‘We are our own saviours’

S. M. Wijayaratne (Kurunegala ‘Daily News’ Corr.)

T he Buddha was a unique human being who was self-enlightened. He had nobody who He could regard as His teacher. Through His own efforts, He practised to perfection the ten supreme qualities of generosity, discipline, renunciation, wisdom, energy, endurance, truthfulness, determination, goodwill and equanimity.

Through His mental purification, He opened the doors to all knowledge. He knew all things to be known, cultivated all things to be cultivated and destroyed all things to be destroyed.

Indeed, no other religious teacher was comparable to Him in terms of cultivation and attainment. The Buddha was born to dispel the darkness of ignorance and to show the world how to be free from suffering.

To tread on the path of purification as shown by the Buddha, we should have great faith in Him. We, being ordinary human beings, must accept Him wholeheartedly as our only Teacher whose guidance is the only way for our deliverance. Then only we will be able to go ahead on the path of purification doubtlessly for our own spiritual progress. The Buddha has vividly shown us that we all are the sole heirs to our past kamma.

Natural law

Kamma is an impersonal, natural law that operates in accordance with our actions. It is a law in itself and does not have any law-giver. Kamma operates in its own field. Without the intervention of an external, independent, ruling agent.

If someone does not accept the theory of kamma and its consequences, surely he cannot be a true Buddhist on this earth. It is because that particular person has no complete faith in the Buddha, who mercifully shown us the perfect way to be followed towards our own deliverance.

Lack of faith in the Buddha, in his teachings and the Sangha is a hindrance to tread on the path of the Buddha.

Kamma or karma can be put in the simple language of the child: “Do good and good will come to you, now, and hereafter. Do bad and bad will come to you, now, and hereafter.”

In the language of the harvest, Kamma can be explained in this way: “If you sow good seeds, you will reap a good harvest. If you sow bad seeds, you will reap a bad harvest.”

Cause and effect

In the language of science, kamma is called the law of cause and effect. Every cause has an effect. Another name for this is the law of moral causation. Moral causation works in the moral realm just as the physical law of action and reaction works in the physical realm. In the Dhammapada, kamma is explained in this manner; the mind is the chief (forerunner) of all good and bad states. If you speak or act with a good or bad mind, then happiness or unhappiness follows you just as the wheel follows the hoof of the ox or like your shadow which never leaves you.

In this ultimate sense, kamma means both good and bad, mental action or volition. “Kamma is volition,” says the Buddha. Thus kamma is not an entity but a process, action, energy and force. Some interpret this force as “action-influence.”It is our own doings reacting on ourselves.

The pain and happiness man experiences are the results of his own deeds, words and thoughts reacting on themselves. Our deeds, words and thoughts produce our prosperity and failure, our happiness and misery. Buddhists believe that man will reap what he has sown; we are the result of what we were, and we will be the result of what we are.

In other words, man is not one who will absolutely remain to be what he was, and he will not continue to remain as what he is. This simply means that kamma is not complete determinism.

The Buddha pointed out that if everything is determined, then there would be no free-will and no moral or spiritual life. We would merely be the slaves of our past. On the other hand, if everything is undetermined, then there can be no cultivation of moral and spiritual growth.

Therefore, the Buddha accepted neither strict determinism nor strict undeterminism.

Invisible force

Since kamma is an invisible force, we cannot see it working with our physical eyes. To understand how kamma works, we can compare it to seeds; the results of kamma are stored in the subconscious mind in the same way as the leaves, flowers, fruits and trunk of a tree are stored in its seed. Under favourable conditions, the fruits of kamma will be produced just as with moisture and light, the leaves and trunk of a tree will sprout from its tiny seed.

The working of kamma can also be compared to a savings account in a bank: a person who is virtuous, charitable and benevolent in his present life is like a person who is adding (depositing) to his good kamma. This accrued good kamma can be used by him to ensure a trouble-free life. But he must replace what he takes or else one day his savings account will be exhausted and he will be bankrupt. Then whom will he be able to blame for his miserable state?

He can blame neither others nor fate. He alone is responsible. Thus a good Buddhist cannot be an escapist. He has to face life as it is and not run away from it.

The Buddha always advises us to perform all possible wholesome deeds and their results are pleasant and pleasurable in this very world and in the next. However, the Buddha also points out that we cannot escape the evil consequences of our bad deeds and there is no safe place in this universe to hide or to get rid of undergoing the pain of such evil deeds. In Dhammapada, this idea is explained by the Buddha as follows.

“Not in the sky, nor in mid-ocean, nor in a mountain cleft is there a place in the whole world where abiding one may escape from the result of one’s evil deeds.”

During the time of the Buddha, a young man approached and asked the Buddha: “O, Lord, my father has died. Please come and say some prayers for him. Raise up his soul so that he can go to heaven. The Brahmins perform such rites but you Buddha are so much more powerful than them. If you were to do it, my father’s soul is sure to fly straight to heaven.”

The Buddha replied: “Very well, please go to the market and fetch me two earthen pots and some butter.” The young man was very happy that the Buddha had condescended to perform some powerful magic to save his father’s soul. He hurried to town and got what was required. Then the Buddha instructed him: “Put the butter in one pot and stones in the other pot. Then throw both pots into the pond.” The man did so, and both pots sank to the bottom of pond.

Then the Buddha continued: “Now, take a staff and strike the pots at the bottom of the pond.” The man did so. The pots broke and the butter, being light, floated up while the stones, being heavy, remained where they were at the bottom.

Then the Buddha said, “Now, quick, go and summon all the priests. Tell them to come and chant so that the butter can go down and the stones can come up.” The young man looked at the Buddha, flabbergasted. “Lord” he said, “You can’t be serious. Surely you can’t expect the butter being light to sink and the stones being heavy to rise up. That would be against the law of nature.”

The Buddha smiled and said, “Even so, my son, don’t you see that if your father had led a good life, then his deeds would be as light as the butter, so that no matter what he will rise up to heaven.

Nobody can prevent that, not even me. For nobody can go against the natural law of kamma. But if your father had led a bad life, then, just like the stones that are heavy, he would sink to hell. No amount of prayers by all the powerful priests in the world can cause it to happen otherwise.”

The young man understood. He corrected his wrong concept and stopped going around asking for the impossible. The Buddha’s smile was excellent. Nobody can save us, least of all after we are dead. According to the law of kamma, we are owners of our deeds, heirs of our deeds. Our deeds are our true property. They are our true refuge, our true relatives.

They are the womb from which we spring. When we die, we cannot take even one cent with us or any of our personal belongings. Neither can even one of our loved ones accompany us. Just as we came alone according to our kamma, we must go alone. If we have understood the law of kamma well, then we will appreciate how important it is to lead a good life while we are alive. For to wait until we are dead will be too late. There is little that can be done then.