DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0161
Samsara and Kamma
its kamma, and not any newly created movement, which
is reborn in the foremost ball. Buddhist reincarnation is
the endless transmission of such an impulse through an
endless series of forms ; Buddhist salvation is the coming
to understand that the forms, the billiard balls, are
compound structures subject to decay, and that nothing
is transmitted but an impulse, a vis a tergo, dependent
on the heaping up of the past. It is a man’s character,
and not himself, that goes on.
It is not difficult to see why Gautama adopted the current
doctrine of kamma (action, by thought, word, or deed).
In its simplest form, this doctrine merely asserts that
actions are inevitably followed by their consequences,
‘ as a cart a horse.’ So far as the experience of one life
goes, it is simply the law of cause and effect, with this
addition, that these causes are heaped up in character,
whereby the future behaviour of the individual is very
largely determined.
Kamma must not be confused with mechanical pre-
destination. It does not eliminate responsibility nor
invalidate effort: it merely asserts that the order of
nature is not interrupted by miracles. It is evident that
I must lie on the bed I have made. I cannot effect a
miracle, and abolish the bed at one blow; I must reap as
‘ I ’ have sown, and the recognition of this fact I call
kamma. It is equally certain that my own present efforts
repeated and well directed will in course of time bring
into existence another kind of bed, and the recognition of
this fact I also call kamma. So far, then, from inhibiting
effort, the doctrine of kamma teaches that no result can
be attained without ‘ striving hard.’ There is indeed
nothing more essential to the Buddhist discipline than
‘ Right Effort.’
107
its kamma, and not any newly created movement, which
is reborn in the foremost ball. Buddhist reincarnation is
the endless transmission of such an impulse through an
endless series of forms ; Buddhist salvation is the coming
to understand that the forms, the billiard balls, are
compound structures subject to decay, and that nothing
is transmitted but an impulse, a vis a tergo, dependent
on the heaping up of the past. It is a man’s character,
and not himself, that goes on.
It is not difficult to see why Gautama adopted the current
doctrine of kamma (action, by thought, word, or deed).
In its simplest form, this doctrine merely asserts that
actions are inevitably followed by their consequences,
‘ as a cart a horse.’ So far as the experience of one life
goes, it is simply the law of cause and effect, with this
addition, that these causes are heaped up in character,
whereby the future behaviour of the individual is very
largely determined.
Kamma must not be confused with mechanical pre-
destination. It does not eliminate responsibility nor
invalidate effort: it merely asserts that the order of
nature is not interrupted by miracles. It is evident that
I must lie on the bed I have made. I cannot effect a
miracle, and abolish the bed at one blow; I must reap as
‘ I ’ have sown, and the recognition of this fact I call
kamma. It is equally certain that my own present efforts
repeated and well directed will in course of time bring
into existence another kind of bed, and the recognition of
this fact I also call kamma. So far, then, from inhibiting
effort, the doctrine of kamma teaches that no result can
be attained without ‘ striving hard.’ There is indeed
nothing more essential to the Buddhist discipline than
‘ Right Effort.’
107