KARMA - Theosophy.Net2024-03-28T11:37:46Zhttps://theosophy.net/forum/topics/karma?feed=yes&xn_auth=noHere is another excellent art…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-14:3055387:Comment:1011532011-12-14T20:13:39.076ZJames Rutkehttps://theosophy.net/profile/JamesRutke
<p>Here is another excellent article by Alexis Sanderson on the Buddhist view of no-self and the theory of karma.</p>
<p>Here is another excellent article by Alexis Sanderson on the Buddhist view of no-self and the theory of karma.</p> In the 1965 article, "Philoso…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-13:3055387:Comment:1010532011-12-13T23:12:30.940ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">In the 1965 article, <a href="http://enlight.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/ew23361.htm" target="_blank">"Philosophical Implications of the Doctrine of Karma," A. R. Wadia</a> writes about us (Philosophy East and West, vol. 15, pp. 145-146):</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"A sizable number of European and American theosophists have come to accept karma and reincarnation as basic to their life and thought. But their treatment of it is…</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">In the 1965 article, <a href="http://enlight.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/ew23361.htm" target="_blank">"Philosophical Implications of the Doctrine of Karma," A. R. Wadia</a> writes about us (Philosophy East and West, vol. 15, pp. 145-146):</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"A sizable number of European and American theosophists have come to accept karma and reincarnation as basic to their life and thought. But their treatment of it is shrouded so much in mystic references to Tibetan mahatmas that is has failed to appeal to the philosophical and logical mind of the West. Theosophy, born out of Indian beliefs, has become markedly theological without any claim to being considered philosophical."</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">We can do better now.</font></div> Lastly, here is something lig…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-09:3055387:Comment:1007682011-12-09T19:28:40.580ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Lastly, here is something lighter, for those whose brains are fried trying the read some of the articles posted above.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"Walt Whitman and the Doctrine of Karma," by Om Prakash Sharma. Philosophy East and West, vol. 20, no. 2, April 1970, pp. 169-174.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Lastly, here is something lighter, for those whose brains are fried trying the read some of the articles posted above.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"Walt Whitman and the Doctrine of Karma," by Om Prakash Sharma. Philosophy East and West, vol. 20, no. 2, April 1970, pp. 169-174.</font></div> The Mahayana schools of Buddh…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-08:3055387:Comment:1006382011-12-08T22:46:50.808ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">The Mahayana schools of Buddhism, rejecting the early Buddhist explanations of how karma works, gave their own explanations of how karma works. For the Madhyamaka school, Nagarjuna said it works like magic, since nothing has a svabhava, an inherent nature or inherent existence. The Yogacara school explained its working by way of the alaya-vijnana, the universal foundation consciousness. Tsongkhapa rejected the alaya-vijnana, and taught that it works by way of…</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">The Mahayana schools of Buddhism, rejecting the early Buddhist explanations of how karma works, gave their own explanations of how karma works. For the Madhyamaka school, Nagarjuna said it works like magic, since nothing has a svabhava, an inherent nature or inherent existence. The Yogacara school explained its working by way of the alaya-vijnana, the universal foundation consciousness. Tsongkhapa rejected the alaya-vijnana, and taught that it works by way of something called a zhig pa, literally a "destruction" or "disintegration" after the act is completed and has "perished," that carries the result of the act to its future fruition.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">This latter idea and some of the earlier Buddhist ideas are discussed in the following articles, including avijnapti, an action that no one can see, avipranasa, something that does not perish when the action is completed, and bija, a seed that makes possible the later fruition of an action.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"Tsong-Kha-Pa's Concept of Karma," by Lobsang Dargyay. In Karma and Rebirth: Post Classical Developments, ed. Ronald W. Neufeldt, pp. 169-178. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"The Concept of Avipranasa in Nagarjuna," by Bhikkhu Pasadika. In Recent Researches in Buddhist Studies: Essays in Honour of Professor Y. Karunadasa, pp. 516-523. Colombo, 1997.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"What is Avijnaptirupa (Concealed form of Activity)," by V. V. Gokhale. New Indian Antiquary (Bombay), vol. 1, 1938-39, pp. 69-73.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"The Sautrantika Theory of Bija," by Padmanabh S. Jaini. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. 22, 1959, pp. 236-249.</font></div> Karma in Buddhism means an ac…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-08:3055387:Comment:1006362011-12-08T22:40:56.651ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Karma in Buddhism means an action resulting from volition (as cetanā is usually translated), or will or intention (as cetanā is also sometimes translated). If you accidentally or unknowingly step on an ant and kill it, this is not a karmic act, and it does not produce a karmic effect. It only does so if the killing is done consciously and on purpose. This is accepted universally in Buddhism. What is explained widely differently by the various Buddhist schools is…</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Karma in Buddhism means an action resulting from volition (as cetanā is usually translated), or will or intention (as cetanā is also sometimes translated). If you accidentally or unknowingly step on an ant and kill it, this is not a karmic act, and it does not produce a karmic effect. It only does so if the killing is done consciously and on purpose. This is accepted universally in Buddhism. What is explained widely differently by the various Buddhist schools is the connection (sambandha) between a volitional or willful or intentional action (karma) and its future result (phala), i.e., how karma works.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Among Buddhist texts, the explanations of this by the various schools are given in chapter 4 of the Abhidharma-kosa by Vasubandhu. Vasubandhu also wrote a small separate treatise on this, the Karma-siddhi-prakarana. Explanations of this by the various schools are also given in chapter 17 of the Mula-madhyamaka-karika by Nagarjuna, and its commentaries thereon. Vasubandhu's small treatise and Nagarjuna's chapter with Candrakirti's commentary were translated into French by Etienne Lamotte and published in Melanges chinois et bouddhiques, vol. 4, 1936. This French translation was translated into English by Leo Pruden and published in 1988 as Karmasiddhiprakarana: The Treatise on Action by Vasubandhu (Asian Humanities Press, now Jain Publishing Company), and is still in print. The late Etienne Lamotte (1903-1983) was one of the very best translators of modern times.</font></div>
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<div><div><font size="2" face="Arial">The explanations by the various earlier Buddhist schools of how karma works were given by Nagarjuna in the first 20 of the 33 verses of his chapter 17. These 20 verses, along with the commentary by Candrakirti, form the basis of a detailed study by Ulrich Timme Kragh, titled Early Buddhist Theories of Action and Result. It was published in 2006 in the Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde, no. 64. Books like this are not found on Amazon.com, but can be ordered directly from: <a href="http://www.istb.univie.ac.at/cgi-bin/wstb/wstb.cgi">http://www.istb.univie.ac.at/cgi-bin/wstb/wstb.cgi</a>. It includes critical editions of the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts, and a highly accurate and reliable English translation. Until this publication, the pioneering translation by a young Lamotte was the only translation of Candrakirti's commentary on this chapter, and remained quite the most reliable and accurate translation of Nagarjuna's chapter itself, despite the existence of other later ones including one published by Oxford University Press.</font></div>
</div> "What is the earliest recorde…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-08:3055387:Comment:1005162011-12-08T02:27:32.110ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div>"What is the earliest recorded writing on karma, from any tradition?"</div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Perhaps the Jaina Satkhandagama and Kasyaprabhrta. These texts, along with their extensive commentaries, were recovered and published in 39 volumes between 1939 and 1988. They had been preserved inaccessibly in a temple in south India on palm-leaves, and for centuries had only been used there for worship. They are on the Jaina karma doctrine, and are thought to descend…</font></div>
<div>"What is the earliest recorded writing on karma, from any tradition?"</div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Perhaps the Jaina Satkhandagama and Kasyaprabhrta. These texts, along with their extensive commentaries, were recovered and published in 39 volumes between 1939 and 1988. They had been preserved inaccessibly in a temple in south India on palm-leaves, and for centuries had only been used there for worship. They are on the Jaina karma doctrine, and are thought to descend directly from the lost Purvas, the ancient scriptures of Jainism. The Purvas preceded Mahavira, the last of the 24 Tirthankaras or great Jaina teachers, who lived around the time of Gautama Buddha.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Until their recovery and publication, it was thought by the Digambara branch of Jainas that all the primary Jaina scriptures had been lost, both Angas and Purvas. The Angas are the teachings of Mahavira. Digambaras do not accept the authenticity of the eleven Angas used by the Svetambara branch of Jainas, holding these to be substitutes for the lost original Angas. All agreed that the twelfth Anga was lost. This Anga contained the teachings of the lost Purvas, taught by the previous or 23rd Tirthankara, named Parsvanatha. The recovered texts are from this twelfth Anga, giving the teachings of the Purvas. Bibliographic information on these books can be found at: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.easterntradition.org/etri%20bib-jaina%20scriptures.pdf">http://www.easterntradition.org/etri%20bib-jaina%20scriptures.pdf</a>, pp. 3-9.</font></div>
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<div>"Where does the word first appear in recognizable form?"</div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">This is usually regarded to be in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (reference: <a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=auqGWz2l9pYC&lpg=PA184&dq=The%20Vedic%20Origins%20of%20Karma%2C%20by%20Herman%20W.%20Tull&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q=The%20Vedic%20Origins%20of%20Karma,%20by%20Herman%20W.%20Tull&f=false" target="_blank">The Vedic Origins of Karma, by Herman W. Tull</a>, p. 28). Thank you to Jon for adding to my previous post a link to this book, where parts of it can be seen on Google Books.</font></div> Of the three spiritual tradit…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-07:3055387:Comment:1004092011-12-07T18:54:19.185ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Of the three spiritual traditions of ancient India, sources on the unique teaching on karma found in Jainism have been posted, and also sources representing the more well-known teaching on karma found in Hinduism have been posted. It remains to post sources on the teaching of karma found in Buddhism. These sources are more numerous, because the Buddhists had a harder task of explaining how karma works in the absence of a transmigrating…</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Of the three spiritual traditions of ancient India, sources on the unique teaching on karma found in Jainism have been posted, and also sources representing the more well-known teaching on karma found in Hinduism have been posted. It remains to post sources on the teaching of karma found in Buddhism. These sources are more numerous, because the Buddhists had a harder task of explaining how karma works in the absence of a transmigrating soul.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">While the basic idea that karma is an action and also the future result of, or recompense for, that action is the same in all three traditions, how it works is explained widely differently in the three traditions. Within Buddhism, how it works is again explained widely differently from school to school. They had to explain how karmic results could follow a momentary and ever-changing stream of consciousness, which constitutes a person in Buddhism, from rebirth to rebirth.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Here are three articles on karma in early Buddhism. The first gives a translation of a short and simple sutra on good and bad karma. The second gives a comprehensive survey of the various teachings on how karma works given by the various early schools of Buddhism. It is a summary of James McDermott's 1984 book titled, Development in the Early Buddhist Concept of Kamma/Karma (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1984), which in turn is a revision of his 1971 Princeton University Ph.D. thesis. The third is a study of the debates on kamma given in the Kathavatthu, perhaps our earliest record of the various teachings on karma given by the various early schools of Buddhism. </font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"Discourse on the Four Kinds of Karma," by Peter Skilling. Journal of Religious Studies, Punjabi University (Patiala), vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1979, pp. 86-91.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"Karma and Rebirth in Early Buddhism," by James P. McDermott. In Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions, pp. 165-192. University of California Press, 1980.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"The Kathavatthu Kamma Debates," by James P. McDermott. Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 95, no. 3, July-September 1975, pp. 424-433.</font></div> Sources on karma from the Hin…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-05:3055387:Comment:925262011-12-05T17:55:23.863ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Sources on karma from the Hindu (Raja) Yoga system and from the Hindu (Advaita) Vedanta system are now available here. These seem to be the two main sources of the formulated teachings on karma within Hinduism. Bhagavan Das has a long footnote on this in his summarized English translation of the Pranava-vada, starting on vol. 2, p. 148. A searchable version of this text is now available on this website.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Sources on karma from the Hindu (Raja) Yoga system and from the Hindu (Advaita) Vedanta system are now available here. These seem to be the two main sources of the formulated teachings on karma within Hinduism. Bhagavan Das has a long footnote on this in his summarized English translation of the Pranava-vada, starting on vol. 2, p. 148. A searchable version of this text is now available on this website.</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">On the question of the origins of the karma teachings, there is a book, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=auqGWz2l9pYC&lpg=PP1&dq=The%20Vedic%20Origins%20of%20Karma%3A%20Cosmos%20as%20Man&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">The Vedic Origins of Karma: Cosmos as Man in Ancient Indian Myth</a> (State University of New York Press, 1989). Some earlier Western scholars had proposed that the teaching of karma found in the Indian religions was an un-Aryan idea that was adopted from the Dravidians. But other Western scholars, and the great majority of Indian scholars, regard it as having always been there. Indeed, the teaching of karma is a central idea in all three ancient Indian religions, Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, and is taken for granted as a basis of their other teachings.</font></div> Besides the Yoga texts, anoth…tag:theosophy.net,2011-12-03:3055387:Comment:918442011-12-03T16:44:16.877ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Besides the Yoga texts, another important source of the Hindu teachings on karma are the Vedanta texts. Here are four articles on this. They draw specifically on the Advaita or non-dual school of Vedanta.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"The Nature and Significance of Karma according to Advaita," by T. P. Ramachandran. The Voice of Sankara, vol. 11, no. 3, Nov. 1986, pp. 238-249.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Besides the Yoga texts, another important source of the Hindu teachings on karma are the Vedanta texts. Here are four articles on this. They draw specifically on the Advaita or non-dual school of Vedanta.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"The Nature and Significance of Karma according to Advaita," by T. P. Ramachandran. The Voice of Sankara, vol. 11, no. 3, Nov. 1986, pp. 238-249.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"Significance of Karma in Advaitism," by Veeramani Prasad Upadhyaya. Proceedings and Transactions of the All-India Oriental Conference, Twentieth Session, Bhubaneshwar, October 1959, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 333-341, Poona: 1961.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"The Annihilation of Karman," by Umesha Mishra. Proceedings and Transactions of the Seventh All-India Oriental Conference, Baroda, December 1933, pp. 467-480, Baroda: 1935.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">(based on the Vijnana-dipika, an Advaita Vedanta text by Sankara's disciple Padmapada)</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"Sankara and Vyasa on the Theory of Karma," by H. G. Narahari. Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute, vol. 17, no. 1, June 1955, pp. 20-26.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">(compares Sankara's Advaita Vedanta teachings on karma to Vyasa's Yoga teachings on karma)</font></div> Karma as we know it from Theo…tag:theosophy.net,2011-11-30:3055387:Comment:910932011-11-30T01:17:54.398ZDavid Reiglehttps://theosophy.net/profile/DavidReigle
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Karma as we know it from Theosophical sources comes primarily from Hindu sources. Among these, some of the clearest information on it is given in the Yoga system; that is, in the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali and the commentaries thereon. This system is paired with the Samkhya system, and both have the same teachings on karma. Here are three articles on these teachings.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">First is an article by Samkhya…</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Karma as we know it from Theosophical sources comes primarily from Hindu sources. Among these, some of the clearest information on it is given in the Yoga system; that is, in the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali and the commentaries thereon. This system is paired with the Samkhya system, and both have the same teachings on karma. Here are three articles on these teachings.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">First is an article by Samkhya researcher Anima Sen Gupta, titled "Re-birth and Karma," from her collection of articles published as Essays on Samkhya and Other Systems of Indian Philosophy (second revised and enlarged edition, 1977). In India, karma and its twin teaching of rebirth have always been taken as self-evident truths. The fact of karma and rebirth was not questioned, so we do not have classical treatises seeking to prove them. They were questioned by the British who came to India. So articles were then written to give their rationale, and to do so taking account of modern Western and Christian objections to these ideas. This is one such article, and it forms a kind of introduction to karma and rebirth.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Second is the chapter titled "The Theory of Karma," from the 1924 book, Yoga as Philosophy and Religion, by Surendranath Dasgupta. He was widely regarded as one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century, well-known for his five-volume work, History of Indian Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 1922-1955). This is a somewhat technical account, requiring some knowledge of Sanskrit terms.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Third is the essay titled, "The Doctrine of Karma," from the book, Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, by Swami Hariharananda Aranya. This book and this essay were originally written in Bengali, and translated from that into English. Aranya, 1869-1947, was regarded as perhaps the sole living Samkhya-yogi of modern times. While Samkhya teachings are taken for granted throughout Indian thought, Samkhya as an independent school had long since died out. Aranya revived it in an important way. This essay is based on the Yoga-sutras, and was included in later editions of his translation of these with Vyasa's commentary. It is not an easy article, but it will repay one's time in studying it.</font></div>