THE BUDDHA AND HIS DHAMMA

§ 3. Did the Buddha believe in Past Karma having effect on Future Life? -conclud

§ 3. Did the Buddha believe in Past Karma having effect on Future Life? —concluded

1. The Buddha's doctrine of Past Karma is thus in keeping with science.

2. He did not believe in the inheritance of Past Karma.

3. How can he, having held to the view that birth is genetic, and whatever inheritance comes to the child, it comes through its parents?

4. Apart from logic there is more direct evidence on the point contained in a sutta called the Cula-Dukkha-Khanda-Sutta which contains a dialogue between the Buddha and the Jains.

5. In this dialogue this is what the Buddha says: "Niganthas, you have done evil in the past; extirpate it by these severe austerities. Every present restraint on body, speech, and mind will hereafter undo the evil doings of the past. Hence, by expelling through penance all past misdeeds, and by not committing fresh misdeeds, the future becomes cleared; with the future cleared, the past is wiped out; with the past wiped out, ill is no more; with ill no more, (painful) feelings are no more; and with painful feelings now no more, all will be outworn. This teaching commends and approves itself to us, and we rejoice in it."

6. Thereupon, I said to those Niganthas, "Do you know, reverend sirs, whether you had an existence before this or you were not non-existent?"

7. "No, Sir."

8. "Do you know that, in a former existence, you were guilty, and not guiltless, of misdeeds?"

9. "No."

10. "Do you know that (in that former existence) you were guilty, and not guiltless, of this or that specific misdeed?"

11. "No."

12. Secondly the Buddha asserts that the status of a man may be governed not so much by heredity as by his environment.

13. In the Devadaha-Sutta, this is what the Buddha says: "Some recluses and Brahmins there are who affirm and hold the view that, whatsoever the individual experiences--be it [=they] pleasant or unpleasant or neither--all comes from former actions. Hence, by expiation and purge of former misdeeds, and by not committing fresh misdeeds, nothing accrues for the future; the misdeeds die away; as misdeeds die away, ill dies away; as ill dies away, feelings die away; and as feelings die away, all will wear out and pass. This is what the Niganthas affirm.

14. "If it is because of their birth's environment that creatures experience pleasure and pain, the Niganthas are blameworthy, and they are also blameworthy, if environment is not the cause."

15. Now these statements of the Buddha are very relevant. How could the Buddha throw doubt on past karma, if he believed in it? How could the Buddha maintain [that] pain and pleasure in [the] present life being [=is] due to environment, if he believed that it was due to past karma?

16. The doctrine of past karma is a purely Brahminic doctrine. Past karma taking effect in [the] present life is quite consistent with the Brahminic doctrine of soul, the effect of karma on soul. But it is quite inconsistent with the Buddhist doctrine of non-soul.

17. It has been bodily introduced into Buddhism by someone who wanted to make Buddhism akin to Hinduism, or who did not know what the Buddhist doctrine was.

18. This is one reason why it must be held that the Buddha could not have preached such a doctrine.

19. There is another and a more general reason why it must be held that the Buddha could not have preached such a doctrine.

20. The basis of the Hindu doctrine of past karma as the regulator of future life is an iniquitous doctrine. What could have been the purpose of inventing such a doctrine?

21. The only purpose one can think of is to enable the state or the society to escape responsibility for the condition of the poor and the lowly.

22. Otherwise, such an inhuman and absurd doctrine could never have been invented.

23. It is impossible to imagine that the Buddha, who was known as the Maha Karunika, could have supported such a doctrine.