Ven. Ñanamoli Thera (trans.), Kukkuravatika Sutta: "The Dog-Duty Ascetic" (MN 57 PTS: M i 387); Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly  |
| Look at my white dog, Babe - I see! He's so cute! - Want to touch it? - NO, no, I'm good. |
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| Werewolf, a man becomes a lycanthrope or canine wolfman (Lucas Cranach) |
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Introduction
(Bhikkhu Khantipalo)
There were some strange people around in the Buddha's days believing some strange things — but that is just like our time when people hold the oddest and most unbalanced ideas.
In this sutra we meet some people who believed that by imitating animals they would be find salvation (liberation, enlightenment, awakening, sparing themselves further rebirth so as to make an end of suffering in this very life).
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| Is lesbianism harmful karma? You can't ask that! |
They're still with us, too.
Belief is one thing, action another. While beliefs sometimes influence actions, for others beliefs are quite separate from what actions are taken. But the Buddha says all intentional actions (volitions, motivated deeds) -- whether manifesting as mere thoughts, turning into speech, or bodily acts -- however expressed, are karma and lead the doer to experience results of these actions sooner or later.
In this discourse the Buddha classifies karma into four groups:
- dark with a dark results
- bright with a bright results
- dark and bright with a dark and bright results
- neither dark nor bright with a neither dark nor bright results.
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| Madonna Monster at the Grammys (NYPost) |
Dark (unskillful, harmful, bad) karma does not [when it finally comes to fruition] give a bright (happy) results, nor does bright (beneficial) karma lead to dark (miserable) results.
Karma can be mixed, where an action is willed and done impelled by a variety of motives, some good, some bad. A kind of karma also exists that gives up attachment to and interest in the other three and therefore leads beyond the range of karma.
SUTRA: "The Dog-Duty Ascetic"
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| I want a blind dog because I can't see. |
1. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One [the Buddha] was living in the Koliyan country, there in a town of the Koliyans called Haliddavasana.
2. Then Punna, a Koliyan and an ox-duty ascetic, and also Seniya a naked dog-duty ascetic, went to the Blessed One, and Punna the ox-duty ascetic paid homage to the Blessed One and sat down respectfully to one side, while Seniya the naked dog-duty ascetic exchanged greetings with the Blessed One and, when the courteous and amiable talk was finished, sat down to one side curled up like a dog.
When Punna the ox-duty ascetic sat down, he asked the Blessed One: "Venerable sir, this naked dog-duty ascetic Seniya does what is hard to do: He eats his food when it is thrown on the ground. That dog-duty has long been taken up and practiced by him. What will be his [karmic] destination? What will be his future course [of rebirth as a result of this habit]?" [1]
"Enough, Punna, let it be. Do not ask that."
[But a second and third time Punna asked again.]
"Well, Punna, since I cannot persuade you when I say, 'Enough, Punna, let it be. Do not ask that,' I shall answer.
3. "Here [within this Teaching], Punna, someone develops the dog duty fully and unreservedly. One develops the dog habit fully and unreservedly. One develops the dog mind fully and unreservedly. One develops dog behavior fully and reservedly.
Having done that [having willed and carried out this karma], on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in the company of dogs. But if one's view is such as this: 'By this virtue or duty or asceticism or religious life I shall become a (great) shining one or some (lesser) shining one,' that is wrong view in his case.
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| I thought we'd be reborn as oxen. - Shut up, Punna. |
Now there are two destinations for one with wrong view, I say -- hell or the animal womb. So, Punna, if his dog duty is perfected, it will lead him to the company of dogs. If it is not, it will lead him to hell."
4. When this was said, Seniya the naked dog-duty ascetic wept and shed tears. Then the Blessed One said to Punna, the Koliyan and ox-duty ascetic:
"Punna, I could not persuade you when I said, 'Enough Punna, let it be. Do not ask that.'"
"Venerable sir, I am not weeping that the Blessed One has spoken thus. This dog duty has long been taken up and practiced by me. Venerable sir, there is this Punna, a son of the Koliyans and an ox duty ascetic: that ox-duty has long been taken up and practiced by him. What will be his destination? What will be his future course [of rebirth]?"
"Enough, Seniya, let it be. Do not ask that." [But a second and third time Seniya asked.]
"Well, Seniya, since I cannot persuade you when I say, 'Enough, Seniya, let it be. Do not ask that,' I shall therefore answer you."
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