Wednesday, July 5, 2023

KARMA: three "Articles of (Heretical) Belief"

Ven. Nyanatiloka (Buddhist Dictionary, palikanon.com; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
This is not the historical Buddha Gautama but a nude Mahavira, founder of Jainism.
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The great wandering ascetic Mahavira
These Three "Articles of (Heretical) Belief" (titthāyatana) are (in A.III.61) declared as leading to inactivity/inaction:
  1. (1) the belief that all happiness and suffering are produced through previous karma (prenatal deeds, actions in past lives);
  2. (2) that everything is uncaused;
  3. (3) that everything is created by God.
(1) The first is the teaching of Niggantha Nāthaputta [Mahavira, the Jina, the tirthankana or "ford-finder," the founder Jainism and leader of the Jains or Nigganthas].

The fault with this doctrine (dharma, "teaching") is that it does not account for that happiness and suffering which are either the result of the present life's skillful or unskillful deeds or are associated with the corresponding action.

(2) The second is the doctrine or teaching of Makkhali Gosāla (see view at ditthi).

According to these three doctrines, humans are not responsible for their actions (deeds, karma) so as to say that all moral exertions would be useless. Source

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