CHAPTER 31
KAMMIC DESCENT AND KAMMIC
ASCENT
"Kamma differentiates beings into high and low
states."
-- MAJJHIMA NIKĀYA
Is
Kammic descent possible? In other words, can a man be born as an animal?
The Buddhist answer may not be acceptable to
all, for Buddhism does recognize this possibility.
Material forms, through which the
life-continuum expresses itself, are merely temporary visible
manifestations of the Kammic energy. The present physical body is not
directly evolved from the past physical form, but is the successor of this
past form -- being linked with it through the same stream of Kammic
energy.
Just as an electric current can be manifested
in the forms of light, heat and motion successively -- one not necessarily
being evolved from the other -- so this Kammic energy may manifest itself
in the form of a Deva, man, animal, or other being, one form having no
physical connection with the other. It is one's Kamma that determines the
nature of one's material form, which varies according to the skilfulness
or unskilfulness of one's past actions, and this again depends entirely on
the evolution of one's understanding of reality. Instead of saying that
man becomes an animal, or vice versa, it would be more correct to
say that the Kammic force which manifested itself in the form of man may
manifest itself in the form of an animal.
In the course of our wanderings in Samsāra --
to speak in conventional terms -- we gather various experiences, receive
manifold impressions, acquire diverse character-istics. Our very thought,
word, or deed is indelibly recorded in the palimpsest-like mind. The
different natures we thus acquire in the course of such successive births
whether as men, Devas, animals or Petas, lie dormant within us, and as
long as we are worldlings these undestroyed natures may, at unexpected
moments, rise to the surface "in disconcerting strength" and reveal our
latent Kammic tendencies.
It is quite natural for us to remark after
witnessing an unexpected outburst of passion in a highly cultured person:
"How could he have done such a thing? Who would have thought that he would
commit such an act!"
There is nothing strange in this misdemeanour
of his. It is just a revelation of a hidden part of his intricate self.
This is the reason why men normally of lofty motives are sometimes tempted
to do things which one would least expect of them.
Devadatta,
for example, a noble prince by birth, a leading
member of the Holy Order, was possessed of supernormal powers. Overcome by
jealousy, latent in him, he made several attempts to kill his own master
the Buddha.
Such is the intricate nature of man. One's
immediate past is not always a true index to one's immediate future. Every
moment we create fresh Kamma. In one sense we are truly what we were, and
we will be what we are. In another sense we are not absolutely what we
were, and we will not be what we are. Who was yesterday a criminal may
today become a saint, who today is holy may tomorrow turn out to be a
wretched sinner.
We can safely and rightly be judged by this
eternal present. Today we sow the seeds of the future. At this very moment
we may act the part of a brute and create our own hell, or, on the other
hand, act the part of a superman and create our own heaven. Each present
thought-moment conditions the next thought-moment. The subsequent birth
also, according to Buddhist philosophy, is determined by the last
thought-process we experience in this life. Just as through the course of
one's life each thought perishes, giving up all its potentialities to its
successor, even so the last thought-process of this life ends,
transmitting all its acquired characteristics and natures to the
succeeding moment -- namely, the first thought-moment (patisandhi
viññāna) in the subsequent birth.
Now, if the dying person cherishes a base
desire or idea, or experiences a thought, or does an act which befits an
animal, his evil Kamma will condition him to birth in animal form. The
Kammic force which manifested itself in the form of a man will manifest
itself in the form of an animal. This does not imply that thereby all his
past good Kammic tendencies are lost. They too lie dormant seeking an
opportunity to rise to the surface. It is such a good Kamma that will
later effect birth as a human being.
The last thought-process does not, as a rule,
depend on the sum-total of our actions in our lifetime. Generally
speaking, a good person gets a good birth, and a bad person, a bad one.
Under exceptional circumstances, however, the unexpected may happen.
Queen Mallikā,
[1] for example, led a good
life, but as the result of experiencing an evil thought at her dying
moment, she was born in a state of woe. As her good Kamma was powerful the
expiation lasted only for a few days.
"Is this justifiable?" one might ask.
If a holy person, due to some provocation, were
to commit a murder, he would be charged as a murderer. His past good
actions would no doubt stand to his credit and have their due effect, but
the brutal act could not be obliterated by his past good. Perhaps his past
good record would tend to mitigate the sentence, but never could it acquit
him altogether of his heinous crime. This unexpected event would compel
him to live in an uncongenial atmosphere amongst similar criminals. Is
this fair? Imagine how one single immoral act may degrade a noble man!
On one occasion two ascetics Punna and
Seniya who were practising ox-asceticism and dog-asceticism came to
the Buddha and questioned Him as to their future destiny:
The Buddha replied:
"In this world a certain person cultivates
thoroughly and constantly the practices, habits, mentality, and manners of
a dog. He, having cultivated the canine practices, habits, mentality, and
manners thoroughly and constantly, upon the breaking up of the body, after
death, will be reborn amongst dogs. Certainly if he holds such a belief as
this – 'By virtue of this practice, austerity or noble life, I shall
become a god or a deity of some kind' -- that is a false belief of his.
For one who holds a false belief I declare that there is one of two future
states -- the state of torment or the animal kingdom. Thus, failing a
state of torment, successful canine asceticism only delivers one to
companionship with dogs.
[2]"
In the same way the Buddha declared that he who
observes ox-asceticism will, after death, be born amongst oxen. So there
is the possibility for a Kammic descent in one bound in the so-called
evolutionary scale of beings.
But the contrary, a Kammic ascent, is also
possible.
When, for instance, an animal is about to die,
it may experience a moral consciousness that will ripen into a human
birth. This last thought-process does not depend wholly on any action or
thought of the animal, for generally speaking, its mind is dull and it is
incapable of doing any moral action. This depends on some past good deed
done during a former round of its existence which has long been prevented
from producing its inevitable results. In its last moment the animal
therefore may conceive ideas or images which will cause a human birth.
Poussin,
a French writer, illustrates this fact by the law of heredity: "A man may
be like his grandfather but not like his father. The germs of disease have
been introduced into the organism of an ancestor, for some generations
they remain dormant. But suddenly they manifest themselves in actual
diseases."
So intricate is the nature of this doctrine of
Kamma and Rebirth!
Whence we came, whither we go, and when we go,
we know not. The fact that we must go we know for certain.
Our cherished possessions, our kith and kin
follow us not -- nay, not even our bodies which we call our own. From
elements they came, to elements they return. Empty fame and vain glory
vanish in thin air.
Alone we wander in this tempest-tossed sea of
Samsāra wafted hither and thither by our own Kamma, appearing here as an
animal or man and there perchance as a god or Brahma.
We meet and part and yet we may meet again
incognito. For seldom do we find a being who, in the course of our
wandering, had not at one time been a mother, a father, a sister, a son, a
daughter.
"If a man,"
says the Buddha, "were to prune out the grasses, sticks, boughs, and
twigs in this India and collecting them together, should make a pile
laying them in a four inch stack, saying for each: 'This is my mother,
this is my mother's mother,' -- the grasses, sticks, boughs, twigs in this
India would be used up, ended but not the mothers of that man's mother."
So closely bound are we during our journeyings
in Samsāra.
The countless lives we have led and the
innumerable sufferings we were subject to in the infinite past are such
that the Buddha remarks:
"The bones of a single person wandering in
Samsāra would be a cairn, a pile, a heap as Mount Vepulla, were there a
collector of these bones and were the collections not destroyed.
"Longtime have you suffered the death of father
and mother, of sons, daughters, brothers and sisters, and while you were
thus suffering, you have verily shed tears upon this long way, more than
there is water in the four oceans.
"Long time did your blood flow by the loss of
your heads when you were born as oxen, buffaloes. rams, goats, etc.
"Long time have you been caught as dacoits or
highwaymen or adulterers, and through your being beheaded, verily
more blood has flowed upon this long way than there is water in the four
oceans.
"And thus have you for long time undergone
sufferings, undergone torment, undergone misfortune, and filled the
graveyards full, verily long enough to be dissatisfied with every form of
existence, long enough to turn away and free yourself from them all.
[3]"
[1]
Wife of King Kosala who lived in the time of the Buddha.
[2] Majjhima Nikāya,
Sutta No. 57.
[3] See The
Book of The Gradual Sayings I, pp. 31-34.
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