On Karma

      The following excerpts are from What The Buddha Taught, by Walpola Rahula. All italics, parentheses, and comments in red indicate my perspectives or additions, not the thoughts of the author.
      Rahula writes, “What we call death is the total non-functioning of the physical body. Do all these forces and energies stop altogether? ‘No.’ Will, volition, desire, thirst to exist, to continue, to become more and more, is a tremendous force that moves whole lives, whole existences, that even moves the whole world….According to Buddhism, this force does not stop with the non-functioning of the body, which is death; but it continues manifesting itself in another form, producing re-existence which is called rebirth.”
      My perspective on this, as I have noted before, is that the whole idea of an after-life is for me a non-issue since all queries into this matter are mediated by a physical brain that cannot process metaphysical data, as the definition would indicate. It is capable of imagining something however, and for that we have an extraordinary mind. We are masters of creation. We create theories about all those aspects of our existence about which we feel fear or uncertainty. We try to explain and make certain our understanding of all things about which we feel uncertain and therein make us fearful. Ambiguity is not our friend.
      The drawback to any certainty which arises from these speculations is that they do not necessarily reflect a natural fact. They are based on the proper and healthy functioning and the limitations of our physical mind. And they remain but mere speculation.
      This is not to say that our ability to create solutions to the physically based problems of our material existence isn't valuable. Surely we would not have evolved as we have to this point without this gift (which, in any case, may be argued as mere hubris on our part). In this arena we are the "great lord of all things" in the words of Alexander Pope. But when it comes to speculating on the imagined aspects of what is unknowable to the functioning of the human mind, we are "yet prey to all."
      It is for this reason that I suggest that the perspective put forth here by the Venerable Rahula is easily understood as a workable understanding of the process of karma in ones search for the cessation of suffering in this life. In short, I read the term “rebirth” here to be pointing to “a rebirth" of a series of forces or energies in future lives (of others) as a result of our interactions with those others.

      Rahula goes on to say, “Now another question arises: If there is no permanent, unchanging entity or substance like Self or Soul (atman), what is it that can re-exist or be reborn after death? Before we go on to the life after death, let us consider what this life is, and how it continues now. What we call life, as we have so often repeated, is the combination of the Five Aggregates, a combination of physical and mental energies. These are constantly changing; they do not remain the same for two consecutive moments. Every moment they are born and they die, ‘When the aggregates arise, decay and die, O bhikkhu, every moment you are born, decay, and die.’ Prmj I(PTS), p.78”
      “Thus, even now during this life time, every moment we are born and die, but we continue. If we can understand that in this life we can continue without a permanent, unchanging substance like Self or Soul, why can’t we understand that those forces themselves can continue without a Self or Soul behind them after the non-functioning of the body?”
      “When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life….Physical and mental energies which constitute the so-called being have within themselves the power to take a new form, and grow gradually and gather force to the full.”
      Remember this is speaking to the notion of Karma contained in the Buddhist cosmology and in my opinion, needn’t be swallowed whole in order to be useful in this life in the battle over the recurring visitation by our human sufferings. Karma is the continuation of the person I am in each moment, as created by my actions, in this life.

      “As there is no permanent, unchanging substance, nothing passes from one moment to the next. So quite obviously, nothing permanent or unchanging can pass or transmigrate from one life to the next. It is a series that continues unbroken, but changes every moment. The series is, really speaking, nothing but movement. It is like a flame that burns through the night; it is not the same flame or is it another. A child grows up to be a man of sixty. Certainly the man of sixty is not the same as the child of sixty years ago, nor is he another person. Similarly, a person who dies here and is reborn elsewhere is neither the same person, nor another. It is the continuity of the same series. The difference between death and birth is only a thought-moment: the last in this life conditions the first thought-moment in the so-called next life….” -or next thought, feeling, perspective, or action in the person receiving our skillful or unskillful action.“…. which in fact, is the continuity of the same series. During this life itself…one thought-moment conditions the next thought-moment…..As long as there is this thirst to be and become, the cycle of continuity (samsara) goes on. It can stop only when its driving force, this thirst, is cut off through wisdom which sees Reality, Truth, Nirvana.”
      When I understand that my attitude in this thought-moment is the foundation for my next thought-moment it should come as no surprise that my posture toward other sentient beings in any given moment will have an effect on those with whom I come in contact. If I am angry over some rumination as I walk down the street, and without realizing it I sneer at a passerby, they are sure to have a change in attitude when they experience my expression even though it had nothing to do with them. Who among us has not experienced the ill-effect of someone elses frustration or fear; and likewise for a kindness or affection received through a simple smile on the face of another. And in these instances did we not pass on in some way, the result of such an encounter? Do not others bear witness to the attitudes or demeanor with which I touch them? And in the same way do I not breed more of the same for myself in the next thought/action-moment? I have found that I can be a cause or condition for the rebirthing of whatever I bring to each thought-moment. This is the only Karma with which I need be concerned.