth, without allowing them 30 to free themselves from suffering. These should know the remedy, i.e. the Fetters are ten in number. Hatred is one cultivation of compassion. Loving all and of them as it ties men to this world of wishing to see everyone happy, is called suffering. Mett±, or all-embracing kindness, which The Buddha, the Enlightened One, has brings us happiness in this world and in admonished us to look upon hatred as an the next, like a miraculous gem which enemy to man, who thrusts suffering upon grants everything wished for. him in abundance. Happy is the man who All-embracing kindness, being the has done away with all hatred. wish for the real happiness of all beings, Replying to a question of a certain is a summoning of blessing all over the Br±hmaºa, the Buddha once said that to world and being found among all forms live happily, one must destroy hatred. For of wholesome karmical deeds that one who has got rid of hatred, will never produce material benefit for the doer, it is come to grief the foremost one. “The light of all the stars in the sky is not worth one-sixteenth of To abstain from hatred, we must that of the moon.” (Itivuttaka 27); in the cultivate clear reasoning, good company, same way even much effective deeds, as listening to the Dhamma, practise patience Generosity in giving (d±na), may not be and such other good habits. “Clear worth one-sixteenth of that all-embracing reasoning”, here means: taking a thing for love and kindness. This was what the what it truly is, after sound consideration. Buddha taught. When a person thinks: “That man did me wrong”, he must first pause to consider One day addressing the monks, the which really of the five groups of Buddha said that if merely for a passing existence was meant by the so-called moment, a monk practised this meditation “me”. Then only will he understand that of kindness, he would not be without there is nothing involved to be considered mental culture, and would be a true as “I” or “me”, and therefore hatred will follower of the master, and worthy of the end then and there. Those who think in offerings and the homage of the people. this light are naturally people with If any one offers anything to a monk patience. who even for a moment cultivates all- Countless are the good effects of embracing kindness, the merit acquired patience. Five of them are very important by him through that offering, will be and are worth mentioning. The one who immeasurable. And how much more will is patient, is loved by all and has no it be in the case of a monk who enemies. He is more or less infallible. continuously cultivates that great When he dies he is not senseless, and after kindness? Thus Subh³ti, a great monk, death he will be born in a heavenly sphere. when he went before a house for alms, Thus this effective patience is just the used to fall at once into a trance of opposite of hatred. Whereas hatred is meditation on all-embracing kindness till conducive to suffering, patience is the the alms were brought to him, and then proper path leading to bliss. to accept it after emerging first from the mental absorption. This he did so as to Those who wish to free themselves increase the amount of merit due to the from this Fetter and attain Deliverance, giver of alms. 31 According to the “Sutta on the merits Just as the elephant who has earned of Kindness”, a kindly inclined person (1) the name of “Battle-Field Wanderer” sleeps soundly, (2) gets up comfortably, because of his constant association with (3) sees no evil dreams, (4) is loved by the battle-field, is called by the same name human beings, (5) is admired by ghosts, when he walks about the city streets; or (6) is well protected by gods, (7) is free as the water-born animals when found on from danger through fire, venom and land are still called water-born animals weapon, (8) is capable of concentrating and not land-born animals. Even so those his mind, (9) has a winsome face, (10) who have attained concentration through dies with all his senses awake and (11) if trances associated with these spheres are he does not attain enlightenment in this still the same even if they are found in birth itself, he will be born again in the other spheres. Any craving for Brahma-World. corporeality is the attachment and desire A tremendous power lies in all- for the Fine-material Existence. embracing Kindness. If a tigress sees Everything that is impermanent, some young deer in a place where there subject to suffering, and impersonal, are hermits meditating on Kindness, she existing in all the three spheres, comes would give them her breast with motherly under corporeality. But only the Greed for affection. Cobras oppressed by the Fine-material Existence should be extreme heat of the sun, would take understood by this term. shelter under the wings of peacocks. Such The beings in all these Brahma-worlds change comes over them, because the have several aeons as lifetime. But they power of loving Kindness makes their also cannot live in these for ever. When inborn wickedness disappear. they pass away from them, they are Prince Si½hab±hu tried twice in vain completely unaware as to where, and to kill his father. On each occasion he under what conditions, they would failed to do it, because in his father there receive conception. Therefore, Greed for arose love, thinking that he was playing Fine-material Existence resembles, a rope with him. But also no sooner did he fly that ties you to the cycle of rebirths. To into a rage, thinking that his son was be born in these spheres one has to attempting to kill him, then an arrow struck acquire the absorptions. The first him, and he was killed instantaneously. absorption, or jh±na. consists of 5 jh±na- links, namely: Thought-Conception, Discursive Thinking, Rapture, Joy, One- VI. Greed For Fine-Material pointedness of Mind. The second Existence (R³pa-R±ga) absorption consists of 4 links (missing: Everything that comes under the Thought-Conception). The third influence of change, may be termed absorption consists of the last three. The Corporeality (r³pa). Here, however, r³pa- fourth consists of Joy and One- r±ga means the “Craving for Fine-material Pointedness of mind. The fifth is Existence” which exists within the space Equanimity and One-Pointedness of bounded from beneath by the Brahma- Mind. Those who strive for these world, and from above by the Akaºiµµha absorptions should first attain the purity Heavens. 32 of Morality consisting in restraining one’s the absence of any form or corporeality. speech and bodily actions, and seeking Those four Spheres, when taken as one, guidance from a teacher and obtaining are known as the Immaterial World. suitable mental exercises, and then retiring Birth in the Sphere of Unbounded to a suitable place and beginning the Space can be effected only through the meditation. Places not suitable for jh±nas. This in short is how it has to be meditation are: large buildings, done—The disciple who wishes to enter dilapidated buildings, buildings on into these trances, perceives the thousands highroads, near ponds, places surrounded of worldly ills which the flesh is heir to, by green vegetable foliage or flowers, and the numerous diseases of the body. places with abundance of fruits, places And thinking that these ills are absent in frequented by many townspeople, places the Immaterial Worlds, and with the idea for firewood, places near fields, places of getting rid of corporeality, he, after haunted by robbers, places near harbours, having attained the four jh±nas chooses places on the frontier of two countries, one of the suitable Kasiºas and develops places with unsuitable objects, places a great disgust towards anything physical frequented by ghosts, places devoid of and corporeal. good friends. “And through the total overcoming of But by those whose minds are covered the corporeality perceptions, through the with impurities, and who do heinous vanishing of the reflex-perceptions and deeds with immediate results and have the non-attention to the multiformity- impure thoughts, by them the absorptions perceptions, at the idea ‘Unbounded is cannot be attained. Space’ and abides therein. Those, however, without these impediments can attain concentration and Through the total overcoming of the peace of mind. sphere of unbounded space, and at the idea, ‘Unbounded is Consciousness’, he reaches the sphere of unbounded VII. Greed for Immaterial Existence consciousness and abides therein etc. (Ar³pa R±ga) Immaterial Existence (ar³pa-r±ga) VIII. Conceit (M±na) consists of four spheres, namely: (1) the Sphere of Unbounded Space (±k±sa- Conceit (m±na) is a most powerful nañcayatana), (2) the Sphere of fetter that ties beings to the Round of Unbounded Consciousness (viññ±ºa- Rebirths. ñcayatana), (3) the Sphere of Nothingness Now, how does this conceit arise? (±kiñcaññayatana), and (4) the Sphere of When a person thinks “Better am I”, or Neither perception nor non-perception “Equal am I”, or “Lower am I”, then his (nevasaññ±n±saññ±yatana). If a person mind becomes filled with conceit. craves for rebirth in these spheres, or Accordingly, conceit is of three kinds, i.e., clings to them, he is still possessed of Superiority-Conceit, Equality-Conceit, or Greed for Immaterial Existence. Inferiority- Conceit. There is nothing to be touched, seen, Generally all the beings in the world or heard in these four Spheres, owing to are divided into either greater men, equal 33 men or inferior men. Of them the first am no clever religious preacher, neither group comprises the Royalty, etc., while am I a learned person, although I appear Ministers form the second group, and to be both. I am not a great monk either, Slaves are put to the category of the though I am supposed to be one”. With inferior. In all these men conceit such thoughts as these, there arises some originates in all its three forms, namely kind of vanity. This vanity is the Superiority-Conceit, Equality-Conceit Inferiority-Conceit affecting the great and Inferiority-Conceit. When a king persons. imagines himself as being better than Now let us see how Conceit affects another king, he feels proud that none can those that are equal in the three ways match him in possession of land, wealth, mentioned above. palaces etc. In the same way, when a If a minister, while thinking of another monk thinks of another as junior to him, of his own status, feels proud of the fact he may become proud of the fact that no that no other minister is richer than he, other monk is comparable to him in such pride or vanity is the Superiority- seniority or in morality, or ascetic Conceit affecting those that are equal. practices. This vain pride is the If, on the other hand, he proudly Superiority-Conceit that affects the great. thinks, “That Minister and I are equal in A king, when thinking about another wealth. I too am equal to him. Such pride king of his own status, says to himself is the Equality-Conceit affecting them. with pride: “What difference is there Lastly, if a poor minister thinks of another between the two of us in possession of minister of a higher status, and says to land, wealth and chariots? I am indeed himself that he is poorer than the second, equal to him.” “Likewise, a monk that he is a minister in name only, and thinking about another monk of his own that he is destitute of food and clothing position, says to himself: even, the vanity that arises under such “After all, what difference is there circumstances is the Inferiority-Conceit between two of us in morality or virtue? I affecting the Equal or Ordinary people. too am equal to him”. And thinking thus, The slave or the inferior person too is he becomes filled with conceit. This is the affected by conceit in all its three forms, Equality-Conceit that affects the great. as shown above. Again a petty king compares himself Thus we can see, how this Fetter of to a superior king and thinks: “That king Conceit arises in mind. It is indeed a very has much more land, wealth and chariots powerful fetter. The monk as well as the than I have. I am a mere normal king. laymen gives rise to conceit, in foolishly Am I really a king in the actual sense of trying to become great, and thereby they the word?” Such thinking produces some become inferior. Once because of this sort of vanity in his mind. In the same useless conceit, a monk had to be way, a monk who lacks support and pardoned by a layman. That incident in patronage, comparing himself to another short is as follows:— During the time the with higher morals and virtues, thinks: Buddha was alive, there lived in the city “This monk excels me in high morality of Maccikasanda a famous householder and virtue. I am a monk in name only. I by name of Citta. One day he met a monk 34 named Mah±n±ma, and as the latter me, this is my supporter, etc.” Thereupon pleased him very much, he offered him Citta granted him pardon, and, as a mark food and listened to his sermons whereby of courtesy on his part, he begged the he became a Stream-Enterer. After that he monk to pardon him, if any wrong had built a large temple in his park for the use been done by him. of the monks who visited him from all Thus, from this story we can the four directions. A monk called understand the amount of disgrace we Suddhamma also lived there in the city. have to suffer as a result of Conceit. Its During this time, the great S±riputta and retribution in the other world will be Moggall±na had come to know of the thousand times worse. In short, Conceit great virtues and the generosity of this is an utterly useless and harmful thing, householder Citta; and out of compassion which puts men into degradation in this for him, they visited this city. On their visit, world, as well as in the next. they were respectfully received by Citta, and at the hands of S±riputta he became a Non-Returner (An±g±mi) after listening IX. Restlessness (Uddhacca) to a religious sermon from him. The ninth fetter binding to the Wheel The householder afterwards invited of Rebirth, is Restlessness (uddhacca), i.e. S±riputta and Moggall±na for midday- scattered-mindedness, disquietude, or meal. He next invited the- resident monk mental flurry. It makes the mind restless, Suddhamma. But this monk was a very just like a heap of ashes is whirled up, haughty person, and therefore he did not when one throws a stone at it. accept the invitation on the grounds that Uddhacca is one of the fifty-two he had been invited afterwards. Not mental factors and the constant satisfied with that, he scolded the companion of any evil state of mind. householder bitterly, went to the Buddha, This state of Restlessness has to be leaving the temple, and reported the studied according to how it appears, matter to him. The Buddha, however, functions and feels, and also according found fault with the monk and directed to its proximate cause. It is like the sea, him to go and beg pardon of the righteous or a river, overflowing the land. You see householder. So the monk went to him how restless the sea may become. Exactly and begged his pardon, but the latter so is it with the restlessness of the mind. refused to forgive him. Disappointed, the In action or behaviour, it is just like a monk went to the Buddha again and flag shaken by strong winds. A flag tied informed him of what had happened. But to the end of a stick will not rest unmoved the Buddha knew it already. He had sent when caught up by the winds. In the same him there with the idea of destroying his way, behaves this flag of mind, tied to vanity. the stick, or object in view, when caught Then the Buddha sent him in the by the winds of Restlessness. company of another monk to the Unwise reasoning gives rise to householder to beg his pardon, remarking Restlessness; because it arises, if the that monks should not indulge in vain individual thinks unwisely, when the mind thoughts like: “This is the temple built for is not at rest. Hence the Buddha said:— 35 There is restlessness in the mind, and Besides the foregoing methods, there a multitude of unwise considerations, are six more ways of destroying [will] tend to create restlessness and worry, Restlessness. They are (1) knowledge, (2) if not already created; and to make them the habit of asking questions, (3) a sound rise again and again, if already created. opinion of disciples, (4) keeping company Further, this unwise reasoning is with elders, (5) keeping company with instrumental in spreading restlessness and good friends, and (6) indulging in wise worry. conversation. If, a person considers something The person who knows what is right impermanent as permanent, something and wrong through questioning, who is miserable as happy, something trained in proper discipline, who impersonal as personal, something possesses intelligence, who approaches unwholesome as wholesome, that is the elder monks, who associates with unwise consideration. good friends like Up±li-Thera, and who, Thus this Restlessness which having known what is right and wrong, originates as a result of unwise indulges in wise conversation, it is such a consideration, can be avoided by thinking one who can destroy Restlessness. wisely, when the mind is at rest. Therefore Thus this Fetter of Restlessness is for said the Buddha:— ever annihilated only on becoming an If in the serene mind clear and wise Arahat. reasoning will abide, restlessness and worry hitherto not arisen will not arise; X. Ignorance (Avijj±) and if already arisen, it will by all means suppress it. The Fetter of Ignorance is the ignorance regarding the Four Noble To keep the mind at rest, one must Truths; suffering, the origin of suffering, practise concentration and insight. the extinction of suffering, the Path Concentration destroys the five mental leading to the Extinction of suffering. Hindrances namely: Sensuous Lust, Ill- will, torpor and languor, restlessness and It is ignorance that tempts people to worry, and sceptical doubt. indulge in what should be discarded, and to avoid what one should be devoted to. The hermit who wishes to attain The ignorant does not realise the concentration and jh±nas, should select a collective nature of the psycho-physical subject of meditation in keeping with his Groups, the sensitivity of the sentient individuality, and on a secluded spot he Bases, impermanency of the psycho- should meditate in the most proper way. physical elements, unchangeability of the If, having meditated thus, he attains Truths and the all-importance of ten gradually a state of pure mental serenity, senses-bases. He does not possess the the hermit will enter the trances in knowledge of the four truths of suffering question. and is roaming in modes of generation, Insight (vipassan±) means the clear in courses of existence, processes of perception of the physical and mental existence in the endless cycle of rebirths. phenomena of existence as impermanent, It is ignorance that veils the true nature of miserable and impersonal. 36 the objects coming to Consciousness, and suffering?” It is the noble eightfold path the conditions of their Dependent that is leading to the extinction of Origination. Its function is to lead beings suffering, namely: astray. III. Wisdom (paññ±) Ignorance could be compared to a 1. Right Understanding (samm±-diµµhi) blind man, who goes astray owing to the 2. Right thoughts (samm±-saªkappa) absence of a guide. Thus the ignorant during the course of his roaming in the I. Morality (s²la) Process of Existence does sometimes 3. Right Speech (samm±-v±c±) karmically wholesome deeds, sometimes 4. Right bodily Action (samm±- karmically unwholesome deeds. kammanta) Once a person happens to realize the 5. Right Livelihood (samm±-±j²va) Four Noble Truths, by fully understanding II. Concentration (sam±dhi) them, he will be freed from Ignorance and 6. Right Effort (samm±-v±v±ma) all the other unwholesome qualities by attaining Arahatship. 7. Right Mindfulness (samm±-sati) The text of the Four Noble Truths, 8. Right Concentration (samm±- frequently recurring in the Sutta-Piµaka, sam±dhi) runs as follows:— 1. “What now, O monks, is Right I. “But what, O monks, is the noble Understanding?” It is the understanding truth of Suffering?” Birth is suffering, of suffering, its origin, its extinction, and decay is suffering, death is suffering; the path leading to its extinction. sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and 2. “What are Right Thoughts?” despair are suffering; in short, the 5 Thoughts free from sensual lust, ill-will groups of existence connected with and cruelty. clinging are suffering. 3. “What is Right Speech?” Abstaining II. “But what is the noble truth of the from lying, tale-bearing, harsh words, and Origin of suffering?” It is that craving foolish babble. which gives rise to fresh rebirth and, 4. “What is bodily Right Action? bound up with lust and greed, now here Abstaining from injuring living beings, now there, finds ever fresh delight. It is from stealing and from unlawful the Sensual Craving (k±ma-taºh±), the intercourse with the other sex. Craving for Existence (bhava-taºh±), the 5. “What is Right Livelihood?” When Craving for Self Annihilation (vibhava- the noble disciple rejects a wrong living taºh±.) and gains his living by means of a right III. “But what is the noble truth of the livelihood. Extinction of suffering?” It is the complete 6. “What is Right Effort?” When the fading away and extinction of this disciple incites his will to avoid the arising craving, its forsaking and giving up, of evil, unwholesome things that have not liberation and detachment from it. yet arisen—to overcome the evil, IV. “But what is the noble truth of the unwholesome things already arisen—to Path leading to the extinction of arouse the wholesome things not yet 37 arisen—to maintain the wholesome things at all, i.e. no path on which one may already arisen, and not to let them advance step by step until, after disappear, but to bring them to growth, to successively passing through all the eight maturity and full perfection of stages one after the other, one finally may development; and thus he strives, puts reach one’s destination Nibb±na. If this forth his energy, strains his mind and really were so, one should have realized, struggles. first of all, Right Understanding and 7. “What is Right Mindfulness?” penetration of the truth, before even one When the disciple dwells in could hope to proceed to the next step. In contemplation of corporeality—feeling— reality, however, the links 3-5 constituting mind—mind-objects, ardent, clearly moral training are the first 3 links to be conscious and mindful, after putting away brought to perfection, then the links 6-8 worldly greed and grief. constituting Mental Training (sam±dhi), and at last Right Understanding, etc. 8. “What is Right Concentration?” constituting Wisdom (paññ±). When the disciple, detached from sensual objects, detached from unwholesome It is, however, true that a really things, enters into the first trance, etc.” unshakable and safe foundation to the path is only provided by Right I tell you, O monks, there are two kinds Understanding which, starting from the of understanding: There is, e.g., the tiniest germ of faith and knowledge, understanding that it is good to give alms gradually, step by step, develops into the and offering, that both good and evil highest state of enlightenment and actions will be followed by good and evil penetrating Insight (vipassan±) and thus fruits. This, O monks, is an understanding forms the immediate condition to the which though still being subject to biases entrance into the four supermundane is wholesome, yields worldly fruits and paths and fruits of holiness, and to the brings good results. But whatever there realisation of Nibb±na. Only with regard is of wisdom, of penetration, of right to this, highest form of supermundane understanding conjoined with the path, insight, we indeed may say that all the the holy path being pursued, this is called remaining links of the path are but the the supermundane (lokuttara) right outcome and the attendant symptoms of understanding. Right Understanding. Much has been written about the Regarding the Mundane eightfold Eightfold Path by both qualified as well path, however, its links may arise without as unqualified authors, but I must confess the first link, Right Understanding. that, in both cases, the true nature of the path has been piteously misinterpreted. Here I have further to emphasize that In this connection therefore I consider it the links of the path are not only not most appropriate to give a few elucidative arising one after the other, as already hints on the true nature of this path, which indicated, but also that they, at least partly, really forms the foundation of Buddhism. arise simultaneously as inseparably associated mental factors in one and the First of all. I should wish to point out same state of consciousness. Thus, for that this so-called path in reality is no path instance, are under all circumstances at 38 least four links inseparably bound up with The specific Buddhist knowledge, as any karmically wholesome (kusala) part of the Noble Eightfold Path to consciousness, namely, 2, 6, 7 and 8, i.e., Deliverance, is ‘Insight’ (vipassan±), i.e. Right thought, Right effort, Right that intuitive knowledge which brings mindfulness and Right concentration. about the four stages of Holiness and the Delusion possesses qualities of realization of Nibb±na, and which consists misleading. It drowns beings in the flood in the penetration of the Impermanency, of Ignorance. It entangles beings in the Misery, and Impersonality (anatt±) of all cycle of Birth. forms of existence.

“And now friends, desires are evil and hatreds are evil; and for the getting rid of desires and hatreds there is a Middle Way, vision and knowledge bestowing, which leads to cessation, to insight, to the Supreme Awakening, to Nibb±na. And what is that Middle Way? It is even the Excellent Eightfold Path of Right Understanding, Right Mindedness, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living, Right Endeavour, Right Recollectedness, Right Concentration. Also, friends, wrath and enmity are evil, and hypocrisy and self-esteem, and envy and niggardliness, and deceit and cunning, and obstinacy and clamorousness, and pride and conceit, and wildness and heedlessness,— all these are evil; and the Middle Way by which they may be overcome is even the Excellent Eightfold Path; for even this is that Middle Way, vision and knowledge bestowing, which leads to cessation and to insight, to the Supreme Awakening, to Nibb±na.” So spake the venerable S±riputta, rejoicing the hearts of all that heard his word. Majjhima Nik±ya, Third Discourse.

“Such a doctrine, friend, that in the heavens or on the earth, amongst the hosts of M±ra or Brahm±, or among the race of ascetics and recluses, of none in all the worlds, whether gods or men, does he stand in awe; such, moreover, that of him who lives sundered from desirings, the holy one, done with all questionings, severed from distress of mind, thirsting neither for existence nor for non-existence, perceptions no longer lay hold. That is my doctrine, friend; that is what I preach.” Majjhima Nik±ya, Eighteenth Discourse. 39 EVE OF DEPARTURE Am I to call this happiness that’s held like a bright jewel in my hollowed hand for doting eyes that cannot understand how the heart sickens when a hope is felled? Shall I be dazzled by the rainbow light of this immediate world, make friend of time that killed my childhood and shall kill my prime, and think the day eternal until night swallows up all? I who have felt the bone shudder at thought of its last nakedness and lain in darkness of the world’s distress wounded by heat of fire and the chill of stone have seen disease, decrepitude and death crawl like a blight across my flower-lit way. For what shall it avail a king to pray whose rule is measured by each passing breath? Towers have fallen on the season’s grass falling to music in the wilderness ten thousand ages of a measureless infinity, and I have seen them pass beyond the weariness of kingdoms lost; as who should ponder on an ancient deed have seen Death lay his mandate in the seed and wait, as on each summer waits the frost. Red flame of sacrifice and the sword’s high song that hymns a nation’s destiny are less to me than dreams of a child’s idleness who plays at priest and emperor all day long. These are no bonds of mine; but love has spun a harder thread to break, from you who wear all heaven’s mysteries in your midnight hair, weaving a thousand fetters into one. But your voice also in the world’s lament tells me that beauty passes like a gleam on rippled water. We who share the dream must share the waking when our night is spent. Think then I go to seek a gift for you greater than lover ever gave before— I who have met beyond the palace door forgotten woes and tears we never knew. Francis Story 40 The Dasa Dhamma Sutta DISCOURSE ON THE TEN DHAMMAS (Aªguttara-Nik±ya—Dasakanip±ta) With Notes (Translated by Bhadanta Kassapa Bhikkhu of Vajir±r±ma) Ignorant foolish folk indulge in 4. ‘Does my mind not upbraid me heedlessness; concerning my virtues?’ —this should The wise man guards heedfulness as ever be reflected upon by one who has the supreme treasure. gone forth to the Holy Life. (Dhammapada) 5. ‘Do my wise fellow-brethren in Ten factors now we adumbrate, the Order, having tested, not upbraid me Ten factors of significance concerning my virtue?’ —this should ever That every monk should integrate be reflected upon by one who has gone In thoughts of constant vigilance. forth to the Holy Life. Thus have I heard: 6. ‘With all, pleasant and dear to me, At one time the Blessed One was there is inevitable subjection to change, dwelling at S±vatthi, in Jetavana, and parting’—this should ever be reflected An±thapiº¹ika’s Temple. upon by one who has gone forth to the There then, the Blessed One Holy Life. summoned the Bhikkhus: “Bhikkhus!” 7. ‘Of Kamma (i.e. set up by mental, “Lord!” replied those Bhikkhus; and vocal and physical activity) am I, have the Blessed One spoke thus— Kamma for inheritance, Kamma as mould, Kamma for kinsmen, Kamma for “These Ten Essentials, O Bhikkhus, protection. Whatever action I do,—be it should ever be reviewed by one who has good or bad,— of that shall I be heir’— given up the worldly life. What are the this should ever be reflected upon by one ten? who has gone forth to the Holy Life. 1. ‘Having consented, in a casteless 8. ‘How do my nights and days pass?’ state am I’—this should ever be reflected —this should ever be reflected upon by upon by one who has gone forth to the one who has gone forth to the Holy Life. Holy Life. 9. ‘Do I delight in solitude?’ —this 2. ‘My very life is dependent on should ever be reflected upon by one who others’—this should ever be reflected has gone forth to the Holy Life. upon by one who has gone forth to the Holy Life. 10. ‘Have I gained faculties transcending the normal human level 3. ‘What should be done by me (i.e. (such as Jh±nas),—the truly distinctive My duty) is of another character’ (i.e. attainment of Noble Wisdom—insight,— different to the layfolks’ ways) —this so that, questioned by fellow-brethren of should ever be reflected upon by one who the Holy Order in my last days (i.e. when has gone forth to the Holy Life. nearing death), I shall not be upset?’ — 41 this should ever be reflected upon by one life, to become a Bhikkhu, a man gives who has gone forth to the Holy Life. up the world and all its ways of counting These, O Bhikkhus, are the Ten men as “high and low” by birth, wealth, Essentials that should ever be reviewed position, worldly learning etc. All this is by one who has gone forth to the Holy stressed under the First Essential for Life.” constant rememberance. So spake the Blessed One, and Under the Second Essential, the pleased, those Bhikkhus praised the words Bhikkhu is urged by the Blessed One to of the Blessed One. realize that he is dependent on others for all his needs,— food, clothing, shelter and Notes.—With regard to the First medicines. With his Pabbajj±, or Essential for constant review, it must be renunciation of the household life, as a remembered that, in the Buddha’s time, novice in the Holy Order, a man pledges there were four main castes in India,— to observe the precept to abstain from the warriors, the Brahmins, the middle acceptance of gold and silver. The caste of merchants and landowners, and Commentary states that “gold and silver” the low caste of Sudras, who were skilled stands for all money, in any form mechanics, overseers etc. All these were whatsoever, and not only for the metals. “caste people”, and proud of their various From his novitiate, the Homeless One is levels of social elevation, wealth and vowed to poverty; he cannot himself prestige. accept money under any condition. Any There were also, and these constituted layman who has undertaken to be his the majority, a multitude of outcastes or supporter, may be nominated by a monk vasalas of various grades. These were the to retain and expend a sum of money hewers of wood, the drawers of water, and specially offered to him for a specific those who did the menial toil for the rest lawful purpose,—such as procuring a of the community. robe. But no individual or institution can When the Buddha inaugurated his lawfully act as banker for unlimited Order of the Saªgha, He said that, as all accumulation of money for a yellow- rivers, flowing into the ocean, there lose robed follower of the Buddha. their identity and are henceforth “ocean” When a Novice or S±manera is and not Gang±, Yamun± etc., so all who admitted to the higher ordination, enter the Order of the Saªgha, of their own Upasampad±, and becomes a Bhikkhu, consent drop every notion of “caste”, and he is bound by the rules of Vinaya lose thereby all pride of birth, family, Discipline. He is “Defeated” and ceases class, and so forth. to be a Bhikkhu if he is guilty of theft. It The outcaste vasala was as good a is a Nissaggiya P±cittiya, a fault involving Bhikkhu as he who formerly, when repentance and forfeiture, for a Bhikkhu layman, paraded as a “caste man”. to receive “gold or silver” (i.e. money), The Buddha and His Great Arahanta or get someone to receive it for him, or Disciples never refused ordination, as allow it to be kept in deposit for him. Bhikkhu, to a man merely on the ground Again, it is a “Nissaggiya” for a Bhikkhu of caste. When giving up the household to engage in a transaction in which money 42 is used, or in any kind of buying and S²lavanta,—pure of word, deed and selling. thought. Next he must control all his Good Bhikkhus are extremely careful “sense-doors”, so that no evil might enter to avoid any action that would cause by eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind. financial deprivation to anyone; for, if Next, he must be moderate in eating. such deprivation occurs, the Bhikkhu, Although the Buddha has never advised according to P±r±jik± Rules, can lose his His followers to be “vegetarians”, He has Bhikkhuhood, being “defeated”, or, at the again and again stressed “Be moderate in least, commits a Vinaya offence. eating”. The genuine Bhikkhu does not eat after noon. The Bhikkhu should be The fact that “his very life is dependent enijanj±, “antelope like”,—not pot-bellied on others” imposes on the genuine and fat. Next the good Bhikkhu must ever conscientious Bhikkhu an inescapable be alert to purge his mind of all evil, obligation. Says the Buddha— forbidden things. Day and night he must “‘Samaºas, Samaºas’—thus be alert. Next the good Bhikkhu must Bhikkhus, do the people greet you, constantly be watchful and recognize you, and, being asked— ‘What discriminating, Sati-Sampajañña, in all he are you?’ you reply— ‘Samanas are we’. does, going, coming, standing, sitting, Wherefore, thus named, thus walking, lying down, answering calls of professing, thus also should you be. nature, eating, drinking, speaking, Whatsoever becomes a Samaºa, having everything. Next, the genuine Bhikkhu undertaken to be such, these let us must practise Sam±dhi, first for high observe, so that our name shall be a true mental concentration Samatha and fact and our profession made good,—and Citt’ekaggat± and next for insight— that those through whom we receive food, wisdom,—Vipassan±-Paññ±. These, and robes, medicines and shelter,— these of no others, are the Samaºa-dhammas, the their deed, shall have abundant fruit, duties of a genuine Bhikkhu. A Bhikkhu exceeding recompense; and this, our life has naught to do with worldly affairs, of homelessness shall not be in vain, but governments, voting for sending into shall be fruitful and produce results.” power government representatives, and With this, we come to the Third thus being involved and interested and Essential.— “My duty is of another concerned in such worldly things. character.” A true Bhikkhu has no business to As a layman, one is absorbed in teach worldly sciences and arts to others, layman’s duties, layman’s interests and monks or laymen, for such have naught pursuits, but, on giving up lay life, the to do with a Bhikkhu’s aim for Bhikkhu gives up all that. Deliverance from Dukkha, which means What then are his duties, both to ensure Deliverance from the world and all its that his supporters should obtain great ways. reward, and that his own life shall be Under no circumstance whatsoever fruitful? The Buddha gives the answer. can a genuine Bhikkhu accept any First, the Bhikkhu, in shame and fear, must remuneration, money, or even food, shrink from all wrong. Next he must be a clothing, shelter and medicine; for thus 43 acting, he becomes a hireling of laymen, of good, gone from this world to the next, and ceases to be a genuine Samaºa but like a home-coming dear relative.” becomes instead a cheat, a rogue and a The Fourth Essential deals with contemptible assamaºa. Any Bhikkhu introspective examination of his purity. It may teach the Dhamma, for nothing, but is a personal analysis (ajjhattam) and out of compassion to those who ask for arouses Shame of Evil (hiri), or wrong instruction; but, because of such behaviour in any shape or form. preaching, he must never neglect his true The Fifth Essential also deals with duties as outlined above. purity (S²la) and is here looking outward About “missionary work” it must (bahidda), and aimed at arousing Fear of never be forgotten that the Buddha’s Evil (ottappa). words, oft misquoted, without the The Sixth Essential, accepting the context— “Go ye forth O Bhikkhus and inexorable nature of universal transcience declare the Dhamma,” were spoken to (anicca), and resultant suffering, aims at Arahantas; and Moggaliputta Tissa guarding the genuine meditating Bhikkhu Thera’s “missionaries”, sent forth after the from unpreparedness and possible shock Third Great Council, were Arahantas. So, and discomposure in his even practice of the duty— “What must be done” by a true the Samaºa-dhamma. Bhikkhu, who is still a puthujjana or unattained one, is absolutely apart from The Seventh Essential stresses the Law concern in the world and the world’s of Cause and Effect in the realms of ways. His living example must be an mental activity,—for vocal and bodily inspiration to layfolk. activity only stamp and accentuate the mental in the K±m±vacara (sense) sphere. It is improper and foolish of a layman In the higher R³pa and Ar³pa spheres, it to expect a “return” from a Bhikkhu is Mind that is all-powerful in the Kamma whom he may be supporting, in the shape Law,—you reap even as you sow. This of Dhamma teaching and so forth. Any should be fully and clearly grasped by good Bhikkhu will, of course, out of constant reflection. compassion discourse on the Dhamma to any that invite him to do so, be they The Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Essentials supporters or not,—unless, as may are very important and hang together. happen, he is not able to do so for some They drive home to any sincere Bhikkhu, reason. The “return” a layman gets for the meaning and object of his supporting a Bhikkhu, except in rare Bhikkhuhood, which is only for the instances of immediate fruit, is a hidden attainment of Nibb±na, the Final return during this life. It is the satisfaction Deliverance. and joy that he has been able to do his For this noble aim, S²la and Sam±dhi good deeds, which will ripen in time. The are essential. And, for these, seclusion is Dhammapada says— a vital need. “As a man long absent and safely So the Eighth Essential in effect asks, returned from afar, kinsfolk, friends and “Do I spend my nights and days in vain well-wishers joyfully greet on arrival,— chasing after worldly name, gains and even so, his good deeds receive the doer honour or do I spend my time as the 44 Buddha wants me to spend it, on a definite right here the Blessed One draws pointed road of graduated progress towards the attention to the actuality of the “faculties Goal? This tends to sharply pull up any transcending the normal human level”— sensitive true Bhikkhu, though the thick- such as the high jh±nas and iddhi skinned will fail to penetrate into the powers,—and the reality of “the truly meaning of this Essential. distinctive attainment of Noble Wisdom- The Ninth Essential is definite. “Do I Insight”, the Ariya N±ºa-dassana” of the delight in solitude, or do I sit waiting for Four Stages of Deliverance. visitors to come and chatter to me on all Here the Buddha calls up the Bhikkhus sorts of worldly matters,—politics and all and Himself tells them to ask themselves supposed wrongs and slights to the S±sana whether they have or have not yet not excluded? Do I delight in solitude or reached these heights that are the heritage do I delight in roaming about the face of of each true disciple. To us of today, in this earth, in an insatiable itch of the these degenerate days of scepticism and pleasure of travel, the diversion of sceptics, of people who doubt and ridicule popularity, honour and respect from the quiet seeker of the heights of “great ones” of lay life, making as my attainment, these words of the Buddha, high-sounding excuse that I am doing spoken as crown of the Dasa Dhamma, “missionary” work, for which I duly keep “to be constantly reflected upon by one on unloading the same old little bundle who has gone forth to the Holy Life”, of knowledge of Dhamma that I have drive home a guarantee from the Master’s acquired for this special purpose? own mouth, a positive, definite firm Soon my meagre stock of Dhamma- declaration of the actual truth of these high tricks is exhausted, and I am driven to attainments that inspires renewed repeat myself. Perforce, I must then find confidence in our hesitant hearts. fresh fields where my sermons and These are the worthwhile high fruits catchwords are unknown, and thereby I of genuine Samaºa life. To the Buddha satisfy my unending lust for travel and and His great Arahanta Disciples these gain, honour and fame as a much- were the things they had themselves travelled ‘‘missionary monk”. attained and they well knew that similar The direct question “Do I delight in attainment is possible for all who sincerely solitude?” if faced sincerely, by any but and strenuously strive on towards the those whose veils of Avijj± and Taºh± Heights. So, with restored confidence, have made insensitive, will put the sincere even though we be of a less heroic mould Bhikkhu on the right path. Only he will and of duller mental acuity, we can march see and profit by the meaning of the Tenth on with steadfast reliance on the words Essential. of the All-Enlightened One. Today we may win out, or, maybe tomorrow. Let The Tenth Essential brings vividly to the Muñja-grass crest inspire victory. the mind of any Bhikkhu blest with imagination and even a moderate ripening PARISITTHA KANDA of insight and understanding, the fact that Abhinna (Dasa Dhamma) Sutta. 45 THE BEAUTIFUL PAGODA The Shwe-Dagon Paya Ethel Mannin IT is usual when reporting on a against the flawless sky. It is dramatic and foreign country to deal first with the beautiful from whatever angle it is capital. I have observed this in the best approached. There are four covered travel books, and have also gone to work staircases up to it, North, South, East and in this way myself. The Eastern traveller, West. The main entrance is the South, and visiting London or Paris, would not report here at the foot of the steps stand huge first on Westminster Abbey or Notre guardian beasts, half lion, half dragon, Dame; he would first study and report characteristic of the pagodas everywhere. upon the cities enshrining these treasures. They are white, picked out with red, blue, But then Rangoon does not enshrine the and gold paint, and have a fabulous fairy- Shwedagon Pagoda, which though it tale quality. At either side of the steps as dominates the city is not strictly speaking you mount—barefooted— there are small in it but on the outskirts of it. So that it open-fronted shops or stalls, selling may be considered as a separate entity. Buddha images of all kinds, small gilt Rangoon enshrines the Sule Pagoda, as shrines for the home, tinselled pictures of positively as London’s Piccadilly Circus the Buddha and his chief disciples, strings enshrines the Eros fountain, and the Sule of large rosary beads, tinselled marionette Pagoda is beautiful and of interest, but it dolls, tiny paper parasols for placing on is not dramatic like the great Shwedagon. shrines, wood-carvings of the guardian It was not of the Sule Pagoda but of the lions, ivory carvings of all kinds, real dramatic, the incomparable Shwedagon tortoiseshell combs, small oblong that Ralph Fitch, that considerable drums—essential to Burmese music—and traveller, declared in the sixteenth century, near the top of the stairs flower stalls, that it was ‘the fairest place, as I suppose, where also joss-sticks and candles are that doe bee in all the worlde.’ Fitch had sold. The flower stalls are of a sweetness almost certiinly seen the Taj Mahal, that unknown to any European flowerstalls, ‘dream in white marble’, before he for they are stacked with jasmine, tuber- reached Burma and had his first glimpse roses and many other heavily scented of the dream in pure gold as he sailed up flowers native to the East, as well as roses the Rangoon river. The present writer, and carnations, and lesser, scentless, having also seen the turquoise enamelled flowers such as asters and marigolds. The domes of the Mosque of Shakh-Zinda, the flowers, singly and in bunches, are tied crowning glory of Tamerlaine’s to thin sticks, so that they may be easily Sumarkand, would still place the placed in the vases in front of the Buddha Shwedagon Pagoda first, without having images. They will not live, for there is no to think about it. water in the vases, but they are not I do not know why the Shwedagon is intended to, since they are not placed there so incredibly moving. Perhaps it is as a decoration for the shrine, as flowers because of the sheer purity of its line are arranged on a Christian altar, but 46

Miss Ethel Mannin, famous authoress, whose book on Burma “Land of the Crested Lion” is shortly to be published. 47 solely as an offering; this being so their pavemented terrace, that is to say, which perfume should not be inhaled by those encompasses its base. who offer them, and they should be When we reached the platform we carried upright, not in any careless, casual walked round a little past various carved fashion. wooden shrines, beautiful with red At the back of some of the stalls, in a lacquer, housing Buddha images of marble kind of half dark hinterland, there are or gold or brass or alabaster, until we small cafes at which meals are cooked and came to a spot where the hermit said it tea is made, and here are benches where would be right to give and to accept alms. after dark, when there is no more buying Having given we abased ourselves at the or selling, people sleep. A whole world feet of the venerable man, who gave us of life goes on in that half concealed his blessing. Then seeing what was going hinterland beside the pagoda steps. on, and that they had a holy man in their The approach to the East steps is midst, other people came and gave gifts through a long bazaar where all manner of money, so that it was altogether a good of things are sold, slippers, clothing, day for the hermit that he had encountered combs, jewellery, religious books and his old friend on the steps, and a good pictures, all the conglomeration that day for David and for me and for the makes up a bazaar, and this bazaar others who rallied round. The old man continues on up the steps which seem as explained to us what a good thing it was a result merely like the continuation of for us all, and how it was part of his the busy narrow street. Once on these steps kamma that he should have been on those with David Maurice we met with a friend particular steps at that particular moment, of his, an old hermit in from the country. and we parted in that aura of goodwill He wore the dark clothes and carried the which is always a good thing whenever staff of his calling. After he and David and wherever it is met with. had warmly greeted each other we all three The West steps are flanked by golden continued on up the steps. David pillars, and the roof is gilded and painted. explained that it would not be correct to There are fewer shops and stalls here and say that the old man lived by the begging in places none at all, so that there are bowl, for he did not in fact beg, but that if views out over the city, and the walk half anyone liked to make him a present he way up the pagoda hill is visible. It is would accept not as a favour but as beautiful to do this walk at sundown, conferring one, for the chief benefit would when the tall palms which spring up here accrue to the giver, who would acquire and there at either side of the path lean merit thereby. Without any desire to against the crimson sky and the pagoda acquire merit, however, I nevertheless takes on an incredible sunset splendour thought it would be nice to give the old of golden fire. Then as the brief twilight man a few- kyats, and asked David to fades the lights come out on the pagoda convey this to him. This was done and and the palms blacken against the violet the offer accepted, with the request that it sky. But then, too, by moonlight this walk be done in the proper place, up on the is most magical; then the palms and the platform of the pagoda—the marble wild plantains at each side of the path, 48 and the little chalet-like wooden houses though only the prowling pariah dogs at various points, are touched with seemed to resent it. It was not until I got mystery, and the soft silver light seems to back to London that I learned that during drip from the trees and the ornately carved the second war of annexation, in 1852, gables of the houses like water. Inside the under Lord Dalhousie, the pagoda had little houses people squat on floors eating been fortified and there had been bitter rice, or telling their beads before a Buddha fighting at that point, where the Burmese shrine, by the light of a single candle. had been taken by surprise, and many There is a tremendous commotion of soldiers, both British and Burmese had cicadas. died there. Between the palms and the neem trees At the top of the hill, where the pagoda at one side of the path there are sudden stands surrounded at its base by lesser glimpses of the lights of the city down pagodas, and by shrines innumerable, all below. Above, at the other side of the path, encircled by the flat marble-paved terrace, poised between the plumes of the another new world of strangeness and strangely leaning palms, there are beauty is revealed. The small golden glimpses of the illuminated pagoda on its pagodas round the base of the big one all hilltop, its gold as burnished by moonlight have their little crowns of bells which as by sunlight, and when the moon is tinkle most sweetly in the wind. At the young it is like a jewel that has somehow base of the pagoda, too, there are carved strayed from the spire of the pagoda. wooden shrines, red lacquered, and with There is a desolate, eerie patch before the charming gabled roofs in tiers, terminating path crosses the East steps; only weeds in fine spires, and they too have their little and thorns grow here, and the ground bells. There are shrines, too, large and suddenly makes the bare feet aware of small, across the terrace from the base of flints. I had here the strange experience the pagoda, all of them housing Buddha of feeling suddenly cold and afraid, with images, reclining Buddhas, standing an unaccountable feeling of horror. I Buddhas, Buddhas in the conventional explained to my companion that it was as lotus position. At the top of each flight of though ‘something awful’ had happened steps there are big shrines, with huge here at one time. My companion, Buddha images, and long altars where however, felt nothing except that the going flowers are laid and candles and incense- here was stonier. Crossing the steps and sticks lit. In these major shrines men, continuing to follow the path at the other women and children are always to be side the magic reasserted itself, and I had found, kneeling on bamboo mats again the feeling of walking in a fairyland contemplating the Buddha image, bowing of beauty and strangeness remote from down in the act of worship till their everyday reality. It is a curiously private foreheads touch the ground, repeating world, too; on neither of the occasions such formulas from the scriptures, such when I invaded it did I see anyone else precepts of their faith, as are suited to the walking there for the sake of it, and the occasion, but always that which reminds people living there stared with the air of them that life is sorrow, impermanence, people not used to being intruded upon, illusion, from which, as the Lord Buddha 49 taught, only the overcoming of craving strip-lighting. Yet so great is the sum of can release them. beauty of the Shwedagon and its When someone makes a donation to surrounding shrines that no vulgarity, no the pagoda fund the big bell is struck, and anachronism, can really take from it. It is its reverberations spread far out over the a pity; it would be better not there, but terrace. In his most beautiful book about magniffcence is not minimized by minor Burma, The Soul of a People, the late blemishes. Fielding Hall, who was an official in The gaunt pariah dogs, many of them Burma during the British Raj, tells how bitches. with litters of skinny little pups the British took this bell from the pagoda running round them, which inhabit the and sought to bring it to England as a war pagodas everywhere—they too would be trophy, (it was after the first war of better not there. To the Western mind they annexation) but as it was being put on would be better put out of their misery, board ship it slipped and fell into the river, but this is not acceptable to the Buddhist from which all the efforts of the British mind, and nothing except an outbreak of engineers failed to raise it. Then the rabies, when a child or two gets bitten, Burmese asked if they might try to can provoke any action; then the services recover the bell, their sacred bell, and if of some Moslem will be sought, poison they were able to might they be allowed laid, and a minor clean-up carried out. But to restore it to the pagoda. ‘And they were for the most part the wretched creatures told, with a laugh, perhaps, that they contrive to stay alive on the border-line might; and so they raised it up again, the of starvation, and even to breed and rear river giving back to them what it had their litters on the odd handfalls of rice refused to us, and they took it and hung it the kindly-disposed put out for them, and where it used to be. There it is now, and such edible scraps as they can find among you may hear it when you go, giving out the refuse in the gutters. In time one learns a long, deep note, the beat of the pagoda’s to accept them as part of the general heart.’ The Burmese have not forgotten picture, even not to notice them very this story of the bell; I was told it more much. Life is struggle and suffering for than once, in Rangoon and in Mandalay, all creatures, particularly in the East; it and more than once I read it. always has been, for thousands of years, In addition to the lesser pagodas, and and no doubt always will be, and whilst the shrines, at the base of the pagoda itself there is grave cause to be exercised there are little gilded wrought iron trees, concerning man’s inhumanity to man, is very decorative and charming, with the it not disproportionate to wax excited over names of their donors set forth in plaques some miserable pariah dog? Fielding Hall at their feet. There is also strip-lighting, thought that at the Shwedagon even the now, in the various shrines, and on the pariah dogs looked in not too bad a pagoda itself, and the names of the donors condition. Perhaps it is true—or was true are everywhere prominent. There are when he wrote at the end of the century. I many who like the present writer deplore don’t know. We see what we want to see, the vulgarity of this ostentatious giving and it is anyhow not important. as much as the inappropriateness of the What is important is beauty, and 50 human life, and love, and the light men church, but as lively as a street. Children live by, and the faith, and the hearts of race about playing games; I have even men. What is important in Burma is the seen young people fooling about as Buddhist faith which gives meaning to young people do, and it is not considered their lives, and the beauty created out of irreverent when sitting in front of a that faith—through, by and for that faith. Buddha image to smoke a cheroot, and I What is important in Rangoon is not that have seen both men and women doing it it is no longer ‘the most beautiful city in in pagodas everywhere, and chatting as the East’ as was once—extravagantly— they sit. The Buddha is not considered claimed for it but that the Shwedagon divine. He was a great teacher, the Pagoda has survived a war which laid low Enlightened One, the Blessed One. The a tragic amount of the man-made beauty people come to pay his memory homage, of the world, and has survived the and by repeating his precepts remind changes of the after-war, and is still ‘the themselves of the truths he revealed to glittering mass of golden stupa standing the world and which they accept as a way on the last hill, of the Pegu Yomas.’ What of life. It is a conception of worship and is important is what this glittering mass of prayer quite different from the Christian means to the men and women, young and and the Moslem conception. It is a old, who climb its many steps, in the brief conception of religion in which man must coolness of early morning, or the long heat look to himself for salvation, not to any of the day, to lay a few flowers, light a divine power. few candles or perhaps merely to sit and So the people at the Shwedagon, and contemplate the image of the great teacher at the pagodas everywhere, behave by whose precepts they seek to live. And according to their current moods and what it means is hardly to be compassed needs; they do not whisper or tiptoe about. in a few words, for it is a way of life, and They talk and laugh, or they repeat the ultimate truth. What is important is the precepts, or they merely sit silently impact of all this beauty on the hearts and gazing, each paying homage in his own minds of those who do not wholly—or way, worshipping in his own way. There even in part—accept the faith it are many trees up on the platform of the symbolizes. Anyone who has ever felt, Shwedagon, and a number of odd corners as opposed to merely observing, the behind the shrines where there are little beauty of the Shwedagon Pagoda is as courtyards and terraces looking out over spiritually enriched thereby as from the the city to the lakes. There are tall palms impact of any other great art; perhaps more here, and shady neem trees, and there is so, for here the beauty is not merely a big old sacred tree round whose base aesthetic, but alive with the soul of a the people apply gold-leaf and during the people—and with a moral force six water-festival they bring a great deal of hundred years older than Christianity. water to this tree—for it was under such a There are always many people up on tree that Prince Gautama, who became the the pagoda terrace, in early morning, at Lord Buddha, received his midday, at sundown, and after dark. The enlightenmment. It is very pleasant to sit atmosphere is not oppressive as in a in the shade of the trees in what might be 51 described as the back streets of the the bell which fell into the river during pagoda—taking the broad marbled walk the Anglo- Burmese war of 1824, and was round the base to be the main street—and brought up by the Burmese in 1826 and the people like to sit there, on wooden restored to its place. The great canopy or benches, or perched on the parapet, umbrella—the hti—was the gift of King talking, smoking, eating, admiring the Mindon, who founded Mandalay. It cost view, or merely watching the coming and half a million rupees and is hung with going of their fellow men. some fifteen hundred bells, one hundred People make the pilgrimage to the of which are gold, the rest sliver. This Shwedagon from all parts of the country; wonderful gift was sent by the king down Shans from the Shan States, Kachins from the Irrawaddy in 1852, when Lower the northern hills, Mons from the villages Burma was already in the hands of the of the deep south. And there are always British. The king had begged that one of pongyis—monks—walking about in their his own representatives be allowed to orange coloured robes, and shaven- officiate at the hoisting of the hti, but the headed nuns in their pale pink robes; and British considered that this would be in there are a few beggars, but they are not the nature of a political gesture, and taken beggars in the ordinarily accepted sense as such by the people, and the request but beggars as it were for the kingdom of was refused. Nevertheless a vast crowd heaven’s sake, and mostly they are lay attended the event and celebrated it with nuns in dark robes. great festivities. The pagoda enshrines eight hairs of The hoisting of a new hti for even the the Buddha’s head brought from India smallest of pagodas is always an occasion more than 2500 years ago by two for festivity, for pwe, as it is called, when Burmese merchants. There was then on open-air performances of dancing and this southernmost spur of the Pegu Yoma singing go on literally from dusk till dawn. only the Mon—or Mun—village of People come in from far and wide for Dagon, which eventually became pwe, and innumerable eating booths are Yangon, from which comes the modern set up, and stalls for the sale of fruit-juice, name Rangoon. The shrine now known drinks, sweets, fruit, cakes, and all as the Shwedagon Pagoda, strictly Shwe- manner of things. The Burmese love Dagon Paya—was the creation of festivals, and it unifies their national life Shinbyushin, King of Ava, in 1774. He that these festivals are invariably in raised it to its present height and gilded it connection with their religion. These is with his own weight in gold. But centuries more to say about pwe, so important in before then, during the years of the Mon Burmese life, but the place is not here, Kingdom of Pegu, Shinsawbu, Queen where we are considering “the fairest Regnant of Hanthawaddy, had gilded it place that doe bee in all the world.” with her own weight in gold. King Singu, Aldous Huxley, who found the Taj the son of King Shibyushin, regilded the Mahal ‘disappointing’, reacted to the pagoda in 1778 and had a sixteen ton Shwedagon as to a ‘sacred Fun Fair, a bronze bell cast, which stands now at the Luna Park dedicated to the greater glory north-east corner of the platform. This is of Gautama—but more fantastic, more 52 wildly amusing than any Bank Holiday tuber-roses. I have seen the fabulous invention.*’ That is sad for Mr. Huxley golden cone reflected in the lake at the that his eyes and his spirit were denied other side of the city, by sunlight and the vision of beauty, that he missed ‘the moonlight. And by sunlight and perfume of the thousand prayers that have moonlight rising above the city in sheer been prayed there, of the thousand golden purity from its surrounding forest thousand holy thoughts that have been of trees. thought there.’ I have seen this pagoda I do not merely remember it all, how athwart the mango tree beside my it looked at these different times, from bedroom window at sunrise, and have these different angles, but feel again, leaned upon its parapet at sundown; I recalling it, the emotion it evoked. It is as have seen it burnished to golden fire in though the heart itself remembers. Words the mid-day sun, and bewitched into do not seem adequate to convey such something in a dream by moonlight. I shining beauty; paint might serve the have heard the tauk-te lizard calling its purpose better. But then I think that name somewhere out of sight as I perhaps the words of Fielding Hall, in wandered barefoot over the warm stones which he sums it all up—after describing behind the shrines. I have sat and watched it as like ‘a great tongue of flame’, and a the people come and go in their bright ‘most wonderful sight, so brilliant in the clothes, the women with flowers in their hot sunshine that it seemed to ‘shake and hair, and themselves like flowers, and the tremble in the light like a fire’—in a very young men so straight and slim in their simple phrase, are after all the most telling, longyis and neat light jackets. I have been since words will not compass such beauty, up and down the many stairs many times, and there is nothing for it, therefore, but always at the top meeting with a fresh to fall back as he did upon the simplicity shock of delight the scent of jasmine and of the statement— ‘it is a very beautiful (* “Jesting Pilate”—1926.) place, this pagoda...... ’

And as with the thought of Craving, so with the thought of Ill-will and the thought of Cruelty: when these sought lodgement in my mind, I considered how that they were injurious to oneself and to others, to all concerned, unwise, ruinous, not tending to deliverance; and so considering, they died away from me. And as oft soever as they strove to arise, I put them from me, crushed them out, knowing that thoughts of ill-will and Cruelty drive away thoughts of Good-will and Kindliness, and so the mind is inclined to Ill-will and to Malice. Majjhima Nik±ya, Nineteenth Discourse. 53 THE BUDDHIST DOCTRINE OF KAMMA AND REBIRTH By NARADA MAH¾THERA, VAJIRARAMA, BAMBALAPITIYA, COLOMBO Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samm±-Sambuddhassa Kamma is the law of moral causation. reason or reasons cannot be compre- Rebirth is its corollary. hended by men of ordinary intellect. The Kamma and Rebirth are inter-related, definite invisible cause or causes of the fundamental doctrines in Buddhism. visible effect is not necessarily confined These two beliefs were prevalent in India to the present life, but may be traced to a before the advent of the Buddha. Never- proximate or remote past birth. theless, it was the Buddha who explained With the aid of telesthesia and retro- and formulated these two doctrines in the cognitive knowledge, may it not be pos- completeness we have them today. sible for a highly developed seer to per- What is the cause of the inequality that ceive events which are ordinarily imper- exists amongst mankind? ceptible to the physical eye? Buddhists affirm such a possibility. How do we account for the uneven- ness in this ill-balanced world? Some religionists conveniently at- tribute this inequality to a single cause Why should one be brought up in the such as an incomprehensible God-Cre- lap of luxury endowed with fine mental, ator. The Buddha explicitly denies the moral and physical qualities, and another existence of a Creator, interpreted either in absolute poverty, steeped in misery? as an Almighty Being or a causeless cos- Why should one be born a millionaire and mic force. another a pauper? Why should one be a mental prodigy and another an idiot? Why The P±li equivalent for the God-Cre- should one be born with saintly charac- ator in other religions is either Issara (San- teristics and another with criminal tenden- skrit—Isvara) or Brahma. In the Tipiµaka cies? Why should some be linguists, art- there is absolutely no textual reference ists, mathematicians and musicians from whatever to the existence of a Creator or the very cradle? Why should others be to his relation with man. congenitally blind, deaf and deformed? Despite the fact that the Buddha Why should some be blessed and others placed no supernatural God over man, cursed from their birth? some scholars assert that the Buddha was There must either be a cause or causes characteristically silent on this important for this inequality of mankind, or it must controversial question. The following be purely accidental. quotations will clearly indicate the view- point of the Buddha towards the concept No sensible person would think of at- of a God-Creator. tributing this unevenness, this inequality, this diversity to blind chance or pure ac- In the Aªguttara Nik±ya the Buddha cident. In this world nothing happens to speaks of three divergent views that pre- any person that he does not deserve for vailed in His time. One of which was: some reason or other. Usually the actual “Whatever happiness or pain or neu- 54 tral feeling this person experiences, all “I, brother, am Brahma, Great Brahma, that is due to the creation of a Supreme the Supreme Being, the Unsurpassed, the Deity (Issarna-nimm±nahetu).”1 Perceiver of all things, the Controller, the According to this statement we are Lord of all, the Maker, the Fashioner, the what we were willed to be by a Creator. Chief, the Victor, the Ruler, the Father of Our destinies rest entirely in his hands. all beings who have been and are to be.” Our fate is pre-ordained by him. The sup- For the second and third time the posed free-will granted to his creation is Bhikkhu repeated his question, and the obviously false. Brahma gave the same dogmatic reply. Criticising this fatalistic view the Bud- Then Maha Brahma took the Bhikkhu dha says: by the arm, led him aside and made a “So, then, owing to the creation of a frank utterance: Supreme Deity men will become murder- “O brother, these gods of my suite ers, thieves, unchaste, liars, slanderers, believe as follows: ‘Brahma sees all abusive, babblers, covetous, malicious, things; knows all things; penetrates all and perverse in view. Thus for those who things.’ Therefore was it that I did not fall back on the creation of a God as the answer in their presence. I do not know, essential reason, there is neither the de- O brother, where these four great elements sire to do, nor the effort to do, nor neces- cease, having no trace behind. Therefore sity to do this deed or abstain from that it was an evil and a crime, O brother, that deed.”1 you left the Blessed One, and went else- In the Devadaha Sutta2 the Buddha, where in quest of an answer to the ques- referring to the self-mortification of na- tion. Turn back, O brother, and having ked ascetics, remarks: drawn near to the Blessed One, ask Him this question, and as the Blessed One ex- “If, O Bhikkhus, beings experience plains to you, so believe.” pain and happiness as the result of God’s creation (Issara nimm±nahetu), then cer- Tracing the origin of Maha Brahma, tainly these naked ascetics must have the so-called Creator, the Buddha com- been created by a wicked God (P±pak-na ments in the P±thika Sutta4: Issara), since they are at present experi- “On this, O disciples, that being who encing such terrible pain”. was first reborn (in a new world evolu- Kevaddha Sutta3 narrates a humorous tion) thinks thus: ‘I am Brahma, the Great conversation that occurs between an in- Brahma, the Vanquisher, the quisitive Bhikkhu and the supposed God- Unvanquished, the All-seeing, the Dis- Creator. poser, the Lord, the Maker, the Creator, the Chief, the Assigner, the Master of A Bhikkhu desiring to know the end Myself, the Father of all that are and are of the elements, approached Maha to be. By me are these beings created. Brahma and questioned him thus: “Where, my friend, do the four great 1 Aªguttara Nik±ya i.174; Gradual Sayings, i.158. elements—earth, water, fire, air—cease, 2 Majjhima Nik±ya (No. 101) ii 222 3 D²gha Nik±ya No. 11 Part i 221. leaving no trace behind?” 4 D²gha Nik±ya (No. 24) iii 29: Dialogues of the The Great Brahma replied: Buddha, iii 26. 55 And why is that so? A while ago I thought: “He who has eyes can see the sicken- Would that other beings too might come ing sight; to this state of being! Such was the aspi- Why does not Brahma set his creatures ration of my mind, and lo these beings right? did come.’ If his wide power no limits can re- “And those beings themselves who strain, Why is his hand so rarely spread arose after him, they too think thus: ‘This to bless? worthy must be Brahma, the Great Why are his creatures all condemned Brahma, the Vanquisher—the Father of all to pain? that are and are to be.’ Why does he not to all give happiness, “On this, O disciples: that being who arose first becomes longer lived, hand- Why do fraud, lie, and ignorance pre- somer, and more powerful, but those who vail? appeared after him become shorter lived, Why triumphs falsehood;—tuuth and less comely, less powerful. And it might justice fail? well be, O disciples, that some other be- I count your Brahma one th’unjust ing, on deceasing from that state, would among come to this state (on earth). So come, he Who made a world in which to shelter might go forth from the household life wrong.” into the homeless state. And having thus Refuting the theory that everything is gone forth by reason of ardour, effort, the creation of a God, the Bodhisatta devotion, earnestness, perfect intellection, states in the Mah±bodhi J±taka:6 he reaches up to such rapt concentration, that with rapt mind he calls to mind his “If there exist some Lord all powerful former dwelling place but remembers not to fulfil what went before. He says thus: ‘That In every creature bliss or woe; and Worshipful Brahma, the Vanquisher,—the action good or ill; Father of all that are and are to be, he by That Lord is stained with sin. Man does whom we were created, he is permanent, but work his will.” constant, eternal, unchanging, and he will Now, how do modern scientists ac- remain so for ever and ever. But we who count for the inequality of mankind? were created by that Brahma, we have come hither all impermanent, transient, Confining themselves purely to sense- unstable, short-lived, destined to pass data, they attribute this inequality to away.’” chemico-physical causes, heredity, envi- ronment, and so forth. “Thus was appointed the beginning of all things which, ye, sirs, declare as your Julian Huxley, a distinguished biolo- traditional doctrine; to wit, that it has been gist, writes that some genes control wrought by an over-lord, by Brahma.” colour, others height or weight, others fertility or length of life, others vigour and In the Bh³ridatta J±taka (No. 543)5 the the reverse, others shape or proportions. Bodhisatta questions the alleged justice of the Creator as follows :— 5 J±taka Translation vi 110. 6 J±taka Translation v 122. 56 Possibly all, certainly the vast majority, ment, “nature and nurture”, but also to of hereditary characters are gene-con- Kamma, the result of our own past ac- trolled. For mental characters, especially tions and our present doings. We our- the more complex and subtle ones, the selves are responsible for our own happi- proof is more difficult, but there is every ness and misery. We create our own heav- evidence that their inheritance is due to a ens. We create our own hells. We are the different mechanism from that for bodily arehitects of our fate. characters. That which is inherited in our Preplexed by the seemingly inexpli- personality and bodily peculiarities de- cable, apparent disparity that exists pends somehow upon the inter-action- of amongst humanity, a young truth-seeker this assorted battery of genes with which approached the Buddha and questioned we are equipped at fertilization. 7 Him about this intricate problem of in- One must admit that all such chemico- equality. physical phenomena, revealed by scien- “What is the cause, what is the rea- tists, are partly instrumental,—but could son, O Lord,” questioned he, “that we find they be solely responsible for the subtle amongst mankind the short-lived distinctions and vast differences that ex- (app±yuk±) and the long-lived ist amongst individuals? Yet, why should (d²gh±yuk±), the healthy (app±badh±) and identical twins who are physically alike, the diseased (bavh±b±dh±), the ugly inheriting like genes, enjoying the same (dubbaºº±) and the beautiful privilege of upbringing, be so tempera- (vaººavant±), the powerless mentally, intellectually, and morally to- (appesakkh±) and the powerful tally different? (mahesakkh±), the poor (appabhog±) and Heredity alone cannot account for the rich (mah±bhog±), the low-born these vast differences. Strictly speaking, (nicakulin±) and the high-born it may account for the similarities, more (uccakudin±), the ignorant (duppaññ±) than the differences. and the wise (paññ±vant±).”8 The infinitesimally minute chemico- Briefly the Buddha gave the follow- physical germ, which is about 1/120th of ing profound reply:— an inch across, inherited from parents, “All living beings have actions explains only a portion of man; his physi- (kamma) as their own, their inheritance, cal foundation. With regard to the more their congenital cause, their kinsman, their complex and subtle mental, intellectual, refuge. It is Kamma that differentiates and moral differences we need more en- beings into low and high states.”8 lightenment. The theory of heredity can- He then explained the causes of such not satisfactorily account for the birth of differences in accordance with the law of a criminal in a long line of honourable cause and effect. ancestors, for the birth of a saint in a fam- ily of evil repute, for the arising of infant We, no doubt, are born with heredi- prodigies, men of genius and perfect spiri- tary characteristics. At the same time we tual teachers. 7 Julian Huxley, The Stream of Life. The Buddha showed that this inequal- 8 Majjima Nik±ya (Culakammavibhanga Sutta No. ity is due not only to heredity, environ- 135) iii. 203. 57 do possess certain fixed abilities that sci- “Depending on this difference in ence cannot adequately account for. To Kamma appears the difference in the birth our parents we are indebted for the gross of beings, high low, base and exalted, sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of happy and miserable. Depending on the this so-called being. There they remain difference in Kamrna appears the differ- dormant until this potential germinal com- ence in the individual feature of beings pound is vitalized by the Kammic energy as beautiful and ugly, high-born or low- needed for the production of the foetus. born, well-built or deformed. Depending Kamma is therefore the indispensable on the difference in Kamma appears the conceptive cause of this being. difference in worldly conditions of beings The accumulated Kammic tendencies, as gain and loss, fame and disgrace, inherited by individuals in the course of blame and praise, happiness and misery.” their previous lives, play at times a far “By Kamma the world moves, by greater role than the hereditary parental Kamma men cells and genes in the formation of both Live, and by Kamma are all beings physical and mental characteristics. bound The Buddha, for instance, inherited, As by its pin the rolling chariot wheel. like every other person, the reproductive By Kamma one attains glory and cells and genes from His parents. But praise, physically, morally, and intellectually there was none comparable to Him in His By Kamma bondage, ruin, tyranny. long line of royal ancestors. In the Knowing that Kamma bears fruit Buddha’s own words, He belonged not manifold. to the royal lineage, but to that of the Why say ye, ‘In the world no Kamma Ariyan Buddhas. He was certainly a su- is’?” perman, an extraordinary creation of His Thus, our present mental, moral, in- own Kamma. tellectual, and temperamental differences According to the Lakkhaºa Sutta9 the are preponderantly due to our own ac- Buddha inherited these exceptional fea- tions and tendencies, both past and tures, such as the 32 major marks, as the present. result of His past meritorious deeds. The Although Buddhism shows this varia- ethical reason for acquiring each physi- tion to be due to Kamma, as the chief cal feature is clearly explained in the cause amongst a variety, yet it does not Sutta. assert that everything is due to Kamma. It is obvious from this unique case that The law of Kamma, important as it is, is Kammic tendencies could not only influ- only one of the twenty-four conditions ence our physical organism, but also nul- (paccaya), described in Buddhist Philoso- lify the potentiality of the parental cells phy.11 and genes —hence the significance of the Buddha’s statement,— ‘we are the heirs of our own actions.” 9 D²gha Nik±ya (N. 30) iii. 142. 10 P 65; The Expositor, i. 87. Dealing with this problem of variation 11 See Compendium of Philosophy, p. 191. the Atthas±lini 10 states:— 58 Refuting the erroneous view that They are: “Whatsoever weal or woe or neutral feel- 1. Utu Niy±ma, physical inorganic ing is experienced, all that is due to some order, e.g., seasonal phenomena of winds previous action (pubbekatahetu),” the and rains. The unerring order of seasons, Buddha states: characteristic seasonal changes and “So, then owing to a previous action, events, causes of winds and rains, nature men will become murderers, thieves, un- of heat, etc., belong to this group. chaste, liars, slanderers, babblers, covet- 2. B²ja Niy±ma, order of germs and ous, malicious, and perverse in view. Thus seeds (physical organic order); e.g., rice for those who fall back on the former deed produced from rice-seed, sugary taste as the essential reason, there is neither the from sugar-cane or honey, peculiar char- desire to do, nor effort to do, nor neces- acteristics of certain fruits, etc. The sci- sity to do this deed, or abstain from that entific theory of cells and genes and the deed.” 12 physical similarity of twins may be as- cribed to this order. This important text contradicts the be- lief that all physical circumstances and 3. Kamma Niy±ma, order of act and mental attitudes spring from past Kamma. result, e.g., desirable and undesirable acts If the present life is totally conditioned or produce corresponding good and bad re- wholly controlled by our past actions, then sults. As surely as water seeks its own certainly Kamma is tantamount to fatal- level so does Kamma, given opportunity, ism and determinism and predestination. produce its inevitable result,—not in the form of a reward or punishment but as an One will not be free to mould one’s present innate sequence. This sequence of deed and future. In this case freewill too be- and effect is as natural and necessary as comes an absolute farce. Life becomes the way of the sun and the moon. purely mechanistic, not much different from a machine. Whether we are created 4. Dhamma Niy±ma, order of the by an Almighty God who controls our norm, e.g., the natural phenomena occur- destinies and fore-ordains our future, or ring at the advent of a Bodhisatta in his last birth. Gravitation and other similar are produced by an irresistible Kamma laws of nature, the reason for being good, that completely determines our fate and and so forth may be included in this group. controls our life’s course, independent of any free action on our part, is essentially 5. Citt± Niy±ma, order of mind or the same. The only difference lies in the psychic law, e.g. processes of conscious- two words God and Kamma. One could ness, arising and perishing of conscious- easily be substituted by the other, because ness, power of mind, etc. Telepathy, tel- esthesia, retro-cognition, premonition, the ultimate operation of both forces clairvoyance, clairaudience, thought-read- would be identical. ing, all psychic phenomena which are The Buddhist law of Kamma is not inexplicable to modern science are in- such a fatalistic doctrine. cluded in this class. In this connection it should be stated (See Abhidhammavatara p.54; that, there are five orders or processes Mrs. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, p.119). (Niy±mas) which operate in the physical and mental realms. 12 Aªguttara Nik±ya, i. 173; Gradual Sayings, i. 157. 59 Every mental or physical phenomenon moral volition (kusala akusala cetan±). could be explained by these all-embrac- Involuntary, unintentional or unconscious ing five orders or processes which are laws actions, though techncally deeds, do not in themselves. Kamma as such is only one constitute Kamma, because volition, the of these five orders which as is the case most important factor in determining with all natural laws, demand no law- Kamma, is absent. giver. The Buddha says: Of these five, the physical inorganic “I declare, O Bhikkhus, that volition order and the order of the norm are more (cetan±) is Kamma. Having willed, one or less mechanistic, though they can be acts by body, speech, and thought.” controlled to some extent by human in- —Aªguttara Nik±ya, iii 415. genuity and the power of mind. For ex- ample, fire normally burns, and extreme Every volitional action of individuals, cold freezes, but man has walked scathe- save those of Buddhas and Arahantas, is less over fire and meditated naked on called Kamma. The exception made in Himalayan snows; horticulturists have their case is because they are delivered worked marvels with flowers and fruits; from both good and evil; they have eradi- and Yogis have performed levitation. Psy- cated ignorance and craving, the roots of chic law is equally mechanistic, but Bud- Kamma. “Destroyed are their (germinal) dhist training aims at control of mind, seeds (Kh²n± bij±); (selfish) desires no which is possible by right understanding longer grow,” states the Ratana Sutta. This and skilful volition. Kamma law operates does not mean that Buddhas and quite automatically and, when the Kamma Arahantas are passive. They are tirelessly is powerful, man cannot interfere with its active in working for the real well-being inexorable result though he may desire and happiness of all. Their deeds ordi- to do so; but here also right understand- narily accepted as good or moral, lack ing and skilful volition can accomplish creative power as regard themselves. much and mould the future. Good Understanding things as they truly are, Kamma, persisted in, can thwart the reap- they have finally shattered their cosmic ing of bad. Kamma is certainly an intri- fetters—the chain of cause and effect. cate law whose working is fully compre- Kamma does not necessarily mean hended only by a Buddha. The Buddhist past actions. It embraces both past and aims at the destruction of all Kamma. present deeds. Hence, in one sense, we What is Kamma are the result of what we were; we will not absolutely be the result of what we The P±li term Kamma (Sanskrit- are. The present is no doubt the offspring Karma) literally means action or doing. of the past and is the parent of the future, Any kind of intentional action whether but the present is not always a true index mental, verbal, or physical is regarded as of either the past or the future; so com- Kamma. It covers all that is included in plex is the working of Kamma. the phrase “thought, word and deed”. Generally speaking, all good and bad ac- It is this doctrine of Kamma that the tions constitute Kamma. In its ultimate mother teaches her child when she says: sense Kamma means all moral and im- Be good and you will be happy and 60 we will love you; but if you are bad, you As we sow, we reap somewhere and will be unhappy and we will not love somewhen, in this life or in a future birth. you.” What we reap today is what we have sown In short Kamma is the law of cause either in the present or in the past. and effect in the ethical realm. The Samyutta Nik±ya13 states: Kamma and Vip±ka “According to the seed that’s sown, Kamma is action, and Vip±ka, fruit or So is the fruit ye reap therefrom, result, is its reaction. Just as every object Doer of good will gather good, is accompanied by a shadow, even so Doer of evil, evil reaps. every volitional activity is inevitably ac- companied by its due effect. Like poten- Sown is the seed, and thou shalt taste tial seed is Kamma. Fruit, arising from the thereof” tree, is like the Vip±ka, effect or result. Kamma is a law in itself which oper- The leaves, flowers and so forth which ates in its own field without the interven- correspond to external differences such tion of any external, independent ruling as health, sickness, poverty, etc., are agency. Vip±ka, ¾nisamsa and ¾dinava, inevi- Inherent in Kamma is the potentiality table concomitant consequences. Strictly of producing its due effect. The cause speaking, both Kamma and Vip±ka per- produces the effect; the effect explains the tain to the mind. cause. The seed produces the fruit; the As Kamma may be good or bad, so fruit explains the seed, such is their rela- may Vip±ka, fruit, be good or bad. As tionship. Even so are Kamma and its ef- Karnma is mental so is Vip±ka too men- fect, ‘the effect already blooms in the tal; it is experienced as happiness, bliss, cause.’ unhappiness or misery, according to the Happiness and misery, which are the nature of the Kamma seed. ¾nisamsa are common lot of humanity, are the inevi- the concomitant advantageous material table effects of some cause or causes. things, such as prosperity, health, and lon- From a Buddhist point of view they are gevity. When Vip±ka’s concomitant ma- not rewards and punishments, assigned terial things are disadvantageous, they are by a supernatural, omniscient ruling known as Adinava, “full of wretched- power to a soul that has done good or ness”, and appear as poverty, ugliness, evil. Theists who attempt to explain ev- disease, short life-span and so forth. erything by this one temporal life and an By Kamma is meant the Moral and eternal future life, ignoring a past, may Immoral types of mundane conscious- believe in a postmortem justice, and may ness, and by Vip±ka, the resultant types regard present happiness and misery as of mundane consciousness. The eight blessings and curses conferred on his cre- types of supermundane (lokuttara) con- ation by an omniscient and omnipotent sciousness are not regarded as Kamma divine ruler who sits in heaven above, and Vip±ka, because they tend to eradi- controlling the destinies of the human cate the roots of Kamma. In them the pre- race. Buddhism that emphatically denies dominant factor is wisdom (paññ±), whilst such an Almighty and All-merciful God- in the mundane it is volition (cetan±). 13 Vol. i., p. 227. 61 Creator and an arbitarily created immor- nor predestination imposed upon us by tal soul, shows that there is a natural law some mysterious unknown power to and justice which cannot be suspended which we must helplessly submit our- either by an Almighty God or an All-com- selves. It is one’s own doing reacting on passionate Buddha. According to this oneself, and so one has the possibility to natural law, acts bring their own rewards divert the course of Kamma to some ex- and punishments to the individual doer tent. How far one diverts it depends on whether human justice finds him out or oneself. not. Is one bound to reap all that one has Some there are, who cavil thus: “So sown in just proportion? The Buddha pro- you Buddhists too administer capitalistic vides an answer: dope to the poor saying: “If anyone says that a man must reap “You are bornpoor in this life on ac- according to his deeds, in that case there count of your evil Kamma. He is born is no religious life, nor is an opportunity rich on account of his past good Kamma. afforded for the entire extinction of sor- So be satisfied with your humble lot; but row. But if anyone says that what a man do good to be rich in your next life. reaps accords with his deeds, in that case “You are being oppressed now because there is a religious life, and an opportu- of your past evil Kamma. That is your nity is afforded for the entire extinction destiny. Be humble and bear your suffer- of sorrow.14 Although it is stated in the ings patiently. Do good now. You can be Dhammapada15 That “not in the sky, nor certain of a better and happier life after in mid-ocean, nor entering a mountain death.” cave is found that place on earth, where abiding one may escape from (the conse- The Buddhist doctrine of Kamma does quence of) an evil deed,” yet one is not not expound such ridiculous fatalistic bound to pay all the past arrears of one’s views. Nor does it vindicate a post-mortem Kamma. If such were the case, emanci- justice. The All-Merciful Buddha, who pation would be an impossibility. Eternal had no ulterior selfish motives, did not recurrence would be the unfortunate re- teach this law of Kamma to protect the sult. rich and comfort the poor by promising illusory happiness in an after-life. What is the Cause of Kamma? Admittedly we are born to a state cre- Ignorance (avijj±) or not knowing ated by ourselves. Yet by our own well- things as they truly are is the chief cause directed efforts there is every possibility of Kamma. Dependent on ignorance for us to create new favourable environ- arises activities (avijj± paccay± saªkh±r±) ments even here and now. Not only indi- states the Buddha in tha Paµicca vidually but also collectively are we at Samupp±da. liberty to create fresh Kamma that tends Associated with ignorance is its ally, either towards our progress or downfall craving (taºh±), the other root of Kamma. in this very life. One is not always compelled by an 14 Aªguttara Nik±ya, i. 249. See Warren, Buddhism in Translations, p. 218. iron necessity; for Kamma is neither fate 15 Verse127. 62 Evil actions are conditioned by these two Buddhists, therefore, know that there causes. All good deeds of a worldling is not an unchanging entity, no actor apart (puthujjana) though associated with three from action, no perceiver apart from per- wholesome roots of generosity (alobha), ception, no conscious subject behind con- goodwill (adosa), and knowledge sciousness. (amoha) are nevertheless regarded as Who, then, is the doer of Kamma? Kamma because the two roots of igno- Who experiences the effect? rance and craving are dominant in him. Volition or will (cetan±) is itself the The moral types of supramundatte Path doer. Feeling (vedan±) is itself the reaper consciousness (maggacitta) are not re- of the fruits of action. Apart from these garded as Kamma because they tend to pure mental states (su¹¹hadhamm±) there eradicate the two root causes. is none to sow and none to reap. In this Who is the doer of Kamma? respect Buddhists agree with Prof. Will- Who reaps the fruit of Kamma? iam James when, unlike Descartes, he Is Kamma a sort of accretion about a asserts— “Thoughts themselves are the soul? thinkers.” 17 In answering this subtle question ven- What is Kamma? erable Buddhaghosa writes in the “Stored within the psyche”, writes a Visuddhi Magga:16 certain psychoanalyst, “but usually inac- “No doer is there who does the deed; cessible and to be reached only by some, is the whole record, without exception, Nor is there one who feels the fruit: of every experience the individual has Constituent parts alone roll on; passed through, every influence felt, ev- This indeed is right discernment.” ery impression received. The subcon- There are two realities—apparent and scious mind is not only an indelible record ultimate. Apparent reality is ordinary con- of individual experiences but also retains ventional truth (samuti sacc±). Ultimate the impress of primeval impulses and ten- reality is abstract truth (paramattha sacc±). dencies which, so far from being out- For instance, the table we see is ap- grown as we fondly deem in civilised man, parent reality. In an ultimate sense the so- is subconsciously active and apt to break called table consists of forces and quali- out in disconcerting strength at unex- ties. pected moments.” For ordinary purposes a scientist would Buddhists would make the same as- use the term water, but in the laboratory sertion with a vital modification. Not he would say H O. stored within any postulatory “psyche”, 2 for there is no proof of any such recep- In the same way for conventional pur- tacle or store-house in this ever-chang- poses such terms as man, woman, being, ing complex machinery of man, but de- self, and so forth are used. The so-called pendent on the individual psycho-physi- fleeting forms consist of psycho-physi- cal phenomena which are constantly 16 Vol. ii. p. 602. See Warren Buddhism in Transla- changing not remaining the same for two tions, p. 248; The Path of Purity, iii. 726. consecutive moments. 17 Psychology, p.216. 63 cal continuity or flux is every experience Every birth is conditioned by a good the so-called being has passed through, or bad Kamma that predominates at the every influence felt, every impression re- moment of death. Such an action is termed ceived, every characteristic—divine, hu- Reproductive (janaka) Kamma. As a rule man, or brutal. In short the entire Kammic the last thought-moment depends on the force is dependent on the mental flux general conduct of a person. In some ex- (citta-santati) ever ready to manifest itself ceptional cases, perhaps due to favourable in multifarious phenomena as occasion or unfavourable circumstances, at the arises. moment of death a good person may ex- “Where, venerable Sir, is Kamma? perience a bad thought and a bad person questioned King Milinda from the vener- a good one. The future birth will be de- able Nagasena. termined by this last thought irrespective of the general conduct. This does not “O Maharaja,” replied the venerable mean that the effects of the past actions Nagasena, “Kamma is not said to be are obliterated. They will have their due ‘stored’ somewhere in this fleeting con- effects as occasions arise. Such reverse sciousness or in any part of the body. But changes of birth account for the birth of dependent on mind and matter it rests virtuous children to vicious parents and manifesting itself at the opportune mo- of vicious children to virtuous parents. ment, just as mangoes are not said to be stored somewhere in the mango tree, but Now, to assist and maintain or to dependent on the mango tree they lie, weaken and obstruct fruition of this Re- springing up in due season.” productive Kamma, another past Kamma may intervene. Such actions are termed Just as wind or fire is not stored in any ‘Supportive’ (upatthambaka) and ‘Coun- particular place, even so Kamma is not teractive’ (upap²¼aka) Kamma respec- stored anywhere within or without the tively. body. According to the law of Kamma the Classification of Kamma potential energy of the Reproductive There are actions which may produce Kamma could be totally annulled by a their due effect in this very life more powerful opposing past Kamma, (diµµhadhammavedaniya), or in a subse- which, seeking an opportunity, may quite quent life (Upapajjavedaniya), or in any unexpectedly operate, just as a counter- life in the course of one’s wandering in active force can obstruct the path of a fly- Sa½sara (apar±pariyavedaniya). When ing arrow and bring it down to the ground. such actions that should produce their Such an action is called ‘Destructive’ effects in this life or in a subsequent life (upagh±taka) or (upacchedaka) Kamma, do not operate they are termed ‘ineffec- which is more powerful than the above tive’ (ahosi). two in that it not only obstructs but also This classification is according to the destroys the whole force. time in which effects are worked out. There is another classification accord- With reference to different functions, ing to the priority of effect. Kamma is classified into another four The first is called Garuka Kamma, kinds. which means weighty or serious as it pro- 64 duces its effect in this life or in the next Nature of Kamma for certain. In the moral side the Weighty In the working of Kamma, it may be actions are the Jh±nas or Ecstasies, whilst mentioned, there are malificent and be- in the immoral side they are the five im- neficent forces and conditions to coun- mediately effective heinous crimes teract and support this self-operating law. (pañc±nantariya kamma) which are ma- Birth (gati), time or conditions (k±la), tricide, parricide, the murder of an Arahat, beauty (upadhi), and effort (payoga) act the wounding of a Buddha, and the cre- as such powerful aids and hindrances to ation of a schism in the Saªgha. the fruition of Kamma. In the absence of a Weighty Kamma Though we are neither absolutely the to condition the subsequent birth, a death servants nor the masters of our Kamma it proximate (¾sanna) Kamma might oper- is evident from these counteractive and ate. This is the action one does, or recol- supportive factors that the fruition of lects, immediately before the dying mo- Kamma is influenced to some extent by ment, owing to its significance in deter- external circumstances, surroundings, mining the future birth the custom of re- personality, individual striving, and so minding the dying person of his good forth. deeds and making him do good on his It is this doctrine of Kamma that gives death-bed still prevails in Buddhist coun- consolation, hope, reliance, and moral tries. courage to a Buddhist. Habitual (¾ciººaka) Kamma is the When the unexpected happens and he next in priority of effect. It is the action meets with difficulties, failures, and mis- one constantly performs and recollects fortune, he realizes that he is reaping what and towards which one has great predi- he has sown, and is wiping off a past debt. lection. Instead of resigning himself leaving ev- The last in this category is ‘Cumula- erything to Kamma, he makes a strenu- tive’ (kaµatt±) Kamma which embraces all ous effort to pull up the weeds and sow that cannot be included in the above-men- useful seeds in their place, for the future tioned three. This is, as it were, the re- is in his hands. serve fund of a particular being. He who believes in Kamma does not The last classification is according to condemn even the most corrupt, for they the plane in which the effects take place, have the chance of reforming themselves namely— at any moment. Though bound to suffer (i) Evil actions (akusala) which may in woeful states, they have the hope of ripen in the sentient plane (K±maloka). attaining eternal Peace. By their doings (ii) Good actions (kusala) which may they have created their own hell, and by ripen in the sentient plane. their own doings they can create their own heavens too. (iii) Good actions which may ripen in the Realm of Form (R³paloka). A Buddhist who is fully convinced of the law of Kamma does not pray to an- (iv) Good actions which may ripen in other to be saved but confidently relies the Formless Realms (Ar³paloka). on himself for his emancipation. Instead 65 of making any self-surrender, or propiti- the existence of a transmigrating ating any supernatural agency, he relies permanent soul, created by God, or on his own will-power and works inces- emanating from a Param±tma. santly for the weal and happiness of all. It is Kamma that conditions rebirth. This belief in Kamma “validates this Past Kamma conditions the present birth; effort and kindles his enthusiasm”, be- and present Kamma, in combination with cause it teaches individual responsibility. past Kamma, conditions the future. The To an ordinary Buddhist Kamma present is the offspring of the past, and serves as a deterrent, whilst to an intel- becomes, in turn, the parent of the future. lectual it serves as an incentive to do good The actuality of the present needs no purely from an altruistic point of view. proof as it is self-evident. That of the past He becomes ever so kind, tolerant, and is based on memory and report, and that considerate. of the future on fore-thought and This law of Kamma explains the prob- inference. lems of suffering, the mystery of so-called If we postulate a past, present, and a fate and predestination of other religions, future life, then we are at once faced with and above all the inequality of mankind. the alleged mysterious problem— “What (To be concluded in next issue.) is the ultimate origin of life?” [Part 2 was originally in the January One school, in attempting to solve the 1956 issue. We include it here.] problem, posits a first cause, whether as a cosmic force or as an Almighty Being. (Continued from the previous issue) Another school denies a first cause for, in The doctrine of rebirth is not a mere common experience, the cause ever theory but an evidently verifiable fact and becomes the effect and the effect becomes forms a fundamental tenet of Buddhism, the cause. In a circle of cause and effect, though the end of rebirth is attainable in a first cause is inconceivable. According this life itself. The Bodhisatta Ideal and to the former, life has a beginning; the correlative doctrine of freedom to according to the latter it is beginningless attain utter perfection are based on this In the opinion of some the conception of doctrine of rebirth. a first cause is as ridiculous as a round Documents record that this belief in triangle. rebirth, viewed as transmigration or Modern science endeavours to tackle reincarnation, was accepted by some the problem with its limited systematized spiritual teachers like Christ, philosophers knowledge. According to the scientific like Pythagoras and Plato, poets like point of view, we are the direct product Shelley, Tennyson and Wordsworth, and of the sperm and ovum cells provided by many ordinary men in the West as well as our parents. But science does not give a in the East. satisfactory explanation with regard to the The Buddhist doctrine of rebirth development of the mind, which is should however be differentiated from infinitely more important than the the transmigration and reincarnation of machinery of man’s material body. other systems, because Buddhism denies Scientists, whilst asserting “omne vivum 66 ex vivo”—“all life from life,” maintain [Here Gandhabba ( = gantabba) does that mind and life evolved from the not mean “a class of devas said to preside lifeless. over the processes of conception,” 19 but Some religious systems assert that refers to a suitable being ready to be born soul, an averred essence of man, springs in that particular womb. This term is used from God; parents only provide the gross only in this particular connection, and garments for a soul. must not be mistaken for a permanent soul.] Now, from the scientific point of view, we are absolutely parent-born. As such, For a being to be born here a being life precedes life. With regard to the origin must die somewhere. The birth of a of the first protoplasm of life, or “colloid” being,— which strictly means the arising (whichever we please to call it), scientists of the Aggregates (khandh±na½ plead ignorance. p±tubh±vo), or psycho-physical phenomena, in the present life,— Buddhism teaches that we are born corresponds to the death of a being in a from the matrix of action (Kammayoni). past life; just as in conventional terms, the Parents merely provide us with a material rising of the sun in one place means the layer. As such, being precedes being. At setting of the sun in another place. This the moment of conception, it is Kamma enigmatic statement may be better that conditions the initial consciousness understood by imagining life as a wave that vitalizes the fetus. It is this inevitable and not as a straight line. Birth and death Kammic energy, generated from the past are only two phases of the same process. birth, that produces mental phenomena Birth precedes death, and death, on the and the phenomena of life in an already other hand, precedes birth. This constant extant physical phenomenon, to complete succession of birth and death in the trio that constitutes man. connection with each individual life-flux Dealing with the conception of beings, constitutes what is technically known as the Buddha states.— Sa½s±ra,—recurrent wandering. “Where three are found in What is the Ultimate Origin of Life? combination, then a germ or life is The Buddha positively declares:— planted. If mother and father come “Without cognizable end is the Sa½s±ra. together, but it is not the mother’s period, A first beginning of beings who, and the ‘being-to-be-born’ (gandhabba) obstructed by ignorance and fettered by is not present, then no germ of life is craving, wander and fare on, is not to be planted. If mother and father come perceived.” 20 together, and it is the mother’s period, but the ‘being-to-be-born’ is not present then This life-stream flows ad infinitum, as again no germ of life is planted. If mother long as it is fed by the muddy waters of and father come together, and it is the ignorance and craving. When these two mother’s period, and the ‘being-to-be- 18 Majjhima Nikaya ( Mahataºha-samkhaya Sutta, born’ is also present, then, by the No. 38) i. 265. conjunction’of these three, a germ of life 19 See F. L. Woodward, “Some Sayings of the Bud- is there pIanted.” 18 dha”, p. 40. 20 Samyutta Nikaya, ii. 178. 67 are completely cut off, then only does the ugly, the happy and miserable passing life- stream cease to flow; rebirth ends, as according to their deeds, etc. 21 in the case of Buddhas and Arahats. The These are the very first utterances of ultimate beginning of this life-stream the Buddha regarding the question of cannot be determined, as a stage cannot rebirth. These textual references be perceived when this life force was not conclusively prove that the Buddha did fraught with ignorance and craving. not borrow this stern truth of rebirth from The Buddha has here referred merely any pre-existing source, but spoke from to the beginning of the life-stream of living personal knowledge—a knowledge which beings. It is left to scientists to speculate was supernormal, developed by Himself as to the origin and the evolution of the and which can be developed by others as universe. The Buddha does not attempt well. to solve all the ethical and philosophical In His first paean of joy (udd±na), 22 problems that perplex mankind. Nor does the Buddha says: He deal with speculations and theorizing “Through many, a birth (anekaj±ti) that tend neither to edification nor to wandered I, seeking the. builder of this enlightenment. Nor does He demand blind house. Sorrowful indeed is birth again and faith from His adherents about a First again (dukkh± j±ti punappunan)”. Cause. He is chiefly concerned with the 23 problem of suffering and its destruction. In the Dhammacakka Sutta, His very With but this one practical and specific first discourse, the Buddha, commenting purpose in view, all irrelevant side issues on the second Noble Truth, states Y aya½ are completely ignored. taºh± punobh±vik± — this very craving which leads to rebirth”. And the Buddha How are we to believe in rebirth? concluded that discourse with the words— The Buddha is our greatest authority ‘Aya½ antima j±ti natthi d±ni on rebirth. punabbhavo’— “This is my last birth. On the very night of His Now there is no more rebirth.” Enlightenment, during the first watch, the The Majjhima Nik±ya relates that Buddha developed retrocognitive when the Buddha out of compassion for knowledge which enabled Him to read beings, surveyed the world with His His past lives: Buddha-vision, before He decided to “I recalled”, He declares, “my varied teach the Dhamma, He perceived beings lot in former existences as follows: first who realized the faults and fears affecting one life, then two lives, then three, four, a future life (paralokavajja- five, ten, twenty up to fifty lives; then a bhayadass±vino). 24 hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, In several discourses the Buddha and so forth.” clearly states that beings, having done During the second watch the Buddha 21 Majjhima Nikaya(Mahasaccaka Sutta No. 36) i. with clairvoyant vision, perceived beings 248. disappearing from one state of existence 22 Dhammapada, Verse 153. and reappearing in another. He beheld 23 Mahavaggo, p. 10; Samyutta Nikaya, V 420. “the base and noble, the beautiful and 24 Majjhima Nikaya, i.169. 68 evil, are, after death parammaraºa, born Although science has only just begun in woeful states; and beings, having done to take cognizance of these supernormal good, are born in blissful states. faculties, yet men with highly developed Besides the most interesting J±taka concentration, have been able to cultivate stories, which deal with His previous lives, these psychic powers and read their pasts and which are of psychological just as one would recall a past incident of importance—the Majjhima Nik±ya and one’s present life. With their aid, Anguttara Nik±ya make incidental independent of the five senses, direct reference to some of the past lives of the communication of thought, and direct Buddha. perception of other worlds are made possible. In the Ghatikara Sutta25 the Buddha relates to the venerable ¾nanda that He There also are some extraordinary was born as Jotip±la, in the time of the persons, especially children who, Buddha Kassapa, His immediate according to the laws of association, predecessor. The An±thapiº¹ikovada spontaneously develop the memory of Sutta26 describes a nocturnal visit of their past births and remember fragments An±thapiº¹ika to the Buddha, of their previous lives. A single such well- immediately after his rebirth as a Deva. attested respectable case is in itself In the Anguttara Nik±ya, the Buddha sufficient evidence for a discerning alludes to a past birth of His as Pacetana student to believe in a past birth. the wheelright.27 “Pythagoras is said to have distinctly remembered a shield in a Grecian temple An unusual direct reference to as having been carried by him in a departed ones appears in the Parinibb±na previous incarnation at the siege of Troy.” Sutta.28 The venerable ¾nanda desired to Somehow or other these wonderful know from the Buddha the future states children lose that memory later, as is the of several persons who had died in a case with many infant prodigies. certain village. The Buddha patiently described their destinies. Experiences of some reliable modem psychists, ghostly phenomena, spirit- Such instances could easily be communications, strange alternating and multiplied from the Tipiµaka to show that multiple personalities and so forth shed the Buddha did expound the doctrine of some light upon this problem of rebirth. rebirth as a verifiable truth. The phenomenon of secondary Following the Buddha’s instructions, personalities has to be explained either His disciples also developed this as remnants of past individual retrocognitive knowledge and were able experiences or as “possession”. The to read a limited, though vast, number of former explanation appears more their past lives. The Buddha’s power in reasonable, but the latter cannot totally this direction was limitless. be rejected. Some Indian Rishis too, prior to the advent of the Buddha, were distinguished 25 Majjhima Nikaya. ii. 45 (No. 81). for such supernormal powers as 26 Majjhima Nikaya (No. l43) iii.258. clairaudience, clairvoyance, telepathy, 27 Anguttara Nikaya i.111. telesthesia,and so forth. 28 Digha Nikaya (No. 16) ii.91. 69 How often do we meet persons whom Heredity alone cannot account for we have never before met, and prodigies,.— “else their ancestry would instinctively feel that they are familiar to disclose it; their posterity, in even greater us? How often do we visit places and degree than themselves, would instinctively feel impressed that we are demonstrate it.” perfectly acquainted with those Is it reasonable to believe that the surronndings? present brief span of life is the only There arise in this world highly existence between two eternities of developed personalities, and Perfect Ones happiness and misery? like the Buddhas. Could they evolve The few years we spend here, at most suddenly? Could they be the products of but five score years, must certainly be an a single existence? inadequate preparation for eternity. How are we to account for colossal If one believes in the present and a characters like Homer and Plato, men of future, it is logical to believe in a past. genius like Shakespeare, infant prodigies If there be reason to believe that we like Pascal, Mozart, Beethoven and so have existed in the past, then surety there forth? are no reasons to disbelieve that we shall Infant prodigies seem to be a problem continue to exist after our present life has for scientists. Some medical men are of apparently ceased. opinion that prodigies are the outcome of It is indeed a strong argument in abnormal glands, especially the pituitary, favour of past and future lives that “in the pineal and the adrenal gland. The this world virtuous persons are very often extraordinary hypertrophy of glands of unfortunate, and vicious persons particular individuals may also be due to prosperous.” a past Kammic cause. But how, by the mere hypertrophy of glands, one What do Kamma and Rebirth Explain? Christian Heinecken could talk within a 1. They account for the problem of few hours of his birth, repeat passages suffering for which we ourselves are from the Bible at one, answer any responsible. question on Geography at two, speak 2. They explain the inequality of French and Latin at three, and be a student mankind. of philosophy at four, how Stuart Mill 3. They account for the arising of could read Greek at three; Macaulay write geniuses and infant prodigies. a world history at six; William James Sidis, 4. They explain why individual wonder child of the United States, read twins who are physically alike, enjoying and write at two, speak French, Russian, equal privileges, exhibit totally different English, German with sonic Latin and characteristics, mentally, intellectually and Greek at eight, is incomprehensible to us morally. nonscientists. Nor does science explain why glands should hypertrophy in just a 5. They account for the few and not in all. The real problem dissimilarities amongst children of the remains unsolved. same family, whilst heredity accounts for the similarities. 70 6. They account for the special Paµicca means “because of” or abilities of men which are due to their “dependent upon”; samupp±da, “arising” prenatal tendencies. or “origination”. Paµicca Samupp±da 7. They account for the moral and literally means “dependent arising” or intellectual differences between parents “dependent origination”. and children. Paµicca Samupp±da is a discourse on 8. They explain how infants the process of birth and death, and not a spontaneously develop such passions as theory on the evolution of the world from greed, anger, jealousy, etc. primordial matter. It deals with the cause of rebirth and suffering. It does not in the 9. They account for the instinctive least attempt to solve the riddle of an likes and dislikes at first sight. absolute origin of life. 10. They explain how in us are found Ignorance (avijj±) of things as they “a rubbish heap of evil and a treasure truly are, is the first link, or the cause of house of good.” the wheel of life. It clouds all right 11. They account for the unexpected understanding. outburst of passion in a highly civilized Dependent on ignorance arise person, and for the sudden transformation activities (sankh±r±), which include moral of a criminal into a saint. and immoral thoughts, words and deeds. 12. They explain how profligates are Actions, whether good or bad, which are born to saintly parents and saints to directly rooted in, or indirectly tainted with profligates. ignorance, and which must necessarily 13. They explain how, in one sense, produce their due effects, tend to prolong we are the result of what we were, we will wandering in the ocean of life. be the result of what we are,—and in Nevertheless good deeds free from another sense, we are not absolutely what delusion, hate and greed, are necessary we were, and we shall not absolutely be to get rid of the ills of life. As such, the what we are. Buddha compares His Dhamma to a raft, 14. They explain the causes of whereby one crosses the ocean of life. The untimely deaths, and unexpected changes activities of Buddhas and Arahats are not in fortune. treated as Sankhara, as they have eradicated ignorance. 15. Above all they account for the arising of Omniscient, perfect spiritual Dependent on activities arises rebirth- teachers, the Buddhas, who possess consciousness (paµisandhi-viññ±na). It is incomparable physical, mental and so called because it links the past with intellectual characteristics which can be the present, and is the initial consciousness explained only by Kamma and a series one experiences at the moment of of births. conception. The Process of Rebirth Simultaneous with the arising of the rebirth-consciousness, there occur mind How rebirth occurs has been fully and matter (n±ma-r³pa). explained by the Buddha in the Paµicca Samupp±da. The six senses (sa¼±yatana) evolve from these psycho-physical phenomena. 71 Because of the six senses, contact Modes of Birth and Death (phassa) sets in. Briefly expounding the process of Contact leads to sensations or feelings rebirth in such admittedly subtle technical (ved±na). terms, Buddhism assigns death to one of Dependent on sensation arises craving the four following causes (taºh±), which conditions attachment 1. Exhaustion of the Reproductive (upadd±na). Kammic energy (kammakkhaya). Attachment produces Kamma As a rule, the thought, volition or (bhava), which in turn conditions future desire, which is extremely strong during birth (j±ti). life-time, becomes predominant at the Old age and death (jar±-maraºa) are time of death and conditions the the inevitable results of birth. subsequent birth. In this last thought- moment is present a special potentiality. If, on account of a cause, an effect When the potential energy of this arises; then, if the cause ceases, the effect Reproductive Kamma is exhausted, the also must cease. organic activities of the material form in The reverse order of Paµicca which is corporealised the life force, cease Samupp±da will make the matter clear. even before the end of the life-span in Old age and death are only possible that particular plane. This often happens in and with a corporeal organism, that is in the case of beings who are born in to say, a six-sense machine. Such an states of misery (ap±ya), but it can happen organism must be born, therefore it in other planes too. presupposes birth. But birth is the 2. The expiration of the life-term inevitable result of past Kamma or action, (ubhayakkhaya), which varies in different which is conditioned by attachment due planes. Natural deaths, due to old age, to craving. Such craving appears when may be classed under this category. sensation arises. Sensation is the outcome 3. The simultaneous exhaustion of of contact between the senses and objects, the Reproductive Kammic energy and Therefore it presupposes organs of sense expiration of the life-term which cannot exist without mind and (ubhayakkhaya). body. Mind originates with a rebirth- consciousness due to ignorance of things 4. The opposing action of a stronger as they truly are. Kamma that unexpectedly obstructs the flow of the Reproductive Kamma before This process of birth and death the life-term expires. Sudden untimely continues ad infinitum. A beginning of deaths and deaths of children are due to this process cannot be determined as it is this cause. impossible to see a time when this life- flux was not encompassed by ignorance. The first three are collectively called But when this ignorance is replaced by “timely death” (k±lamaraºa), and the wisdom and life-flux realises the Nibb±na fourth is known as “untimely death” Dh±tu, then only does the rebirth process (ak±lamaraºa). Explaining thus the cause terminate. of death, Buddhism speaks of four modes of birth—namely, egg-born beings 72 (andaja), womb-born beings (jal±buja), they might at times be remedied. This is moisture-born beings (samsedaja), and done by influencing the thoughts of the beings spontaneously manifesting dying man. Such premonitory visions of (opap±tika). destiny may be fire, forests, mountainous Such embryos that take moisture as regions, a mother’s womb, celestial nidus for their growth, like certain lowly mansions, etc. forms of animal life, belongto the third Death is the cessation of the psycho- class. Beings spontaneously manifesting physical life of any one individual are generally invisible to the physical eye. existence. It takes place by the passing Conditioned by their past kamma, they away of vitality (±yu), i.e., psychic and appear spontaneously, without passing physical life (jivitindriya), heat (usm±) and through an embryonic stage. Petas and consciousness (viññ±na). Devas normally, and Brahmas belong to Death is not the complete annihilation this class. of a being, for though that particular life- How Rebirth Takes Place. span ended, the force which hitherto Suppose a person is about to die. This actuated it is not destroyed. critical stage may be compared to the Just as an electric light is the outward flickering of a lamp, just before it is visible manifestation of invisible electric extinguished. energy, even so we are the outward To this dying man is presented a manifestations of invisible Kammic Kamma, a Kamma Nimitta, or Gati energy. The bulb may break and the light Nimitta. may be extinguished, but the current remains and the light may be reproduced By Kamma is here meant some good in another bulb. In the same way, the or bad action committed during his life- Kammic force remains undisturbed by the time, or immediately before his dying disintegration of the physical body; and moment. Kamma Nimitta, or symbol, the passing away of the present means a mental reproduction of any sight, consciousness leads to the arising of a sound, smell, taste, touch or idea which fresh one in another birth. But nothing dominated at the time of the commission unchangeable or permanent “passes” of some salient activity, good or bad,— from the present to the future. such as a vision of knives or dying animals, in the case of a butcher; patients, Just as the wheel rests on the ground in the case of a kind physician; an object only at one point; even so, strictly of worship, in the case of a devotee and speaking, we live only for one thought- so forth. moment. We are always in the present, and that present is ever slipping into the By Gati Nimitta, or “symbol of irrevocable past. Each momentary destiny” is meant some sign of the place consciousness of this everchanging life- where he is to take rebirth. Such a symbol process, on passing away, transmits its frequently presents itself to dying persons whole energy, all the indelibly recorded and stamps its gladness or gloom upon impressions, to its successor. Every fresh their features. When these indications of consciousness therefore consists of the the future birth occur, and if they are bad, 73 potentialities of its predecessors and A question might arise,—are the something more. At death, the sperm and ovum cells always ready, consciousness perishes, as truly it does waiting to take up this rebirth thought ? every moment, only to give birth to Living beings are infinite, and so are another in a rebirth. This renewed world systems. Nor is the impregnated consciousness inherits all the past ovum the only route to rebirth, Earth, an experiences. As all impressions are almost insignificant speck in the universe, indelibly recorded in the everchanging is not the only habitable plane, and palimpsest-like mind, and as all humans are not the only living beings. potentialities are transmitted from life to As such, it is not impossible to believe life, irrespective of temporary physical that there will always be an appropriate disintegrations, reminiscence of past place to receive the last thought- births or past incidents becomes a vibrations. A point is always ready to possibility. If memory depends solely on receive the falling stone. brain cells, it becomes an impossibility. What is it that is Reborn? The continuity of the flux, At death, is Apart from mind and matter, which unbroken in point of time, and there is no constitute this so-called being, Buddhism breach in the stream of consciousness. The does not assert the existence of an only difference between the passing of immortal soul, or an eternal ego, which one thought to another in life-time, and man has obtained in a mysterious way of the dying thought-moment to the from an equally mysterious source. rebirth consciousness, is that in the latter case a marked perceptible physical death To justify the existence of endless is patent to all. felicity in an eternal heaven, and unending torment in an eternal hell, an immortal Rebirth takes place immediately, soul is absolutely necessary. Otherwise irrespective of the place of birth, just as what is it that sinned on earth and is an electromagnetic wave, projected into punished in hell? space, is immediately reproduced in a receiving radio set. Rebirth of the mental “It should be said”, writes Bertrand 29 flux is also instantaneous and leaves no Russel, “that the old distinction between room whatever for any intermediate state soul and body has evaporated, quite as (antarabhava). Buddhism does not much because ‘matter’ has lost its solidity support the belief that a spirit of the as because mind has lost its spirituality. deceased person takes lodgement in some Psychology is just beginning to be temporary state until it finds a suitable scientific. In the present state of place for its “reincarnation”. According psychology, belief in immortality can at to Tibetan works, writes Dr. Evans Wentz, any rate claim no support from science.” there is an intermediate state where beings According to the learned author of remain for one, two, three, four, five, six, “The Riddle of the Universe”— “The or seven weeks,—until the forty-ninth theological proof—that a personal creator day. This view is contrary to the teachings has breathed an immortal soul (generally of the Buddha. 29 Religion of Science, p. 132. 74 regarded as a portion of the Divine soul) can observe anything but the into man is a pure myth. The cosmological perception...” proof—that the ‘moral order of the world’ Dealing with this question of soul, demands the eternal duration of the Prof. William James writes:— human soul—is a baseless dogma. The “...This Me is an empirical aggregate teleological proof—that the ‘higher of things objectively known. The I which destiny’ ofman involves the perfecting of knows them cannot itself be an aggregate; his defective, earthly soul beyond the neither for psychological purposes need grave—rests on a false it be an unchanging metaphysical entity anthropomorphism. The moral proof— like the Soul, or a principle like the that the defects and the unsatisfied desires transcendental Ego, viewed as ‘out of of earthly existence must be fulfilled by time’. It is a thought, at each moment ‘compensative’ justice on the other side different from that of the last moment, but of eternity—is nothing more than a pious appropriative of the latter, together with wish. The ethnological proof—that the all that the latter called its own...” belief in immortality, like the belief in God, is an innate truth, common to all The Buddha propounded these facts humanity—is an error in fact. The some 2,500 years ago whilst He was ontological proof—that the soul being a sojourning in the valley of the Ganges. ‘simple’ immaterial, and indivisible entity Buddhism, teaching a psychology cannot be involved in the corruption of without a psyche, resolves the living death—is based on an entirely erroneous being into mind and matter (n±ma-r³pa), view of the psychic phenomena: it is a which are in a state of constant flux. R³pa spiritualistic fallacy. All these and similar consists of forces and qualities which ‘proofs of athanasianism’ are in a perilous constantly spring from Kamma, mind condition; they are definitely annulled by (citta), physical change (utu), and food the scientific criticism of the last few (ah±ra), and perish from moment to decades. moment. Hume in his search after a soul Mind, the more important part in the declares:— machinery of man consists of fifty-two “There are some philosophers who fleeting mental states. Feeling or sensation imagine we are every moment intimately (vedan±) is one, perception (saññ±) is conscious of what we call Self; that we another. The remaining fifty are feel its existence and its continuance in collectively volitional activities existence and are certain, beyond the (saºkh±r±). These psychic states arise in evidence of a demonstration, both of its a consciousness (viññ±na). perfect identity and implicity. . .For my These four kinds of psychic part, when I enter most intimately into phenomena combined with the physical what I call myself, I always stumble on phenomena, form the five Aggregates some particular perception or other of heat (paªcakkhandh±), the complex or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain compound termed a living being. or pleasure. I never can catch myself at One’s individuality is the combination any time without a perception, and never of these five aggregates 75 The whole process of these psycho- In the Visuddhi Magga and Milinda physical phenomena which are constantly Panh± the venerable Buddhaghosa and becoming and passing away, is at times N±gasena have employed several similes called, in conventional terms, the self, or to illustrate that nothing transmigrates Atta, by the Buddha but it is a process, from one life to another. and not an identity that is thus termed. The simile of the flame is very striking. Buddhism does not totally deny the Life is compared to a flame. Rebirth is existence of a personality in an empirical the transmitting of this flame from one sense. It denies, in an ultimate sense, an group to another. The flame of life is identical being of a permanent entity, but continuous although there is an apparent it does not deny a continuity in process. break at so-called death. The Buddhist philosophical term for an The body dies and its Kammic force individual is santati,—that is, a flux or is reborn in another. There is merely a continuity. This uninterrupted flux or continuity of a particular life-flux; just that continuity of psycho-physical and nothing more. phenomena, conditioned by Kamma, Is it One who does the Act in this Birth having no perceptible source in the and Another who reaps its Result in beginning-less past nor an end to its the Other Birth? continuation in the future, except by the To say that he who sows is absolutely Noble Eightfold Path, is the Buddhist the same as he who reaps is one extreme, substitute for the permanent ego or eternal and to say that he who sows is totally soul in other religious systems. different from he who reaps is the other How is Rebirth Possible Without a extreme. Overcoming these two extremes Soul to be Reborn? the Buddha teaches the middle doctrine Birth is the coming into being of the in terms of cause and effect. “Neither the Khandhas, the aggregates or groups same nor another” (na ca so na ca añño) (khandh±nam p±tubh±vo), states the venerable Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhi Magga. The evolution of the Just, as the rising of a physical state is butterfly may be cited in illustration conditioned by a preceding state as its thereof. cause, even so the appearance of this psycho-physical phenomenon is Its initial stage was an egg. Then it conditioned by causes anterior to its birth. turned into a caterpillar. Later it developed The present process of becoming is the into a chrysalis, and eventually into a result of the craving for becoming in the butterfly. This process occurs in the course previous birth, and the present instinctive of one life-time. The butterfly is neither craving conditions life in a future birth. the same as, nor totally different from, the caterpillar. Here also there is a flux of life, As the process of one life-span is or a continuity. possible without a permanent entity passing from one thought-moment to If there is No Soul, can there be any another, a series of life-processes is Moral Responsibility? possible without anything to transmigrate Yes, because there is a continuity, or from one life to another. identity in process, which is substantial for an identical personality. 76 A child, for instance, becomes a man. punishes us. But the Buddha does not talk The latter is neither absolutely the same,— of “punishments”. since the cells have undergone a complete The world is not so constituted. There change, nor totally different,—being the is a just and rational law of Kamma that identical stream of life. Nevertheless the operates automatically and we speak in individual, as man, is responsible for terms of cause and effect instead of whatever he has done in his childhood. rewards and punishments. Whether the flux dies here and is reborn In the words of the late Bhikkhu elsewhere, or continues to exist in the S²lac±ra “If a person does something in same life, the essential factor is this his sleep, gets out of bed and walks over continuity. the edge of a verandah, he will fall into Suppose a person was “A” in his last the road below and in all likelihood break birth, and is “B” in this. With the death of an arm or leg or something worse. But “A” the physical vehicle, the outward this will happen not at all as a punishment manifestation of Kammic energy, is for sleep-walking, but merely as its result. relinquished and, with the birth of “B”, a And the fact that he did not remember fresh physical vehicle arises. Despite the going out on the verandah would not apparent material changes, the invisible make the slightest difference to the result stream of consciousness (citta santati) of his fall from it, in the shape of broken continues to flow, uninterrupted by death, bones. So the follower of the Buddha carrying along with it all the impressions takes measures to see that he does not received from the tributary streams of walk over the verandah or other sense. Conveniently speaking, must not dangerous places, asleep or awake, so as “B” be responsible for the actions of “A” to avoid hurting himself or anybody who who was his predecessor? Some may might be below and on whom he might object that there is no memory in this case, fall”. owing to the intervening death. The fact that a person does not Is Identity or Memory Absolutely remember his past is no hindrance to the Essntial in Assessing Moral intelligent understanding of the working Responsibility? of the Kammic law. It is the knowledge If, for instance, a person were to of the inevitability of the sequence of commit crime, and by sudden loss of Kamma in the course of one’s life in memory he were to forget the incident, Sa½s±ra that more or less moulds the would he not be responsible for his act ? character of a Buddhist. His forgetfulness would not exempt him Is there any possibility for a Kammic from responsibility for the commission of Descent or, in other words, for a Man that crime. To this, some may ask,—What to be Born as an animal? is the use of punishing him, for he is not The Buddhist answer may not be aware that he is being punished for that acceptable to all. But nobody is bound to crime? Is there any justice here? accept anything on blind faith. Of course not, if we are arbitrarily The Buddha did teach the possibility governed by a God who rewards and of Kammic descent. 77 Material forms,—through which the On one occasion two ascetics, Puººa life-continuum expresses itself, are merely and Seniya, who were practising ox- temporary visible manifestations of the asceticism and dog-asceticism respec- Kammic energy. tively, approached the Buddha and Just as an electric current can questioned Him as to their future destiny. successively manifest itself in the form The Buddha replied: 30 of light, heat or motion—one not “In this, world a certain individual necessarily being evolved from the cultivates thoroughly and constantly the other—even so this Kammic energy may practices, habits, mentality and manners manifest itself in the form of a Deva, man, of a dog. He having cultivated canine animal, and so forth,—one form having practices—upon the dissolution of the no physical connection with the other. It body, after death, is reborn amongst dogs is one’s Kamma that determines the nature In the same way the Buddha declared of the material form, which varies that he who observes ox-asceticism will, according to the skill or unskilfulness of after death, be reborn amongst oxen. the actions performed. And this again The incident makes it clear how man depends entirely on the evolution of one’s can be born as animal, in accordance with understanding of things as they truly are. the law of affinity. Instead of saying that man becomes Kammic descent and Kammic ascent an animal, or vice versa,—it would be are both possible, and at a bound. more correct to say that the Kammic force which manifested in the form of man may Such is the intricate nature of this manifest itself in the form of an animal. doctrine of Kamma and Rebirth. 30 Majjhima Nikaya (Kukkuravatika Sutta, No. 57) i. 387.

THE BUDDHIST SOCIETY 16, Gordon Square, LONDON, W. C. 1. The oldest and largest Buddhist movement in the West. It is sincerely hoped that Buddhists all over the world will support it generously. Membership of Society £1 or K 15. This includes subscription to its Quarterly Journal THE MIDDLE WAY. Hon. Secretary for Burma: U KYAW HLA, Civil Lines, MANDALAY. 78 THE FIRST UTTERANCE OF THE BUDDHA By VINAYACARYA M. PAÑÑASIRI THERO “Thro’ many a birth in existence Now the question is: How did He attain wandered I, such Supreme Wisdom, a Wisdom that is Seeking but not finding the builder of incomparably greater than that of others? this house. It is not the effort of a single life. It is not A torment is repeated birth, within the span of a single life that He O, house-builder, you are seen; strived to gain this knowledge. It was by You shall build no house again. a hard struggle during, a long period and All your rafters are brokcn, after an incalculably great number of lives Your ridge-pole is shattered. that He managed to achieve that end. To dissoulution goes my mind, Even in His last life, in which He The end of craving have I attained.” gained His final deliverance, He had to —Dhammapada, Verse 154. face the laborious task of practising severe austerities for six long years in search of We should know that the word this knowledge. Finally, when He “Buddha” is not a proper name but the triumphantly succeeded in finding the title of a Supreme Being who is able to Truth for Himself, He was able to solve the riddle of life. From time announce to the world: “This truth was immemorial there have been saints and not among, the doctrines handed down sages and many thinkers, of fame who but there arose within me the eye (to also tried to work out the same problem. perceive), there arose the knowledge (of But they have solved them only partly its nature), there arose the understanding and not completely. The Buddha alone, (of its cause), there arose the wisdom (to with His Supreme Wisdom, wisdom that guide in the path of tranquillity), there is incomparably deeper than that of arose the light (to dispel the darkness from others, unravelled this great “knot of it).” human death and fate” from the beginning Therefore, the Buddha in His utterance to the end. of ecstasy, which is regarded as the first The attainment of this great knowledge utterance, summed up all his experiences we call Enlightenment and that that enabled Him to gain the Final enlightening knowledge is known as Deliverance and proclaim it to the world. Buddhi or Bodhi One who possesses The Buddha said: “Through many a Bodhi, we rightly name as Buddha and birth in existence wandered I.” we, therefore; say “THE BUDDHA”. Now it should be understood that an The last Buddha, whose doctrine we aspirant to this lofty position is also a are fortunate to have inherited, was by being wandering in Sa½s±ra like any one name Gotama, as He was born in the of us. He also has to experience the Sakya Clan we call Him Sakya Muni— miseries of existence just as any one of the sage of the Sakya Clan. us. But since be makes his firm 79

Ven’ble Vinayacarya M. Paññas²ri Thero of Vidyalankara Pirivena, Kalaniya, Ceylon 80 determination to aspire to reach this because of the fact that he is bent on unique greatness he has to practise all that something good. Still, due to the is regarded as good and benevolent, 1. treacherousness of Sa½s±ra, beings Generosity (d±na), 2. Morality or Virtue involved in it are liable to do wrong. (s²la), 3. Renunciation (nekkhama), 4. Because Sa½s±ra’s nature is such, and the Wisdom (Paññ±), 5 Effort (viriya), 6. aspirant is still an aspirant and not a Tolerance (khanti), 7. Truth (sacca), 8. perfected one. Resolve (adiµµh±na), 9. Loving-kindness Still, as wrongs are being committed, (mett±), and l0. Equanimity (upekkh±). there will be suffering conditions which There are ten pre-requisites to won’t be few and far apart. Therefore, the Perfection. As the aspirant rolls on in Buddha said: “I say, that the existence in Sa½s±ra, incessantly and repeatedly, birth this Sa½s±ra, even for a moment, is after birth in different capacities— miserable.” sometimes as a man, sometimes as a deva What is all this due to? It is due to or heavenly being, and sometimes even ignorance. Through ignorance beings as an animal, yet he does not quite forget perform acts and accumulate merits and nor give up his original determination. demerits, which, again, urged by craving So he practises all virtues until, finally, for existence, take them round and round he becomes perfected in them. The period repeatedly in this cycle of birth and death. taken in this process cannot be counted The Buddha taught: “What is the cause in years, centuries or even millennia. It of this (going round and round requires a number of aeons or ages of incessantly in this round of birth and incalculable magnitude. death?). A world-without-end, brethren, The amount of suffering that a being is this round of birth and death. No in Sa½s±ra experiences during such long beginning can be seen of those beings period, without doubt, is incredible and hindered by ignorance, bound by craving, indescribable. It does not mean that there for ever running through the round of birth were no short spells of happiness during and death. this whole period. Should there be no “Thus for a long time, brethren, have immediate happiness for all the goodness ye experienced grievous pain, practised by the aspirant, then, no one experienced misery; and swollen are the would care to wait for an ultimate goal. charnel fields. So that ye may well be That is the very reason the period of disgusted with, well turn away from, well apprenticeship extends to several aeons. be released from all the activities of For each righteous life that he has spent, existence.” as an immediate result, he will be reborn The Buddha had this realization for the to a better condition (in heavenly or first time when he contemplated on these Brahma realms) and will be marooned matters while seated under the Bodhi Tree there for a considerably long period. It at Buddha Gaya. And it is after that should be noted that an aspirant to Sublime Enlightenment that the ecstasy Buddhahood would not commit any of His Deliverance arose in Him and He heinous crimes to enable him to suffer uttered this stanza. lengthy indefinite periods in the hells, 81 The Buddha continued:—“I wandered and it is from within this that the craving seeking but not finding the builder of this in the builder of the house is aroused. house.” There is no separate or outside builder. “House”, in this context means, the This was the real problem that awaited Five Aggregates which comprise a being: the master-mind of a Perfected One, an Form (material body), Feeling, Enlightened Buddha, for its solving and Perception, Volitional activities (the pronouncement of the solution for the Kammic forces which effect rebirth) and guidance of the world. consciousness. So it is this Group of To show that no outside power is Existence that undergoes this ever instrumental in creating this wheel of birth changing process. There is nothing and death, let me quote: permanent in it. Neither this group nor “na h’ettha devo brahmm± v± anything outside it is permanent except sams±rass’atthi k±rako: space and Nibb±na, which are the only suddhadhamm± pavattanti, unconditioned states. Now, just because hetusambh±rapaccay±. the unconditioned is unconditioned and “No God, no Brahma, can be called, words are symbols of the conditioned: we The Maker of this wheel of life, cannot adequately describe Nibb±na and Empty phenomena roll on, while we may call it a “state” for the Dependent on conditions all.” purpose of discussion, we must —Vinaya understand the inadequacy of this word. “kammassa k±rako n’atthi, It is this Five-fold-Group-of-existence vip±kassa ca vedako: that appears once here and disappears suddhadhamm± pavattanti, from here only to reappear in the same or ev’etam samm±dassanam. another form of existence. As we all No doer is there ‘does the deed’: know, it is only one item out of this five- Nor is there one who feels the fruit; fold-group that undergoes a conspicuous Only constituent parts roll on, change—a gross change. That is the form This is the correct ‘philosophy.” or the material body. —Visuddhi-magga Aµµhakath±- Although we are unable to detect a kankh±vitaraºa-niddesa. conspicuous change in the four other Now let us proceed to the third line of groups, (Feeling, Perception, Volitional the stanza. activities and Consciousness) that does A Torment is Repeated Birth not mean that they do not undergo any Generally speaking, people do not change. They also undergo a constant know and therefore, it is extremely hard change with such speed that there is for them to realize that our existence in nothing known to us with which we may this world is full of misery. This is due to compare it. We cannot observe it with our the presence of a few transitory moments normal eyes. We can only discern it with of happiness intermingled in a mass of the mind’s eye and only then if we develop suffering; The common man looks upon the mind to the required standard. such happiness as a great thing, hence So, now, it is this Five-fold-group yearns to have that, because he is not which is the house as well as its dweller, aware of any other better conditions. 82 But, correctly speaking, such limited and Clairvoyance (Dibbacakkhu), then happiness experienced in this world every one would be able to see for himself cannot be counted as happiness when or herself what a long time he or she has compared to the happiness experienced been wandering in this Sa½s±ra. Then he in heavenly worlds and Brahma realms or she would be able to know whether it although that is also transitory. Therefore was more misery or more happiness that the real happiness, which is the Eternal he or she had experienced. At least we Happiness can be found only in should check it up from the limited few NIBB¾NA. existences that we may be able to see At the same time, people get very because none, except an All-Enlightened much worried at a little misery that befalls Buddha, is able to see infinitely. them, and weep, wail and beat their The Buddha, after developing the breasts and even become insane, leading power of clairvoyance which enabled them sometimes to commit suicide. If they Him to perceive the past and future lives, only knew that such misery is very said; insignificant when compared to the real “With clairvoyant vision, purified and sufferings, that matter when reborn in the super-normal, I perceived, beings hells or the ghost-worlds or the animal disappearing from one state of existence kingdom, and so on; then they would be and reappearing in another; I beheld the all the more happier for the trifling base and noble, the beautiful and the ugly, conditions of misery they have to face in the happy and the miserable, and beings the human world. passing according to their deeds.” However, whether it be happiness or In short, we should understand that misery, both are merely fleeting Sa½s±ra is such that there is none who phenomena; neither is permanent. Every has enough time to find out, at least, his being in existence passes through long own past. Because its begining is too far or short periods in both states. But due to away; beyond the ken of any knowledge. the screen between existences, or each The only possessor of the Supreme term of existence being in quite different Knowledge, the Buddha, can see as far states, or even though it may be in the back as possible within a period of a self-same states, yet usually nothing whole aeon. Yet there will be no end; the before one’s birth or after one’s death is beginning will not be in sight. known to us. Therefore, we see or In the circumstances, it would be the experience that happiness and suffering best thing for one to try to understand the only of one lifetime. Hence each miseries of the present life. In the existence is a watertight compartment in scriptures we find a fine parable for this: itself. “Just as if a man had been wounded with If, on the other hand, every being an arrow thickly smeared with poison, attached to this round of rebirth were to and his friends, companions relatives and see while in this rational human state, kinsmen were to get an arrow-surgeon, before its birth and after its death, just as and the wounded man were to say, ‘I will those who are possessed of remembrance not have the arrow pulled out as long as I of past births (Pubbeniv±s±nussati ñ±ºa) do not know the man by whom I was 83 wounded, whether he was a warrior, a Buddhas, the Pacceka Buddhas and the brahmin,—what was his name and clan— Arahants who live according to the whether he was tall, short or of middle Teachings of a Buddha)? The suttas height—whether he was black, or dark explain it thus: and every particular about the bow and “He comes to comprehend Suffering, the arrow.” Before learning all this the man the Rise of Suffering, the Cessation of would die. Therefore, if one has a sound Suffering, and the Course that leads to the and pure knowledge of the miseries of Cessation of Suffering. He comes to know the present existence that suffices to prove cankers as they really are, to know their that there is more misery than happiness, rise, their cessation, and the course which one should begin to pull out the arrow of leads to their cessation. Craving that causes it. “When he knows and sees this, his As the Buddha said, that ‘the nature heart is delivered from the Canker of of sickness is in health, in the midst of pleasures of sense, from the Canker of life we are in death”. If we realize this continuing existence, from the Canker of much, it is enough for us to understand wrong-views, and the Canker of that rebirth is a torment. We are unable to ignorance; and to him thus delivered realise this fact fully because of the heavy comes the knowledge of his deliverance veil of delusion that surrounds us and in the conviction that rebirth is for him no because each term of existence is sealed more; that he has lived the highest life, off from the other. that his task is done, and that now for him there is no more of what has been.” “O House-Builder, you are seen. You shall Build no House Again” “To Dissolution goes my mind. The end of Craving have I Attained”. With the Buddha’s attainment of Enlightenment, the Ignorance that was Now, throughout this round of birth feeding the fire of Craving for Existence and death, the Buddha, as all are, was completely vanished; He realized that it taken in it due to craving inspired and fed was chiefly this ignorance that by ignorance the two of which are mental states. So, with the dawning of the conditioned His existence. So He Enlightenrnent of reality that is the Truth personifies ignorance as the builder of the (Nibb±na), the darkness of ignorance was house and challenges: “You shall build dispelled together with craving. no house again.” Thus Nibb±na is the goal because it is Why cannot he build the house again? obtained at the end of the round of The answer comes in the next two lines. rebirths. And as there is no more rebirth, The Buddha said: “All your rafters are there is no consequent death, and no more broken; Your Ridge-Pole is Shattered.” suffering. Yet it is a certain unconditioned As the material—ignorance and state which could be realized only by the craving—with which the house was built one who has reached that stage. It is have been totally destroyed, completely ineffable and our mundane minds are annihilated, how could the builder erect, incapable of realizing it. It is only the another house with them? delivered one who knows its true nature, When thus Deliverance comes what of its true happiness, and feels the are the feelings of the Delivered Ones (the boundless security and the Eternal Peace. 84 It was after reaching this Supreme and happiness for many a long day.” Goal, having tasted the fruit of His (N.N.A.34). labours, that the Buddha proclaimed and In conclusion, I quote a verse from the preached to the world out of compassion Dhammapada (the translation of which is for all beings. Since the Buddha’s teaching by the late Mr. F. L. Woodward). is so well established and is existant up to “They who yield to their desires, this day, it is the duty of every sensible Down the stream of craving swim; person who desires good for himself to As we see the spider run, learn and practise it for his or her own In the net himself has spun; good; for his or her own Deliverance. Wise men cut the net and go, The Buddha- announced to the Free from craving, free from woe. world:— “Loose all behind, between, before; “Now I, bhikkhus, am the one that is Cross thou to the other shore, skilled in this world and skilled in the With thy mind on all sides free, world-beyond, in Mara’s realm and that Birth and death no more shalt see.” beyond, in the realm of Death and that —Dhammapada, Verses 347; 348. beyond Death. I am He, bhikkhus to MAY ALL SENTIENT BEINGS BE whom if men think fit to lend an ear and HAPPY, FREE FROM DISEASE AND put trust in Him, it shall be to their profit SORROW.

“In dependence upon the Eye and Forms there arises Visual Consciousness; the conjunction of these three constitutes Contact, and out of Contact springs Sensation. What is sensed, that is cognised. What is cognised, that is apprehended. What is apprehended, that is distinguished. What, thus engendered, is distinguished, plays upon a man as a totality of obstructing perceptions, in respect of forms discernible by the eye in past or future time or at the present moment. And as with Eye, Forms and Visual Consciousness, so with Ear, Sounds and Auditory Consciousness; Nose, Odours and Olfactory Consciousness; Tongue, Flavours and Gustatory Consciousness; Body, Contacts and Tactile Consciousness; Mind, Ideas and Mental Consciousness. In dependence upon the Mind and Ideas there arises Mental Consciousness; the conjunction of these three constitutes Contact, and out of Contact springs Sensation. What is sensed, that is cognised. What is cognised, that is apprehended. What is apprehended, that is distinguished. What, thus engendered, is distinguished, plays upon a man as a totality of obstructing perceptions, in respect of ideas discernible by the mind in past or future time or at the present moment.” Majjima Nik±ya, Eighteenth Discourse. 85 THE CASE FOR REBIRTH Extracts from a Work in Progress Copyright by the BURMA BUDDHIST WORLD-MISSION, RANGOON THAT all beings on earth, as well as The authenticity of the Gnostic records those inhabiting other realms, have may be questioned, but they are at least existed previously in some form or as valid as the material from which the another, and will continue to exist or re- Synoptic Gospels are drawn, and they manifest themselves after the present life, give a teaching much more complete than was almost universally held as a fact in do the latter. That belief in rebirth was the ancient world. The doctrine, so accepted by the early Christians on the widespread as to be free from any strength of their actual contact with its suspicion of being a dogma attached to sources, and was thence transmitted to one particular religion was held by Origen, St. Clement of Alexandria and Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates; it was a others, can be historically verified. The feature of some very ancient Rabbinical Second Council of Constantinople, held traditions, and can, indeed, be traced back in 553 C.E., specifically rejected the as far as it is possible to search out the doctrine in the following terms: origins of human belief. Egerton C. “Whosoever shall support the mythical Baptist, in his erudite work, “Nibb±na or doctrine of the pre-existence of the Soul the Kingdom?” gives the following and the consequent wonderful opinion of quotation from Origen: “Angels may its return, let him be excommunicated and become men or demons, and again from accursed”. In accordance with this the latter they may rise to be men or decision, Origen, who was already dead, angels.” proving that the great Church was declared a heretic. This Council, a theologian held firmly to the Gnostic body of worldly Churchmen called belief, older than Christianity yet quite together to satisfy the personal ambitions acceptable to the early Christians, that not only do beings transmigrate in of the Empress Theodora, wife of innumerable cycles of existence, but also Justinian I, was so notoriously corrupt, that rebirth takes place in many realms so manifestly an organ of political and many widely differing forms, expediency, that the Pope, Vigilius, at first according to the results of actions. From refused to acknowledge it or ratify its the Pistis Sophia, a Gnostic document proceedings. In the end, however, he was suppressed by the Church, Baptist also obliged to submit to pressure, and its quotes a saying attributed to Jesus himself: decision with regard to rebirth was “And ye have been in great afflictions and formally accepted as orthodox theology. great tribulations, in your pourings into In this way the Church deliberately threw different bodies in this world. And after away a doctrine that would have made its these afflictions, which come from other teachings more reasonable, yourselves, ye have struggled and fought; establishing them on a firmer basis and renounce the whole world and all the perhaps one more substantially in accord matter that is in it”. with the actual message of its Founder. 86 In giving no place to any form of belief they depart for everlasting happiness or in reincarnation, transmigration, or misery, it is only a step to the belief that whatever word is preferred to express pre- after death they pass into nothingness. existence and renewed existence after That which is inherently improbable is death, the Second Council of bound to produce an exactly opposite Constantinople introduced what can only reaction, and human thought then swings be regarded, in the historical context, as from blind faith in the miraculous origin an abnormality in human thought, of life to the other extreme of materialism religious and philosophical. It was and nihilism. If each being is produced at abnormal because it was completely at birth from nothing, why should he not variance with every development that had pass away into nothingness at death? If gone before, and effectively isolated it he can originate in time, why can he not from every other stream of religious belief cease in time? And, in view of the in the world. A general survey of the most apparent meaninglessness of his life, does highly developed religious systems, and not this seem more likely than that he could of those philosophies which had delved enjoy an eternity of bliss, or suffer an most deeply into the nature of truth, eternity of torment, for deeds that had but reveals that they all shared at least this in a moment’s significance, the actions of common, although they interpreted the one short life, circumscribed by time and facts in different ways, just as any fact of conditions; actions, moreover, often nature may be differently interpreted by apparently forced upon him by the different observers. That they formed their exigencies of his human situation? The conclusion in favour of a succession of life of a universe is only a flicker measured lives from knowledge available to each against eternity; what then of the life of a independently of the others points to a man? Is it possible that any deeds, common stock of experiences—such as however noble or evil, performed in so the actual memory of past lives possessed brief an interlude between dark and dark, by some exceptional persons, or perhaps could merit an eternity of reward or a much more frequent experience of such retribution? memories than is common to-day—as well Men are born with different as to an intellectual awareness of the potentialities, different opportunities, conditions of living that can only be different concepts of right and wrong, and satisfied by the explanation that rebirth their various paths to happiness are as offers. In the face of this universal diverse as they themselves. The resulting acceptance the abnormality of denial was conflict and confusion is explained, by one that carried within it the germs of one party, as the whim of the Creator who destruction; it created a false perspective made them thus; by its opponents it is and left gaps that could only in course of explained as a law of biologically- time invite scepticism. From the belief that transmitted tendencies, with no theological beings are born without causal or moral significance whatever. If it is antecedents, except the will of a God necessary to choose between these two working through biological processes, extreme views, the latter seems more and that after a short existence on earth likely, in view of all the evidence. But 87 there is a third explanation, which includes now as god or animal, but ever preserving within it whatever is true in each of the its unique character as “I”. In the last phase others—that is to say, the ethical view of of Upanishadic thought, Vedanta, the theologian, without his theology, and however, some curious modifications of the scientific truth of the biologist, without this soul-concept take place. The his circumscribing materialism. That is the incontrovertible Buddhist position, that doctrine of rebirth, as it is taught and laid the phenomenal personality has no open to investigation by Buddhism. persisting identity from one moment to But before we enter on a detailed another, much less from life to life, had examination of the case for rebirth, let us to be accepted, and the “Soul” could no take a glance at it as at a truth which has longer be identified with the corporeal been variously interpreted and differently being, his thoughts, sensations, understood by different people at different consciousness or activities. Then arose the times. The “Soul”, considered as the theory that the Atman was unborn, essential being, or Self, is usually taken unoriginated, unaffected by the activities to be the transmigrating or reincarnating of the phenomenal being and finally, that entity that links life to life. It was such for it was identical, not with him, but with Pythagoras, who taught that “the souls of the Supreme Soul, the Para-Atman or animals infuse themselves into the bodies Brahman. This conclusion had two of men” as Shakespeare expressed it: this, defects: firstly that it made the “Soul” an with its uncomfortable and improbable entity having no connection that could be corollary that the “soul” of a man may logically explained, with the living being, find itself inhabiting an animal’s body, since it was not, nor did it reside in, his may have had someting to do with the body, sensations, perceptions, Christian (and modern Westerner’s) consciousness or volitional actions; and aversion to the doctrine. It is certainly the secondly, as the inevitable result of the reason why Theosophists claim, against first, it denied any moral significance to the express teaching of the Buddha, that his actions. Thus, Arjuna may kill his it is not possible for a human being to relatives, elders and preceptors without descend to the animal state. The same committing any sin. The development of idea of a transmigrating “Soul” is found this idea in the Bhagavad Gita is perfectly in the Bhagavad Gita; “As the soul in this clear. “Know that to be imperishable by body passes through childhood, youth which all this is pervaded. None can and old age, even so does it pass to cause the destruction of this which is another body.... As a person casts off immutable. (The “Atman”) Transient are worn-out garments and puts on others that said to be these bodies of the eternal soul are new, so does the incarnate soul cast which is imperishable and off worn-out bodies and enter into others incomprehensible. Therefore, fight, O that are new.” (Gita, Chapter II, vs. 13 and Arjuna. He who thinks it slays, and he 22) Throughout the Upanishads the idea who thinks it is slain—neither of them of “Soul” (Atman) in this sense persists; knows it well. It neither slays, nor is it it is Selfhood, personal identity, slain. It is never born, it never dies, nor, occupying different bodies, now as man, having once been, does it again cease to 88 be. Unborn, eternal, permanent and exhaustion of kamma. This means that primeval, it is not slain when the body is every action, involuntary and accidental slain”. (Bhagavad Gita, - vs. 17-20). as well as volitional, constitutes-kamma This advice, by which Krishna in the sense of producing a result tending justified killings from which Arjuna to rebirth. Here the absolute opposite of shrank, shows how Vedantic thought had the Vedantic theory obtains; far from tried to reconcile the inescapable truth of actions being insignificant, they carry the impermanence and soul-lessness of results even when performed without the phenomenal personality with an intention. By placing the emphasis on animistic concept of the transmigrating volitional action, and disregarding those “Soul” which it could not discard. The activities which are purely functional, simple, individual “soul” had become a mechanical or unintentional, Buddhism universal, cosmic “Soul”—yet one that by avoids both these extremes. some curious legerdemain was still Here, then, are two representative supposed to be incomprehensibly examples of the forms that belief in “Soul” connected with the living, thinking, acting reincarnation takes. The one is man. Since it was not affected in any way superlatively mystical, the other by his deeds, the moral nature of the primitively animistic; the only point of individuial was no part of it, or it of his contact between them, although both moral nature. Buddhism, as we shall see originate from India, is that they each give later, proves the non-existence of such a an interpretation of the central fact of soul, and places all the emphasis on rebirth. Most other systems of thought Kamma, and therefore on morality, since incline towards the latter, the “individual- it is the result of kamma which re- soul” theory. Such appears to be the manifests, not the transmigration of a necessarily rather vague kind of belief in “soul”. reincarnation that various Western thinkers Mab±v²ra, the founder of Jainism (the have held, including Shelley and Niganµha Nataputta of the Buddhist texts) Wordsworth. Shelley was an atheist, but held unequivocally to the “individual Wordsworth came “trailing clouds of soul” theory. Jainism teaches, that there glory” from God who was his home; all are an infinite number of such individual they had in common was the conviction souls, transmigrating in happy and that they had existed in some form or unhappy states according to their actious. another since the beginning of time, But whereas in Vedanta, release (Moksha) Shelly in countless earthly incarnations, comes with the realisation that the “I” is Wordsworth in some heavenly realm indentical with the Para-Atman, or where he enjoyed distinguished company Brahman (Tat tvam asi); in Jainism it is that must have caused him bitter pangs to believed to come only with the complete leave. 89 Courageous Faith By Venerable Nyanaponika Thera

“ISLAND HERMITAGE”, DODANDUWA, CEYLON

Faith is not merely a belief in the To be sure, in face of the great forces existence of a thing or in the truth of it, of evil and stupidity, this kind of genuine but it is also the confidence in the power faith in the Good requires a certain amount of that thing. So is the religious faith the of courage. But no progress of any sort is belief and the confidence in the power of possible without courage. Progress means: the Good whatever different names may to overcome the natural inertia of present be given to it. Buddhist Faith (saddh±), in unsatisfactory conditions in the individual particular, is the belief in the incomparable and in society. It certainty requires courage power of the supreme Good, the Noble to take the first step in breaking through Eightfold Path, i.e. the confidence in its that resistance of the natural inertia and purifying and liberating efficacy. self-preserving tendency of things and minds, but just that is the preliminary Among those calling themselves condition of success. “believers” or “religious persons” or, in our particular case, Buddhists, there are The ancient Teachers; of the Buddhist still too few who have that kind of Doctrine have been well aware that genuine faith, i.e., the confidence in the courage is an essential feature of true actual power of the Good to transform Faith. They compared Faith (saddh±) and to elevate the life of the individual therefore to a strong and courageous hero and of society, against the resistance of who plunges ahead into the turbulent the Evil within and without. Too few are waters of a stream to lead safely across those who dare to entrust themselves to the weaker people who timidly stop at the the powerful current of the Good, and too shore, or, excitedly and in vain, are many are those who secretly be1ieve running up and down the bank, engaged inspite of a vague sort of “faith”, that the in useless arguments about the proper power of the Evil, within themselves and place of crossing. This simile can be in the world outside, is stronger,—too applied to the social as well as to the inner strong to be contended with. Many life. In the first case, the “weaker people” politicians everywhere in the world seem are those, who provided they are given a to believe the same, particularly those who lead, are willing to follow and to support call themselves wrongly “realists”, the leader, but are unable to make the start obviously implying that only the Evil is by themselves. In the case of the inner “real”. They think that, by necessity, they life; the “weaker people” are those have to submit to its greater power. No qualities necessary for spiritual progress wonder that they cannot achieve much which are either undeveloped or isolated good, if they are not willing to put it to a from their supplementaly virtues. test. 90 Such factors of inner progress which the barrenness of unapplied knowledge supplement, support and balance each and the futility of the wordy wars of other are Intellect (paññ±) and Faith conceptual thought. On the other hand, (saddh±). If intellect remaing without the Intellect will give to Faith, in exchange, confidence, devotion and zeal of Faith it discriminative judgement and reliable will stop short at at a mere theoretical guidance. It will prevent that Faith understanding and intellectual becomes exhausted and its energies appreciation of teachings meant to be wasted by ineffective emotional effusions lived and not only to be thought about. and misdirected efforts. Therefore Faith In the words of our simile: Intellect if not and Intellect should always be kept in being helped by the hero of Faith, will harmony. Both together will prove to be merely “run up and down the bank of the ideal companions, able to meet, by their stream”, an activity, with a very busy and combined efforts, any dangers and important appearance but with little actual difficulties of the road to Liberation. Right results. Intellect separated from Faith will Mindfulness (samm±-sati) will be lack the firm belief in its own power to be watching that they are keeping equal pace. the guide on the path of life. Without this Let Faith (saddh±), i.e., courageous inner conviction it will hesitate to follow confidence, take the first step on your in earnest its own conclusions and road. At the second step you will find commands; it will lack the courage to many helpers, within yourself and from make an actual start with the task of outside! Too many are still the believers “crossing over”. The supplementary in the might of the Evil, and too few the quality of Faith, supported by the vigour believers in the victrous power of the and endurance of Energy (viriya) will give Good. wings to Intellect, enabling it to rise above P¾LI TEXT SOCIETY New Publications: 1. P¾LI TIPITAKAM CONCORDANCE, being a Concordance in P±li to the three Baskets of Buddhist Scriptures in the Indian order of letters. Listed by F. L. WOODWARD and others, arranged and edited by E. M. HARE. Part 1. fasc. 1. pp.vi. 58, paper covers, London, 1952.. £1-10-0 2. THERAGATHA COMMENTARY, VOL. II, Edited by F. L. WOODWARD, boards, P.T.S. 1952.. £2-5-0 Reprints: 1. P¾LI-ENGLISH DICTIONARY, Rhys Davids & Stede, 8 parts, sewn, London, 1952. Complete £6-l0-0 P¾LI TEXT SOCIETY 30, Dawson Place, London W. 2 91 BUDDHISM LESSON I—INTRODUCTION (by the Venerable M. Paññ±siri Thero) Buddhism is the religion of the majority The Buddha practised loving-kindness of the inhabitants of Asia. There are over towards all Beings—gods, men, animals, 550,000,000 Buddhists in the world. That ghosts, hell-doomed beings and all is nearly one quarter of the world’s total included. That is why it is called Universal population. Love. If the Buddha wanted to find Many Buddhists are not aware of all the Happiness for Himself alone, that He could good teachings of their Master, the have done long before the time He actually Omniscient Buddha. If one is to follow attained the Eternal Happiness of Nibb±na. Buddhism properly and wishes to be called He could have attained that with much less a good Buddhist, one should study the life difficulty also. What He thought was that and teachings of the Buddha. entering into that Eternal Happiness alone while so many were suffering would be like All the difficult answers to life’s an unkind mother enjoying a delicacy alone problems will be understood easily if one while her hungry little children were learns Buddhism. The Buddha’s approach looking. to this subject was straight and scientific— hence easy to understand. So the Buddha, out of compassion for all living beings, plunged Himself into the The Buddha did not keep his knowledge suffering Sa½s±ra (Round of Birth and to Himself and order the followers simply Death) and took the longer and more to listen to His teachings. He did not hazardous routes in reaching the farther promise to take any one to heaven simply shore of Sa½s±ra. He had to live many because they were His followers. If He had millions of lives, many billions of lives, done so it would have been a false promise many trillions of lives; the number of lives because no one can take another to heaven that He spent in His self-imposed training or hell. One can gain admission into heaven course is incalculable! And the time or avoid hells by one’s own action. An involved also is so long that we are unable outsider can only help by giving to count it in years or centuries, or even in instructions as to the way to follow in order millenniums which is our longest measure. to gain admission into heavenly realms and It has to be counted in aeons. An aeon again not to fall into the miseries of hell. is not a period that can be calculated. And Therefore, the Buddha, following this the Buddha took twenty such long aeons sensible method, advised His disciples to to perfect Himself for His Enlightenment. follow His teachings and His pure examples. [The traditional number actually is (10140 + He proved to them what He preached was 100,000) aeons, Ed.] true when they actually enjoyed the good The Buddha’s compassion and love results of their good deeds. This fact was towards all living beings was so great that proved in those good old days and the same He undertook all the troubles of going thing holds good even today. It will be true through the sufferings of Sa½s±ra without in the future too. the least grumbling. When we read the 92 Buddhist scriptures we come to learn many He is free from all passions and defilements. of these strange facts in the stories therein. He is one who is able to understand fully It is only with firm determination, a great all the aspects of life’s various problems; deal of energy and high wisdom that one and even matters relating to before and after could continue so long practising good in life. He is able to preach and convince others thought, word and deed. When this has been of the way to find the solution to those practised in the right way and in the right problems. measure any one may become a Buddha. Due to the hardship of this attainment It is not the monopoly of a particular person there is a Buddha in the world once in a or Being. long while. It may be in a long aeon, or it You could become a Buddha, I could may even be once in several aeons. Hence become a Buddha and everyone else could the Teachings of a previous Buddha are become Buddhas, because the Buddhas do invariably forgotten in the world by the time not discourage others to come to that happy the next Buddha appears. Therefore, it state. Instead the Buddhas encourage that always become the mighty task for a spirit in others who would aspire to become Buddha to attain Enlightenment unaided, Buddhas. Although myriad Buddhas may by Himself. There is none from whom He come into being there still will be could receive instruction in the right system unfortunate beings who have not taken the of thought that leads to Perfect Knowledge. chance to reach the Eternal Bliss of Nibb±na It is only after this hard-earned because their shroud of ignorance is too Enlightenment or attainment of Perfect strong for them to tear off. Hence there will Knowledge that one becomes known as be the need for many more Buddhas. THE BUDDHA. It is after this that He goes forth to proclaim the TRUTH to the world. Every one of us has a grain of the Buddha-spirit within us. It will not come As a rule people live in the darkness of into full bloom if we forget all about it and ignorance by not knowing what is right and simply keep quiet. We should take necessary what is wrong. They are struggling in the steps to cultivate that spirit until that is meshes of worldly evils. So they think that brought to perfection and crowned with the few fleeting moments of pleasure that Buddhahood. they may enjoy in this world are permanent; though, in reality, they are impermanent. Now how are we going to make this seed By not understanding this glaring fact of Buddhahood grow into a big and strong people become engrossed in the pleasures tree with the fruit of Buddhahood? Just as of short duration and get themselves any other plant requires to be well looked entangled in them more and more. Thus after, watered, and fertilised this also should they become enslaved to them and thereby be well looked after, watered and fertilised become totally blind to the real facts. with more and more good deeds in this life and many lives hereafter. Then there will Even when the thing is explained to be a day that we will succeed gloriously in them they turn a deaf ear to the Truth. In our efforts. short they become so callous in not knowing what is right that they are However, it is not an easy task to become emboldened to say: “I do what I think is a Buddha. A Buddha is one who possesses right”. If everybody follows that rule then the greatest wisdom and loving kindness. what would become of the world? In no 93 time virtue would disappear from the world beneficial to the one who treads in it as well and vice and evil alone would prevail as to those who stand by. instead. There would be confusion and The upward journey in the spiritual life untold miseries as the outcome. may be thought as not so easy by the It is at the beginning of such a state of beginner. But if one stretches the first step affairs, that a Buddha is born into the world. forward, employing one’s energy with the And He puts it to right for the time being. little knowledge one has, then half of the After some time again evil predominates, difficulty is overcome. We should remember and should it go beyond correction, even that the top of Mt. Everest was not reached Buddhas would not appear because the evil with one step. With continued steps, world is not prepared to listen to good surmounting more hardship in each one of advice. The evil-ridden world has to face them, the journey was done until very devastation and a better world would successfully the top was reached. Similarly reappear in due course. for the attainment of such a high aim as To be wise among the ignorant, to be Buddhahood, one has to try hard. It should strong of heart among the weak-hearted, to also be done gradually. be patient among the impatient, to be sober No one could hope to reach the goal in among the passion-intoxicated, to be kind one life, however long that life may be, among the haters are some of the almost because still, the length of a life is limited. unattainable achievements in the world. Yet, So it is necessary that one should there have been such unique personalities accumulate merits in many lives in order to as the BUDDHAS who attained all these reach final perfection. Great oceans are only and many more qualities which are beyond drops of water which have collected description. There will also be Buddhas in together. Buddhahood is a great collection time to come with their message of Truth of what is everything good. In other words when the time is suitable. it is the absence of everything evil. We should start cultivating good While one is going in the quest of this qualities in us from now on so that we may highest goal spending many lives, which be reborn to the world when such an all- takes a very big period, there may come to compassionate and all-awakened Buddha pass a time that one could meet another appears. To be reborn to such favourable Buddha face to face. By this time, that condition is a hard thing too. For that we person would be full of merits that he had must exert ourselves from this very moment accumulated. And, if he would so choose, with firm determination and all the energy he would become a disciple of that Buddha at our command. and attain Enlightenment as a disciple under For our guidance in the upward journey Him. That would be, of course overlooking we should make use of the knowledge that the great mass of other suffering worldlings. has been given to us by the Buddha Gotama But the one who desires liberation from the who lived only twenty-five centuries ago turmoil of Sa½s±ra (Round of Birth and and which, has come down to us through Death) would have gained the desired goal the several generations of His faithful and which is NIBB¾NA—the Eternal Blissful devoted disciples. The path shown by the State! Buddha is quite free from danger and is MAY ALL BEINGS BE WELL AND HAPPY! 94

His Holiness Phrabuddhajinoros Sakala- Mah±sangha P±mokkha, Sangharaj± 95

His Holiness Samdach Preah Mah±-sumedh±dhipati Chuon-Nath Jotaññ±no, Agga Mah± Paº¹ita, Sanghar±j± of Cambodia 96 Report On The Chaµµha Sang±yan± The Sixth Great Buddhist Council, the Dhaja Mah± Raµµha Guru Nyaungyan Chaµµha Sang±yan±, has now completed Sayadaw, Agga Mah± Paº¹ita. This great half its labours and the Third of the Five Mah±thera was one of those who had Sessions has opened. conceived the idea of convening the Sixth Industriously have the Saªgha of the five Great Buddhist Council and had been Buddhist countries collaborating in this unanimously elected to head the Meetings. Great Council, performed their work, One of the “Great Teachers” of the meeting in harmony, working together in Union of Burma, his loss is keenly felt. The harmony and dispersing in harmony; and Venerable U Revata (Revata being his the work has indeed gone smoothly and Bhikkhu name) was of great learning and successfully. utter simplicity of life. “Anicca vata There is only one sad event to record, saªkh±r±” “All compounded things are, the passing of the Saªgha N±yaka of the indeed, impermanent.” We have only the Chaµµha Sang±yan±, the Venerable Abhi consolation that his works and projects

H.E. Leng Ngetha, Prime Minister of Cambodia, arriving at Mingaladon Airport to participate in the Opening Proceedings of the Third Session of the Chaµµha Sang±yan± 97 remain as lasting benefits. in the name of His Majesty the King of Laos For the Third Session it was unanimously and of the Laotian people. His Excellency decided that the learned and saintly Dr. Ba U, President of the Union of Burma Sanghar±jas of Cambodia and of Laos then delivered an address of veneration, as should preside and accordingly on the 28th did the Prime Minister of Cambodia, and April, His Holiness Samdach Preah Mah± other dignitaries. Sumedhadhipati Chuoun-Nath Jotaññ±no, The Third Session is now proceeding Agga Mah± Paº¹ita, Sanghar±j± of and is scheduled to end on the 9th July. Cambodia and His Holiness Samdach There will be two more Sessions and Phrabuddhajinoros Sakala-Mahasangha then the Closing Ceremonies are to be held P±mokkha, Sanghar±j± of Laos successively on the Full Moon day of May next year took the Presidential Dais. and are expected to draw many visitors to The Session was opened with an address Burma as they will mark the completion of by the Sangha Mah±n±yaka and other an important work and coincide with the Mah±theras followed by a speech by His 2500th. Anniversary of the Buddha’s Birth, Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Laos Enlightenment and Mah±parinibb±na.

H.R.H. Prince Savang Vatthana, Crown Prince of Laos, and Hon’ble U Win, Minister for Religious Affairs, Government of the Union of Burma, at the Shway Dagon Pagoda on 24th April 1955 98 GLOSSARY FOR VOL. III—No. 1. A P Apar±pariya-vedaniya-kamma: Paralokavajjha-abhayadass±-vino: Kamma ripening in successive births. Paraloka = the other world; the world be- Apar±pariya = successive, continuous. yond. Vajjha = to be killed; bhaya = fear; dass±vino = one who realises. C Paraloka + vajja + bhaya + dass±vino = Cittasantati: Citta = mind + santati one who fears evil, realising its affect on = continuity. The whole means the flux a future life. of mind. Parammaraºa: After death; after the Citt’ekaggat± (Cittass’ekaggat±): dissolution of the body. “One-pointedness of Mind”. It is a syn- P±pak-na Issara: P±pak-na = evil; onym of concentration or sam±dhi. wicked. Issara = God. The whole means D “An Evil God”. Diµµha-dhamma-vedaniya-kamma: Pubbekatahetu: Pubbe-kata-hetu. Kamma ripening in the present lifetime, Pubbe-kata = deeds done in a past life. Diµµha-dhamma means “of this world”; “in hetu = root cause. The whole means this world. “caused by deeds done in a past life”. I S Issaranimm±na-hetu: Issara = ruler; Silavanta: Virtuous; observing the creative diety; Brahma + nimm±na = cre- moral precepts. ation + hetu = root cause. The whole Suddhadhamma: Suddha = clean; means “created by God”. pure Dhamma = doctrine. Hence, N Suddhadhamma: “sublime doctrine”. Nirodha-sam±-patti: Nirodha = de- U struction; cessation; annihilation. Sam±- Upapajja-vedaniya-kamma: patti = attainment. The whole means “at- Kamma ripening in the next birth. tainment of complete cessation”. 99

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