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Buddhist Tradition at the Worldly Level Heaven, Hell and Accumulating Merit Translated from Japanese by Trevor Leggett The Gap Between the tlite and the Mass of Believers T he life of the generality of Buddhists consisted of more than just ideas and ceremonies of the transcendent level together with moral living based on them. For the general mass of believers, it was no easy matter to see that passing objects really are transient, to see that what is not-I really is not-I, to control desire and live in accordance with the real aspect of self which only then manifests. Realization, the experience of a life immortal and eternal, was possible only for an 61ite. So it is that in the same Buddhist scriptures as the teaching for the 61ite 'Do not lament over a life that does not return' and the proclama- tion 'See through to the truth of the transience of all things', there are episodes in the Jataka stories such as the following. A virtuous youth died and was reborn in heaven. In his joy at the good result brought about by his previous Karma, a vision appeared of his father on earth, clinging to his dead body. He descended to earth, and assuming the appearance of a Brahmin he approached him and explained the princi- ple that all things are passing. He urged his father to give up the useless grieving, but the latter could not reconcile himself to what had hap- pened. Then he showed himself in his aspect as a heavenly being with a crown on his head and consoled him with the words 'Thus your son is now living in blessedness in heaven', and the father was then finally able to accept it. In this story, religious ideas of the mass level, based on Karma and reincarnation, and with birth in heaven as a goal of salvation, appear very clearly. As we shall see, the heavenly world is only one of the worlds of the cycle of birth and death, whereas spiritual realization is release from the whole cycle. Heaven is certainly not realization, though Buddhists allow some value to the concept of merit and birth in heaven. This was one reason for the popularity of stupa worship: as we have seen, it was a means of creating merit. More was involved than just the question of merit and heaven. The idea of any real soul in some material sense as the subject which reincarnates goes against the doctrine of Buddhism, but it was in point of fact accepted among Buddhists as a reality. Funerals, rites of ancestor worship, rites of passage, prayers, magical ceremonies and so on were 159 THE MIDDLE WAY never lacking in the Buddhism of China, Korea and Japan, nor among the Buddhists of South-East Asia. Such ideas and rites and customs were all established as a means of direct gratification of human desires. As such, they were not any real solution but in a sense only temporary palliatives. They were frankly directed towards relieving the crisis of human life. They were for world- ly advantage, empirical and on the level of the 'world'. Realization, and the ethical life based on it, form a religious complex of ideas, rites and way of life on the transcendental level. They are the essence of Buddhism, and without them there is ultimately no Buddhism at all. There can be Buddhism even without any religious ideas and rites on the worldly level. So such ideas and rites can hardly be called the essence of Buddhism. But as they are essential to the daily life of ordinary people, they should perhaps be called the essence of humanity. The ideas and rites of the worldly and transcendental levels are not necessarily in conflict; they are compatible, rather complementary, inas- much as they stand on different levels. A bhikshu who leaves home and enters into spiritual practice in quest of realization may have no need for the rites of passage relating to transitions of human life such as puberty and marriage. But still his parents or friends have to have funerals; and if he himself reverences his ancestors, it is no obstacle to his training. The Buddha forbids bhikshus from engaging in magical ceremonies; but with the historical development of Buddhism, they were inevitably drawn into various forms of them. To attain birth in heaven after death is not realization, and can never be the final goal, but already in ancient times in India, heaven had become one of the great goals not only for lay believers but even for bhikshus themselves. Other worldly ideas were held and ceremonies performed, in various ways ensconcing the Buddhists in the social order. It was just because of its connection with society that the Buddhist Order, including both renunciates and householders, has been able to continue for so long. The life culture of Buddhists thus embraced ideas, ceremonies and customs of both transcendental and worldly levels. The Gap Between 'Buddhism' and 'Not-Buddhism' 'Buddhism' is what the Buddha and his leading disciples taught as the doctrine of the Buddha. On the other hand, the ideas and rites of the worldly level are folk beliefs practised from ancient times. The Buddha did not teach lay believers anything like Buddhist rites of passage or any specifically Buddhist way of conducting funerals or worship of ances- tors. Nor were there Buddhist prayers. At the same time, he did not tell the lay folk not to do these things. But they could not do without them. 160 I Traditions of the Buddhist Laity of Si Lanka Poya Days at Kelaniya temple, Columnbo. 4 x> K<' I A tx, >K< / V S A IS 5 S . . - -- Purifyin th Ser by pasn a Poya da wihi th tepl afte tain the Prcets woshp Ithe ...... Tee.a....up.... Som *eople unerak to ditiueuhtinsa h 'z" Donation of food to the Sangha. A man practises charity and right action (sila), accumulates merit and prays to go to heaven after he dies. This is not spiritual realization but a folk belief. However, from the time of the early Buddhist scriptures up to the present day in southern Buddhism, it has been one of the most important values of Buddhism. The third month after death, a gift of three robes to -9- the Sanghal t 0 N 4.1 >1' .~.,j 1N - i¸¸ U04. 'I /7 'A 7 I 'N / I /i I A visit to the temple a week after birth. AA L 6 alg @MM bmG MN &MW @ bmotF f OB am d& b m a WMA kQ \, BUDDHIST TRADITION AT THE WORLDLY LEVEL These ideas and ceremonies of folklore were neglected from the official standpoint of the basic principle of Buddhism as being irrelevant and immaterial in one way or another. On the other hand, they could be performed in the sphere of daily life where there was no connection with the transcendental level, and the people took up as something natural the ideas and rites handed down from antiquity in Hindu society. A life of daily spiritual exertion towards realization of the principles of tran- sience and non-self could co-exist with ceremonies of the worldly life because they were on different levels. As time went on, some of these concepts and ceremonies became 'Buddhaicized', and we shall see something of that process in what follows. But basically, they arose and developed mostly without any connection with Buddhism. Still, inasmuch as they were in fact practised among people who were regarded by others as well as by themselves as being Buddhists, these things became part of Buddhist culture. From the original standpoint of Buddhism, the standpoint of the doctrine, it could be said 'This is not Buddhism.' But that which was called 'not-Buddhism' was being practised by Buddhists. Inevitably there was some tension between the principle of 'Buddhism' and this 'not-Buddhism', which called forth various reactions. In ancient India the situation was the same, but let us first try to see the position in Sri Lanka today. Professor M M Ames made an investigation of a Buddhist village in Sri Lanka, and the outline of his published analysis runs on the follow- ing lines. There is the religious complex of which the people vaguely speak as 'Buddhism' or 'religion' or 'sasana' (teaching). Nirvana, the Three Treasures, meditation and many other ideas and practices are reverenced as the ultimate values, and the ceremonies centred round spiritual training are included with them. But the lay believer is not on such a high level, and confines himself to keeping the disciplines and accumulating merit, in the hope of being reborn in heaven. Funeral ceremonies and rites of ancestor worship are also thought of as 'Buddhist'. Reading the (magical) sutras called pirit (paritta) or having them chanted by bhikshus, actions and rites which in their various ways create merit, are included here. As we have seen, none of this is on the level of spiritual realization; it is entirely on a worldly level. Still, it is intimately bound up with the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, particularly because without the bhikshus the people could not receive the Five Precepts and so could not accumulate merit. Because these rites are initiated by bhikshus, they should be called ideas and rites openly recognized in the Buddhist community. Nevertheless, the life of the Sri Lankan Buddhists does not consist of this alone. There is a complementary complex of ideas and rites which 161 THE MIDDLE WAY are taken to be 'not Buddhism', 'not the teaching' and which Professor Ames called magical animism. This analyzed into three classes. In the first and highest class, pure offerings are made to relatively superior spirits and gods, from whom grace and favour for sick persons are hoped. The second class is worship of astral beings with offerings of food and dances both pure and impure, and the hostile astral influences are subdued by the power of the magician's invocations. For the third and lowest class there is a special kind of sorcerer. Offerings of impure food are made to the devils called yakkha and the goblins called preta, and the sorcerer by devil dances drives them out from the sick person. These dances and rites are very commonly seen among the Buddhists of Sri Lanka.

The religious complex which they understand as Buddhism and the other complex which can be called this magical animism have different functions and structures but are complementary to each other. The 'Buddhist' complex rests on the idea of Karma, with release from Karma in the shape of Nirvana as a 'further shore' beyond endless reincarna- tion, but this cannot actualized in this present life. It is therefore of no help in directly overcoming the calamities and sufferings of ordinary life, which are only disposed of on the level of magical animism. Take the case of illness. The family first of all call in a doctor, and if the patient is cured, it is thought to have been a case of defect in the physical organism. Medicine is the 'science of the body'. But where the doctor does not effect a cure, the cause of the illness is sought in some spiritual, demonic or astral influence, and a magical rite is performed. In this sense the magical rites are a 'science of spirits', and both bhikshus and laymen accept that they have a value. If the illness is still not cured, then it is something Karmic, and there is no salvation except through the actual spiritual realization which is the original basis of Buddhism. A similar functional analysis is made by Professor M Spiro of a village in Burma. There too is, on the one hand, a Buddhism with its spiritual practice looking towards the ideal of Nirvana, for which the means prescribed is to leave home and adopt the life of a bhikshu. But, on the other hand, there is a world of ideas of the supernatural, making up a system of animistic beliefs and rites and customs which is centred on the worship of spirits called Nats. The attempt to remove sufferings by this means is here on an entirely empirical basis. These reports are analyses of single villages, and not applicable as to southern Buddhism as a whole. The situation will differ according to the area, and the methods of analysis and interpretation and the conclusions also differ. But the existence of complementary complexes of religion -one of them understood by Buddhists as 'Buddhism' with its ideas and rites and customs connected in various ways with 162 BUDDHIST TRADITION AT THE WORLDLY LEVEL bhikshus and the other spoken of as 'not Buddhism' -this is a common factor. The former is recognized among Buddhists as 'Buddhism', being directly concerned with the bhikshus and being ideas and ceremonies recognized by the Buddhist Sangha. It may be called a veneer. The latter, which actually underpins the life and culture of Buddhists, may be called the basic stratum. The important point is that this basic stratum, generally recognized by Buddhists as being 'not Buddhism', is what is in fact practised by them. Thus the official doctrinal position is different from what goes on in practice. The value of the practices of the basic stratum is accepted by both Buddhist bhikshus and laymen, and there is no question that this is the culture firmly rooted in Buddhist society. Thus both professors think in terms of two contrasting comple- mentary religious complexes, Buddhist and not-Buddhist. And it might be seen as showing what Buddhist culture fundamentally is. Merit and Heaven Where and how in ancient Indian Buddhism were the ideas and ceremonies of the transcendent level and the worldly level allocated their position as between the veneer stratum and the basic stratum? Let us examine first the ideas of merit and rebirth in heaven. Something has already been said about merit in connection with stupa worship and about its close relation with notions of Karma and reincarnation. The hope of being reborn after death in some favourable world takes the concrete form of trying to do good works in this present life; the repetition of good becomes quantified as the idea of merit, its opposite being sin. The favourable or blessed world into which birth can be attained by the accumulation of merit is understood to be a world favourable for hearing the teaching of the Buddha; and although this human world ought strictly speaking to be included, in fact the aspiration was for a heavenly world. Heaven -the World of Gratification of Human Desires and the Buddhists For Buddhism as for Hinduism, the Indian heaven is a world where its divine inhabitants fully gratify human desires. There they have divine life, strength, happiness and power. Their servants and their own aspect, their voice, scent, touch, clothes, ornaments, sense enjoyments and pleasures are all those proper to gods. Endowed with a brilliant splendour of their own, they travel in the skies and happily go where they will. Their food is 163 THE MIDDLE WAY rich, abounding in meat and wine. They reside in palaces glitter- ing with jewels, each with eight wooded parks. In other halls shining with special gems, the pleasures of the five senses are dis- played, and they enjoy them. Shakra, who is chief of the gods, is attended by 8,000 heavenly nymphs, and with them he enjoys the pleasures of the five senses. Mahavastu Still, even this heaven is only one division of the worlds of reincarna- tion. The dwellers in heaven, when the stock of merit which supported their stay there has been exhausted, have to go to other worlds. The world of heaven is therefore something quite different from the Buddhist Nirvana, which is a state outside the cycle of reincarnation altogether. Therefore the Buddha at first told the bhikshus not to aspire to heaven. But the idea of heaven was deeply grounded in contemporary Indian thinking. The sense of 'heaven' came sometimes to be super- imposed on Nirvana, and so the Buddha himself teaches to ascend to heaven, that is to seek Nirvana. Here the Buddha makes use of the popularly held idea as a convenient means of teaching. But the result was that things took a turn probably unexpected by him. Buddhists took this 'heaven' literally and in the usual sense of a place of gratification of desire. In view of the Hindu world and the cultural foundation on which Buddhism with its teaching of Nirvana and high consequent morality had been erected, this was perhaps a rather natural course of events. The heaven of folklore and the hope of rebirth there were commonplaces in the Hindu world and were unhesit- atingly believed in by ordinary Buddhists. The Teaching of Graduation and Adoption of the Idea of Birth in Heaven into Buddhism Buddhist leaders could not deny heaven, nor was there any need to do so. For birth in heaven, it was necessary to accumulate merit by giving in charity and by other good works. There was no reason why the 6lite should oppose good works by Buddhists, whatever the purpose behind them. In fact, from the point of view of the economics of the Buddhist order, such works, which were mainly charitable, had an important meaning. The bhikshu is a renunciate who has given up his home and engages in no productive activity, so for the support and maintenance of the livelihood of the bhikshus and the order, the significance of giving had to be stressed. Indeed, it was a very popular practice in ancient Indian society. The Buddhist 6lite, then, gave sanction to the ideas of birth in heaven 164 BUDDHIST TRADITION AT THE WORLDLY LEVEL which were accepted as a fact by the society of the time, and then they sought to give them meaning within the Buddhist system. A doctrine of graduation came to be formulated as a provisional teaching, the path to true Buddhism being divided into three stages. First was charity and observance of the precepts, which led to the second stage, birth in heaven. As a basis of these stages, a belief in the doctrine of Karma is inculcated -that good causes lead to good results and bad to bad. But afterwards, it was taught that desire is something evil, and abandon- ment of desire was urged. In this way, when the preconceptions in the minds of the people had been cleared away, the doctrines of the Four Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path were taught. They were to be wholly embraced, as a white cloth embraces the colour with which it is dyed. Then the eye is opened to the truth (the Dharma); one attains the Dharma eye. This is a typical example of the taking up by the elite, with their standpoint of Nirvana as the essential teaching of Buddhism, of elements of folklore and their sanctioning of them by skilfully finding a place for them in the doctrine. But of course by no means all Buddhists of the time thought of being born in heaven as merely a means to final realization. The teaching of the law of Karma and the final opening of the Dharma eye, the attain- ment of realization, was to them no more than a doctrinal interpretation. For their part, the Hindus in general believed simply in birth in heaven, for which merit was accumulated by doing good works. The point of living a good life was to go to a happy world after death, namely to heaven. At the end of life, an unquestioning conviction, 'Having done good Karma, I shall go to heaven' does in fact overcome the fear of death. There was no reason why the Buddhists should not think on the same lines, as is shown by the example of the Jataka story mentioned already. And more than that, there are countless instances, particularly in the didactic literature of Buddhism, showing that for the generality of Buddhists, this idea of heaven was the highest ideal. The bhikshus themselves aspired to heaven. This too is frequently recorded in the lit- erature; and as we have seen in the previous part, it is confirmed also from the fact that so many names of bhikshus and bhikshunis are on the lists of dedication of Buddhist remains all over India 'in the hope of accumulation of merit' for themselves and also for their relatives. The Hierarchy of the Heavenly World In time, the heavenly world was systematized into graded states. Many Hindu gods were adopted as protective deities of Buddhism, and they did not live together in one divine abode but were ranked in a vertical scale as states experienced in accordance with the depth of meditation. 165 THE MIDDLE WAY Ideas developed of a cycle of reincarnation with five worlds or six worlds, and in the fourth century CE Abhidharmakosha, a vast cosmolo- gy is set out. At the centre of the world is Mount Sumeru, and above it there is an elaborately constructed hierarchy of worlds, including heav- enly worlds.

In the worlds of reincarnation, the opposite of heaven is hell. In the development of the ideas of reincarnation and Karma, the first worlds to appear had to be heaven, to which go the doers of good, and hell, where go the doers of evil. Gradually hells began to be distinguished accord- ing to the various types of sin. There were what are called the eight burning hells and the eight cold hells. Hells in the early Buddhist texts In the Buddhist texts of the earliest period, a niraya, or hell is depicted as having iron plates above and below and on all four sides and having four doors. 'The iron plates of the ground are heated till they glow' (Majjhima Nikaya). Again, those who maliciously revile the holy ones go to hell for a vast duration of years, described as 'thirty-six times one hundred thousand nirabbudas and five abuddas'. In the same, oldest, layer of the scriptures are given the names of ten hells: 1) Abbuda, 2) Nirabbuda, 3) Ababa, 4) Ahaha, 5) Atata, 6) Kumude, (7) Sogandhika, 8) Uppala, 9) Pundarika and 10) Padma, In each of them the stay is progressively longer than in the one before. 1 and 2 are numeral units, as we have seen, which have been turned into proper nouns; 3, 4 and 5 are onomatopoeics of cries of pain; and 6 to 10 are various kinds of lotuses. It is not clear just what is the significance of these ten hells. The abbuda of the first two names was connected later with the Sanskrit form arbuda, interpreted as meaning a sore or a swelling. As we shall see, these classified as among the eight cold hells, and it was explained, perhaps first in China, that with the intense cold the body erupted into chilblains. The word was transliterated into Chinese as anbuda, and appears in Japanese as abata, meaning a pockmark. Nirabbuda has the prefix nir-, which has the sense of negation, and it is said to refer to the agony when the swellings on the body have burst, although when it occurs in the Sutta-Nipata there is no reference to any connection with cold. Numbers 3, 4 and 5 are cries of pain, and mean the hells from which they come. It is not known what lay behind the names of lotuses for the hells. In a later commentary to the Abhidharmakosha, it is said that as a result of the cold, the flesh peels away from the bones to look like lotuses, but this is clearly a later invention. The Sutta-nipata goes into some detail as to the piling up of the 166 BUDDHIST TRADITION AT THE WORLDLY LEVEL torments of hell: iron skewers, lances, hammers, red-hot iron balls to eat, cauldrons seething with boiling water or pus, being boiled in a cauldron with maggots, a forest of sword blades, the river Vetarani with razors in it and so on. Once in such hells there is no salvation, and therefore let us set right our conduct -this is the warning with which the account ends. In this way, the Buddhist hells seem to have been thought of as corresponding to a kind of sin. Apart from the ten whose names have been given already, there are other names of a niraya or hell in the oldest texts, but these are described not as independent places but as named after the torments themselves. For instance, a man who fathers a child by adultery is born in Khura-dhara-niraya, where his body is tortured by sword-blades (khura); and in Koti-sinbali-niraya, one being swept along in the Vetarani river tries to climb on to the bank by catching hold of the branches of the ten million (= koti) sinbali trees there, which then blaze up and bum him (Jataka). A hell named Avichi is often mentioned, and it came to have a strong independent existence in popular belief. Evil-doers who revile or wound bodhisattvas or saints fall into it (Jataka). Its pains are 'unceas- ing' (a-vichi), from which comes its name 'the unceasing hell'. In the case of Devadatta, who in the scriptures plays an evil role and tries to injure the Buddha, the earth opened up and a fiery lotus carried him down into this hell. The Eight Burning Hells and the Eight Cold Hells As Buddhism developed, these hells were gradually systematized. According to the Abhidharmakosha, underneath the earth are first the eight burning hells. In order downwards they are Living Together (Samjiva), Black Rope (Kalasutra), Assembly (Samghata), Crying (Raurava), Great Crying (Maharaurava), Burning (Tapana), Great Burning (Pratapana) and Ceaseless (Avichi). Here the Ceaseless is incorporated into the system. In each of the four walls of each hell there is a gate, and at each gate there are four subsidiary hells, making a total of 128. Then there are the eight cold hells: Arbuda, Nirarbuda, Ababa, Atata, Hahava, Utpala, Padma and Mahapadma. They are in the main the same as the ten hells previously mentioned. Outside Buddhism, there is scarcely any mention of these cold hells, but most of the names of the eight burn- ing hells are common to the Hindu and Jaina hells also. The lines of development are not fully known, but it was under the influence of Hinduism that the eight burning hells took shape. It is very plausible that the hell already familiar to the Buddhists was then worked up into the eight cold hells. 167 THE MIDDLE WAY Preta -Hungry Ghost It had also to be taken into account that the psychological principle in man might be reborn not only in heaven or hell but also once more into the human world. Naturally also, there might be rebirth as an animal. There were four worlds of reincarnation that came to be considered: the worlds of heaven, of men, of animals, and of hell. In Buddhism, an additional world, of 'hungry ghosts', came to be supposed as part of the reincarnation cycle. The original word is preta (Pali: peta), which means simply the deceased. But in Hinduism from before the time of the Buddha, the spirit of the deceased was thought of as a preta or spirit in an intermediate state before becoming an ancestral spirit; and as we have already said, it was thus tied up with the rite of the ancestors. Naturally this meaning was known in Buddhism, but in the earliest literature, examples of its use in this sense are relatively rare. The first sense, of a deceased or his spirit, is predominant, as we can see from the Pali word peta-kiccha (funeral) and the compounds pfurva-preta or pubba- peta, meaning the spirit of the deceased. In the texts of the original Buddhism, there is a discussion of whether the spirit goes on existing or not after death, and this is called the discussion of the spirit of the deceased or pubbapeta-katha. The discussion is put aside by the Buddha, on the ground that it is useless for the spiritual training of a bhikshu. But the word has a second meaning: a world of hungry ghosts (preta- loka) is spoken of in Buddhist texts in fairly definite terms, and it is placed between hell and the animal world. Here come those who in their former life were mean and did no charity or who acted to prevent charity done by others. The hungry ghosts are depicted as naked and thin as skeletons, tormented by heat, with their mouths tiny as a needle but their bellies swollen like a mountain and as always tortured by thirst and hunger.

There is often a blurring of the distinction between the preta as the spirit of the deceased and the preta who is an inhabitant of the world of that name. For instance, it is said that a mean woman when she dies has come to hell (naraka) and is then a preti, a female hungry ghost (Ratna- mazla-avadana), or that hungry ghosts being inhabitants of hell (Ratna- mala-avadana) and so on. It is said too that to do evil takes one from this world to the world of peta, there to dwell in the world of Yama (Peta- vatthu). Here the peta is certainly not an inhabitant of the world of that name, which is above hell (as has been mentioned), whereas Yama is the lord of hell itself. Yama was said to be the first progenitor of humanity, and thus the first to die, so becoming lord of the dead and then lord of hell, known in Japan as Emma. 168 BUDDHIST TRADITION AT THE WORLDLY LEVEL The idea here is of Yama the lord of pretas, taken in the general Hindu sense of the dead. For instance in the eighth-century Dasha-kumara- charita, a young man loses his life and goes to the city of the dead (preta), where he has an interview with King Samana (= Yama) on his throne set with jewels. The king says, 'It is not time for this man to die ... when he has looked at the torments (of hell) ... he must return to life.' This is the same lord of the shades. Thus in Buddhism, the preta was believed to have a character varying from preta taken as the spirit of a dead man, to one who is a dweller in the world of the hungry ghosts. Sometimes, as pointed out by a passage from the Therigatha, 'Staying in this world, then going, he comes again, taking on another form. The peta reincarnates, assuming a human form ....' It is also thought of as a spiritual entity in the sense of the subject who reincarnates. Or it can be a vengeful ghost, and in the vinaya, a preta is referred to thus: 'A wrongful act done when possessed by a peta is not a sin against the discipline.' Among the Buddhists of ancient India, the preta was something living but involved with folk beliefs as to the afterlife, and with the idea of ghosts. The preta also assumed various other aspects: in Sri Lanka, for instance, it changed into the petava, which appears in magical prayer cer- emonies; and in China and Japan, it figures in the popular rite of 'feed- ing the hungry ghosts'. Both of these were an important element of one aspect of Buddhist life. Karma, Reincarnation and the Buddhists So it was that five worlds (or five paths) of reincarnation became defined -from heaven in descending order through men, animals, hungry ghosts and finally to hell. In another tradition, between men and animals were the fighting asuras, making six paths. When asked whether man survives after death, the Buddha refrained from replying. This is called the Buddha's 'no-statement' or 'refusal to make a statement'. It implies the impossibility of making a definite reply to such metaphysical questions, but his refusal also carries the meaning that rather than waste time on such things, what is necessary is to devote the mind to living fully the living now. It expresses the practi- cal and existential character of Buddhism, and it also relates to the true level of transcendence. On the other hand, Karma and reincarnation, already commonly accepted as self-evident in the time of the Buddha, were of the nature of folk beliefs. They were on the 'worldly' level and the Buddha, treating them as real, sublimated them to the level of transcendence. He said, for example in the Sutta-Nipata, 'Through Karma the world originates, through Karma human beings come into being. These which have come 169 THE MIDDLE WAY into being are in bondage through Karma', and also 'Thus the wise man perceives human conduct just as it is, sees that it (is something which) arises from a cause and sees that it leads to its own result.' Thus what the Buddha meant by Karma was not a mechanical reincarnation in which through a particular Karma done in a particular situation in a previous life there is a particular birth now. When one looks at the self as a reality here and now, he is overcome by ignorance and whirled about by passion, and he inevitably feels that he is a suffering self. This has to be taken as a problem entirely for oneself, without relying on any god or devil or anything else. It must be accepted as the result of actions done in a previous life, and it is here that a man comes to see himself as an inheritor of Karma. This realization must naturally be accompanied by living rightly today and endeavouring to do good action, good Karma. This was acceptance of the doctrine of Karma as laying stress on action, and with its existential content sublimated. The question of a physical reincarnation was immaterial. But with the development of the Order, the idea of reincarnation, believed by society in general perforce, made its appearance among Buddhists on the mass level. The establish- ment of the system of the five worlds or six worlds of the cycle of life was one manifestation of it. The Buddhist scriptures of later times are supposed to have permit- ted the teaching of the five worlds (panca-gandha-cakra) as attributed to the Buddha to be posted at the entrance to monasteries. The ordinary Buddhist follower, seeing this and hearing the explanation of the pictures, longing for life in the happiness of heaven and trembling with dread of the terrors of hell, reformed himself in his daily life. The idea of Karmic rebirth of course teaches a good result from a good cause and a bad result from a bad cause. This is correct when taken in general terms, but in practice, perhaps to strengthen the psychological effect, it inevitably came to be thought of in the form of a particular action in a previous life causing a particular condition in a subsequent one. For example, here is a man who in his former life did not repay a debt: he will be reborn as a donkey in the household of his creditor and so work off the debt which he failed to settle in his former life. Or there is a hungry ghost whose food, when presented to him, changes to a white-hot iron lump as he tries to eat. This is because in a previous life he did not give when an ascetic came to him for alms but said with a sneer, 'You people should have lumps of iron to eat'. This is now the Karmic result. This kind of concrete relation of cause and effect is taken as a matter of course in the stories of the Jatakas and the Avadanas and in works such as the Manimeharai. 170 BUDDHIST TRADITION AT THE WORLDLY LEVEL The truth that like causes like is not a principle which can justify arbitrary causal linkage of an action and a subsequent state. In a general sense, good action brings a good result, and the whole stress is thus on the importance of action. But the question is for oneself alone, and it is not dependent on assertions by third parties that a particular result is from a particular cause in a past life. The teaching is to accept one's present situation as the Karma of past lives and then live looking to the future to go beyond that Karma. In Buddhism, while the folk beliefs about Karmic reincarnation were adopted, they were reinterpreted as true on the existential level of transcendence. But with the development of Buddhism, ideas of Karmic reincarnation derived from folklore also became established. This was a natural consequence of the fact that Buddhism had its existence on top of a cultural substratum of Hinduism. So it was that concrete causal connections were arbitrarily assumed, contrary to the doctrine and thus abandoning the original thinking. How could anyone ever prove that a man who had died leaving a debt unpaid had now been born as a donkey in the household of his creditor? Although never more than an idea based on human feeling, still this sort of direct linking of a particular cause with a particular effect was fairly widely subscribed to at the time. It was natural when people had fallen into a difficult situation and were thinking about how to get out of it that they should find a Karmic cause for it. It was natural as well that they should hope to discover some means by which that cause could be cleared away for the future. In one of the scriptures, it is recorded that there was a drought and consequent famine in the realm of a certain king, so that both the king and his subjects were in dire straits. The cause was sought for, and it was found that in his former life the king had acted as an unbeliever. He invited bhikshus and gave them food, performed charity, washed the Buddha images and made offerings. Thereupon the king's sin was extinguished and rain fell at once (Suvarnavarna-avadana). This is certainly a useful natural idea. In an actual crisis, it is general- ly not known just what the causes of the situation may have been. When it is felt to be understood -even though by what is no more than an arbi- trarily constructed chain of cause and effect -at any rate some cause has been identified; and the mechanism by which it can be overcome, name- ly by performing good Karma, has its uses in everyday life. It is a natur- al response to the religious demands of the people. These attitudes are seen today among Buddhists in Japan and similarly in southern Buddhism. Anthropologists often mention them in their reports. The idea that when confronted with a difficulty one should perform a good action and so acquire the merit to escape is termed by Professor Nash 171 THE MIDDLE WAY 'instant Karma'. This concept existed in ancient India. When there is this belief in the relation between specific causes and effects, the sin of a particular evil action in the past can be instantly cancelled. It should further be possible to acquire also the 'instant merit' to actualize some desired result in the future. There are in the Buddhist scriptures a number of cases where actions can be analyzed on these lines. For instance, we are told of a couple who want a child, convert to Buddhism for that purpose and worship the Three Treasures. Their desire is fulfilled. This shows just how easily the course of Buddhist faith on the tran- scendental level becomes replaced by prayers and rites for worldly advantages. It is also an instance of how religious ideas and practices of both transcendental and worldly levels have taken root among the mass of Buddhists and mutually affected each other. Part Sixteen from The World of Buddha, copyright Gakken Co. Ltd, 1979 172 Tibetan Buddhism Classes on Tuesdays at the Buddhist Society Buddhist Practice in the Nyingma Tradition Lop6n Ogyen Ten'dzin Rinpoche teaches on the Nyingma Vajrayana practices and offers insights into the history and development of the Nyingma gT6rma Cycles 'Heart Advice from a Lama' A Public Talk Wednesday 10 November at 6.30 p.m. Lop6n Ogyen Ten'dzin Rinpoche draws upon his own experience, and of the masters of enlightenment who have given him instruction, to offer a very personal teaching for those who are setting out on the path. This is followed by a six-week course on Tuesdays starting 16 November 2004 at 6.30 p.m. Lop6n Ogyen Ten'dzin Rinpoche is a Nyingma Vajrayana master who teaches in English with effortless good humour. He was born into the family lineage of Pema Lingpa and has studied with many of the greatest Lamas of his gener- ation. His heart teacher was Kyabj6 Did'jom Rinpoche (until his passing in 1987). He lives in the remote Pemak6 region of the Himalayas and as this is his first visit to the UK, it is a wonderful and rare opportunity to receive teachings from a realized master. All are welcome COPYRIGHT INFORMATIONTITLE: Buddhist Tradition at the Worldly Level: Heaven, Hell and Accumulating Merit SOURCE: Middle Way 79 no3 N 2004 WN: 0431504992005 Copyright (c) The Buddhist Society London (2001) Copyright 1982-2005 The H.W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved.