DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0312
Buddha & the Gospel of Buddhism
responsibility than lightens it. There is no mystery in
karma; it is simply a phase of the law of cause and effect,
and it holds as much for groups and communities as
for individuals, if indeed, individuals are not also com-
munities. Let us take a very simple example : if a single
wise statesman by a generous treatment of a conquered
race secures their loyalty at some future time of stress,
that karma accrues not merely to himself but to the
state for ever; and other members of the community,
even those who would have dealt ungenerously in
the first instance, benefit undeniably from the vicarious
merit of a single man. Just in this sense it is possible
for hero-souls to bear or to share the burden of the karma
of humanity. By this conception of the taking on of
sin, or rather, the passing on of merit, the Mahayana has
definitely emerged from the formula of psychic isolation
which the Hinayana inherits from the Samkhya.
In other words, the great difficulty of imagining a par-
ticular karma passing from individual to individual, with-
out the persistence even of a subtle body, is avoided
by the conception of human beings, or indeed of the
whole universe, as constituting one life or self. Thus
it is from our ancestors that we receive our karma,
and not merely from ‘our own’ past existences; and
whatsoever karma we create will be inherited by humanity
for ever.
The following account of karma is given by a modern
Mahayanist:
“The aggregate actions of all sentient beings give birth
to the varieties of mountains, rivers, countries, etc. They
are caused by aggregate actions, and so are called aggregate
fruits. Our present life is the reflection of past actions.
Men consider these reflections as their real selves. Their
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responsibility than lightens it. There is no mystery in
karma; it is simply a phase of the law of cause and effect,
and it holds as much for groups and communities as
for individuals, if indeed, individuals are not also com-
munities. Let us take a very simple example : if a single
wise statesman by a generous treatment of a conquered
race secures their loyalty at some future time of stress,
that karma accrues not merely to himself but to the
state for ever; and other members of the community,
even those who would have dealt ungenerously in
the first instance, benefit undeniably from the vicarious
merit of a single man. Just in this sense it is possible
for hero-souls to bear or to share the burden of the karma
of humanity. By this conception of the taking on of
sin, or rather, the passing on of merit, the Mahayana has
definitely emerged from the formula of psychic isolation
which the Hinayana inherits from the Samkhya.
In other words, the great difficulty of imagining a par-
ticular karma passing from individual to individual, with-
out the persistence even of a subtle body, is avoided
by the conception of human beings, or indeed of the
whole universe, as constituting one life or self. Thus
it is from our ancestors that we receive our karma,
and not merely from ‘our own’ past existences; and
whatsoever karma we create will be inherited by humanity
for ever.
The following account of karma is given by a modern
Mahayanist:
“The aggregate actions of all sentient beings give birth
to the varieties of mountains, rivers, countries, etc. They
are caused by aggregate actions, and so are called aggregate
fruits. Our present life is the reflection of past actions.
Men consider these reflections as their real selves. Their
232