Download Karma In Secular Buddhism

Karma and Rebirth In Secular Buddhism
The Secular Buddhist view of Reincarnation & Karma
Right View
Right View is the Four Noble Truths. The Second Noble Truth states that suffering is caused by desire,
aversion and ignorance. Ignorance of what? Of the true nature of reality. And what is the true nature of
reality?
1. All things are dependent on other things for their existence
2. Therefore all things are temporary
3. Therefore no thing can bring lasting happiness
Traditional Buddhist View Of Rebirth & Karma
1.
2.
3.
4.
Karma is what is reborn and nothing else (kinetic energy - billiard ball)
As long as you have karma, you will be reborn
Intentions born of wrong view i.e. desire and aversion, create karma
“Right View” (wisdom – the opposite of ignorance) enables one to let go of (renounce) desire
and aversion and thus stop creating new karma
5. “Getting” Right View constitutes enlightenment. “Getting it” is not intellectual knowing but
rather an insight, an experiential event. Only the experiential process enables letting go.
6. The karma/rebirth cycle ends when no more karma is left
7. Once karmic “accounts” have been reconciled by living them out, one is not reborn. (This itself
was a revolutionary concept.)
The Secular Buddhist View
“But if there is no other world and there is no fruit and ripening of actions well done or ill done, then
here and now in this life I shall be free from hostility, affliction and anxiety and I shall live happily.” -Kalama Sutta, Pali Canon
The Buddha was revolutionary enough without outright denying the belief in rebirth.
1. There is no constant self. Becoming, or incarnation/reincarnation, is an ongoing process within
the boundaries of a single lifetime.
2. Karma is an impression left upon one’s mind from one’s thoughts, words and actions.
3. Intentions born of wrong view i.e. desire, aversion and ignorance, create karma/self.
4. Every morning we “reincarnate” and inherit our cumulative karma.
5. When one experiences Right View then craving/aversion ends. When there is no
craving/aversion, then there is no new karma being created and the “self” is no longer in a
constant state of incarnation/reincarnation.
6. The impressions made in one’s mind/brain are not immutable and can be changed by living the
Eight Fold Path.
7. As previously created karma is being eradicated via the application of the path, one realizes the
self is an illusion created by craving/aversion. At this point one is freed, in this life, from endless
becoming and the ongoing rebirth of self.
8. Our life is dependent upon conditions and ends just as a fire goes out when there is no more
wood.
Although the traditional Buddhist view and the Secular Buddhist are different, they both result in a
similar insight arising at the point of the extinguishment of desire and aversion – the answer to this
question: without craving/aversion, without endless becoming, without wanting things to be different
than they are, who am I?
Popular View Of Karma in the West
What goes around comes around. One’s actions, for good or ill, will create the future
events of one’s life.
Traditional Buddhist View
All traditional forms of Buddhism include the concept of Karma, the idea that one’s
thoughts, words and actions are the cause of rebirth on the Wheel Of Life (aka the Twelve
Steps Of Dependent Origination).
Negative or positive thoughts, words and actions lead to a similar rebirth.
Karma/Kamma
Karma equals “volition” or intention
Karma Vipaka – Action & Result or Seed & Fruit
Karma functions as a component of the “drive chain” of the Wheel Of Life. Karma alone
is what is transferred from one life to another. Examples: candle flame, billiard ball.
Ignorance creates grasping (unwholesome desire) and aversion which in turn create the
thoughts, words and deeds that result in karma. Each unit of karma is a discrete packet of
energy known as a “karmic formation”. All of the thoughts, words and actions of an
unenlightened person create karma, either positive or negative.
Until one has zero karma, one will be reborn.
The thoughts, words and actions of an enlightened person do not create karma.
The ultimate goal of Buddhism (many lifetimes) is to be free of ignorance, grasping and
aversion and thus to have stopped creating karma. When all of one’s accumulated karma
has been reconciled, one is not reborn.
Secular View
Secular Buddhism views Karma as mental impressions resulting from one’s thoughts,
words and actions.
Impressions are like paths in a forest. The brain is like a forest with many paths (neural
pathways). The more you walk down a forest path, the more established it becomes (brain
plasticity). The less you chose a path, the more overgrown it becomes, until it is
eventually abandoned and forgotten. Your “self”, as defined at the physical level of your
brain, is not permanent.
Per Buddhism, there is no separate, permanent self. The sense of self is created moment
by moment via the Five Aggregates Of Clinging:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Material form
Perceptions
Feelings
Thoughts and emotions
Consciousness (awareness)
The karmic impressions contribute to your future sense of self, day by day and moment to
moment.
The Secular Buddhist view of karma differs from the popular view in that it does not see
karma as resulting in future events but in a future sense of self. It differs from the
traditional view in that it does not consider rebirth beyond the death of the body.
Secular Buddhism accepts that all thoughts, words and actions will result in mental
impressions being created, whether one is enlightened or not.
Therefore unlike traditional Buddhism, our goal is not zero karma but to reduce and
eliminate the creation of negative karma (mental impressions) that result from ignorance,
grasping and aversion. Positive mental impressions will still be created.
Our goal and practice is the abandonment of unwholesome thoughts, words and actions
which create bad karma and lead to suffering and the cultivation of wholesome thoughts,
words and actions which create good karma and lead to happiness.
The Secular Buddhist view of death is similar to a fire that is deprived of fuel (the five
aggregates), without which the fire simply ceases to exist. This is consistent with
Buddha’s teachings on emptiness.
Reincarnation is viewed as a constant and ongoing process within this one and only life.