Meet Buddhism's Creator and Savior

(Larry King) Hindu Sankhya philosophy, Jain, Buddhist

Great Brahmā (as understood in Buddhism) - Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia

Does Buddhism have a creator? Yes. What about a savior? Yes, that, too, sort of

"God" has a sense of humor (Far Side).

Recently, Ven. Subhuti, a student of the awakened scholar-monk Pa Auk Sayadaw, made a video explaining a common question he gets asked as an American Buddhist monk in the West:

“Do you believe in a creator?” It is a loaded question usually asked by devoted Christians. They are expecting him to say “No,” but he answers, “Yes.”

Dyeus: The Proto-Indo-European "Sky Father"

Buddhism and the God-Idea

The real answer is that karma [kamma, deeds, intentional actions of body, speech, and mind, all that we sow and can expect to reap] is the creator [of our lives, our circumstances, our fruit, what we get].

He quotes a stock phrase from the Pali canon, Theravada Buddhism's canonical texts recorded in the lingua franca (common language) the Buddha spoke:

Kammassakomhi, kammadāyādo, kammayoni,

“It is my actions (deeds) that I own, it is my actions that I am heir to, it is my actions that I am born from,

I'll leave this one in the Garden.

kammabandhu, kammapaṭisaraṇo --

“Actions are my kinsfolk, actions are my guide --

yaṁ kammaṁ karissāmi, kalyāṇaṁ vā pāpakaṁ vā,

Whatever actions I perform, whether skillful or unskillful,

tassa dāyādo bhavissāmī ti.

“to that will I be heir.”

pabbajitena abhiṇhaṁ paccavekkhitabbaṁ.

“One who has gone forth [from home into the left-home life of a Buddhist monastic] should frequently reflect on this.”

• If by karma we are "created," so it is by karma that we are "saved." Therefore, in that sense, our karma (our deeds) are our savior:

No one saves us but ourselves

No one can and no one may;

We ourselves must walk the Path;

Buddhas only point the way.

COMMENTARY

Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhist Publication Society

Does that mean that there is a God in Buddhism? There are many Gods (brahmas) and gods (devas) in Buddhism, none quite fitting the exaggerated description of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Judeo-Christian conception, except perhaps the Gnostic Christian view. But karma fits the omni-description.

Buddhism is nontheistic as well as polytheistic. How? Nontheism is not atheism. Theism is the certainty that there is some all-powerful God as imagined by monotheists; atheism is the certainty that there is not.

Nontheism, by distinction to both of these extremes, says that whether there is a God or whether there is not has no bearing on one's own awakening, enlightenment, and liberation (ultimate salvation). Why?

The gods and Gods themselves are not free. The Buddha excelled the Gods in that sense, and many of them (such as Maha Brahma and Baka Brahma) knew it, as hard as it was to believe. The Buddha is not worshiped, is not now sitting in his heaven welcoming and excluding souls. It's nothing like that.

But it is curious that Christians say things that are true without knowing it, such as: "God works in mysterious ways." Nothing could be more true of the working out of KARMA (actions begetting reactions, small causes and their exponential effects, deeds and their resultants).

The working out of karma is imponderable and is not mocked. "God is not mocked," it is said, but the Jewish/Christian God is mocked all the time. What is not mocked is karma, in the sense that both are given credit for producing results appropriate to actions.

Whatever is done, it is seen. It does not go unseen. And there are results, for the most part with some exceptions. (Not every action has to produce a result, e.g., if the soil upon which a seed was planet becomes barren, i.e., if a person becomes fully enlightened and therefore no longer liable any further results after this life).

God can be bargained with to avoid or modify some results. Karmic resultants are modified by other karma (actions). One easy way to understand this is given in an ancient example.

Freshwater naturally dilutes saltwater

Let's say a person were living a fairly good life but then did something very grave and wrong. That person could be compared to a cup with water in it that is now spiked with salt. How can that bitter saltiness ever be removed (the "sin forgiven")? While it can't be removed, it can be diluted.

The solution to saltiness is not removing salt but adding more fresh water. That will dilute it and make it less salty. Having done one "wrong," one might do many "rights" to compensate for it.

It'd be magic if salt disappeared

If one does many little wrongs, that also makes the cup salty and hard to swallow. Doing many little rights and some big ones, too, will be very helpful for the long future of drinking. We imagine there's only this life, but there are many more.

Karma is the creator (of our lives, our circumstances, our environment), the orchestrator, the chooser, the Generator, Operator, and Destroyer (G.O.D.)

Unlike Maha Brahma (the "Great Supremo") or the countless devas (celestial and terrestrial "shining ones"), all faring along according to their karma, it would be wise to engage in the karma that makes an end of all karma, that brings suffering to a final end, that results in knowing-and-seeing.

Why? "Karma, it's everywhere you're going to be."

• The symbolism and significance of the mighty God Brahma (Wordzz)
• Bhikkhu Subhuti (AmericanMonk.org, Feb. 3, 2025); Dhr. Seven and Sayalay Aloka (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY