Ask the Teacheres

Question: I have a hard time with the idea that negative things in a person’s life could be caused by actions in a past life. What bothers me is that it seems like a way to blame people for their suffering and could be used as an excuse to avoid helping someone who needs it. Can you shed some light on this?

Tulku Thondup: If a brute beats a person up, we naturally feel protective and compassionate towards the victim. But what if a person beats him- or herself up and can’t understand why he is covered with bruises? Don’t we owe compassion and protection to this victim too? In fact, don’t we owe such victims a double dose of care—for their pain and their lack of comprehension?

Knowing about causation makes us more—not less—loving to all suffering beings, because we can see how their lack of understanding results in their own pain.

This gives birth to the wisdom of knowing the true character of life and compassion that dawns spontaneously in our heart.

Furthermore, regarding ourselves, understanding that our misfortunes come from our own past acts is not about blaming ourselves, or feeling depressed: it is about taking responsibility for the course of our lives and looking forward with inspiration—for we are in control.

The moment we truly see that everything we experience is caused by our past deeds, we will feel great relief, joy and celebration. Then we will know that all these happenings are not due to chance or caused by someone else. The principal creator of causation is our own mind. If our mind is at peace, whatever we say will be words of peace and whatever we do will be the expression of peace. We will become the source of peace for our future lives and for society around us. But if our mind is negative, our life cycle and surroundings will become a world of suffering.

Many of us know intellectually about causation. But we don’t really believe in it. If we did, we would never dare to commit any misdeed and bring suffering to ourselves. The point is that causation means that each one of us is in the driver’s seat. And Buddhism offers many ways to drive to freedom through the path of enlightenment. So the message of causation is one of taking responsibility, having strength and inspiration, caring for all, and reaching the goal.

Narayan Liebenson Grady: All too often the concept of karma has been misunderstood or misappropriated in our culture, even in spiritual circles. We may invoke the idea of karma to punish ourselves, or others, or to ignore the all-too-real suffering that we and others experience. For example, we may raise the issue of karma as punishment to explain why a person has a life-threatening disease, was killed in a car crash, lost a spouse, or lost a job. This is an oversimplification of an ancient and profound concept.

The results of karma cannot be understood intellectually, or through simple logic and reason. The Buddha said that karma is an imponderable (Pali: acinteyya), and that only a buddha can see into the complexity and subtlety of why a particular consequence comes about. Ajahn Chah put it more bluntly. He said if one thinks about the unthinkable, the mind will explode.

As practitioners we need to hold the concept of karma in the biggest possible way, recognizing that all of us have been engaged in both wholesome and unwholesome actions. After all, the point of Buddhist practice is not to sit in judgment but to cultivate wisdom and compassion and let go of the torments of the heart, such as greed, hatred and delusion. Reacting with blame and indifference in the face of suffering is clearly a torment of the heart.

One way of relating to the concept of karma is to understand that life unfolds according to certain laws. A cherry tree will not grow from an apple seed. Acknowledging that things do not occur randomly can help us develop equanimity when dealing with difficult conditions. Equanimity allows us to remain balanced and steady in the face of suffering, making it easier to work with conditions as they are instead of reacting with blame or hatred. And it allows us to open our hearts to suffering rather than react with aversion or indifference. It’s great to have an ideal of wanting to be more compassionate, but without equanimity, genuine compassion is not possible.

It’s not that things are as they should be, but rather that things are as they are. To see things as lawful does not mean that we accept the unacceptable. To use the concept of karma to blame those who are subjected to injustice, for example, seems to me to be one way to rationalize conditions that are unacceptable and avoid taking responsibility for the way things are.

The Buddha called karma the light of the world because it clarifies the path. Reflecting on karma can be deeply empowering. It can help us to understand that our thoughts and actions have consequences and that by practicing mindfulness we protect ourselves, and others, from harm. This allows us to follow the path of wisdom, delighting in doing what is wholesome and avoiding that which causes harm. In this way, we can sense that all things are interconnected, that we are not separate. Having this understanding of nonseparation is what leads to compassion.

Blanche Hartman: Dear reader, I agree that a self-righteous person could misconstrue the teaching of cause and effect to blame people for their suffering and refuse to help them. I myself have often wondered how I came to have such a fortunate life when other lives seemed to be less fortunate. Ever since I was a child, I have had a passion about fairness. I recall a time when I was about four or five years old and I stamped my foot at my father and wailed, “It’s not fair!” about something. As he began , in his patient way, to explain to me that life was not always fair, I put my hands over my ears and ran and hid from him because I could not stand to hear it. Somehow, when I first heard the Buddhist teaching that effects in this life may be the resultant (Skt.: vipaka) of actions (karma) in a previous life, it made the differences I observed seem fairer.

Of course, such an interpretation could be used to avoid helping someone who is suffering. However, in the context of the buddhadharma, liberating all beings from suffering is the very basis of the bodhisattva way. So ignoring a suffering being because their suffering today may be the result of previous actions of body, speech or mind rooted in ignorance or the three poisons of greed, hate and delusion, is an action that may also have unfortunate consequences because it is not a compassionate response.

The teaching that karma (volitional action) always produces a consequence in this life or the next, or the next, is an important reminder that we are all responsible for our actions and that we need to be awake in order to choose skillful actions. The specific, or grave, precepts (not to kill, not to take what is not given, not to misuse sexuality, not to lie, not to intoxicate self or others, not to slander, not to praise self at the expense of others, not to be possessive, not to harbor ill will, and not to disparage the three treasures of Buddha, dharma and sangha) are reminders of areas of human life where great suffering can be caused by unskillful action. They are reminders that we need to be wide awake in these realms of our life so as not to cause suffering.

So bodhicitta, the thought of enlightenment, is the altruistic impulse to be enlightened, to be awake to things as-it-is, to clearly see what is skillful so that we may liberate all beings from suffering. This is the basis of the bodhisattva vow:

The I’s are in parentheses because English grammar calls for a subject for the verb “to vow,” but in reality, the bodhisattva vow is coming from the awareness of nonduality of self and other. This is the wisdom that understands that self and other are not two. In the buddhadharma, wisdom and compassion are highly regarded virtues which we aspire to cultivate in our practice. The understanding that we do not exist as a separate permanent entity, but arise in each moment, dependent on all the causes and conditions of that moment (dependent co-arising; Skt.: pratitya-samutpada), that we are inextricably interconnected, interpenetrated and interdependent with all beings, is the wisdom that underlies compassion. The experiencing of suffering in ourselves when we become aware of the suffering around us supports the understanding of our interbeing with all being.

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