Karma and Logic

Tibetan Wheel of Life

Nagarajuna has an interesting view on karma. His view is that it is not subject to analysis. This means that you can't approach it logically. The Tibetans classify karma (including rebirth) as the only one of the Buddha's teachings which is Extremely Hidden, which means that it is impossible to find evidence for it. Teachings which are classified as Hidden, like dependent arising, are subject to analysis and evidence can be found, but it requires careful attention. The evidence for other teachings, like on metta, is clearly visible for all to see.

What does this mean? Well, it means that describing a mechanism for karma and rebirth is impossible. By "mechanism", I mean a cause and effect sequence that explains how they work. The mechanism for rebirth comes down to: it's driven by your karma. And the mechanism for karma comes down to: unknown. Incidentally, that karma is the "cause" of rebirth need not be the case. It is possible that someone might be reborn with no connection to the meritorious or unmeritorious acts in their life; in fact, the Buddha explicitly refuted this in one of the suttas.

Why is this a problem? It's particularly a problem for rebirth because from what we know about how humans and other animals come into existence, on the physical side and increasingly on the psychological side, there is always a sequence of causal events and their effects, that determine the outcome, namely the coming into existence of a new being. This sequence of causal events doesn't have a place in it for "this dying person here is reborn as that being there" without any intervening events on the physical and psychological side. For this reason, most Secular Buddhists reject belief in karma and rebirth. Note the use of "events" here, I'm abiding by the modern view of causality, that a cause and effect sequence is primarily the arising of one or several causal events that come together to fashion the effect. This is different from the ancient Indian view, in which a cause was viewed as an object, and the effect was too.

Now, I would argue there is some evidence for karma and rebirth, but it's reliability is somewhat suspect.* As I described in the book, I've had visions of past lives of myself and others during meditation, other contemporary practitioners have as well, and from the sutta reports, the Buddha did too. I think the Buddha probably took these visions at face value, since they reinforced the cultural view that karma and rebirth exist. In addition, it gave him the opportunity to comfort family members who came to him in absolute grief due to the passing of a loved one**. My theory is that he would go off to meditate, go into a deep jhana state, and when he came out, a vision would arise of the next life of the family's departed member. Then he would go back and tell them, to their great relief. Unless of course the vision was of an unfortunate rebirth, in which case the Buddha could use that as a lesson for why ethical behavior is important, hopefully prompting any family members who had the same tendencies to clean up their act.

So karma and rebirth are basically a matter of belief. Though I don't have any proof, I also think whether or not you have visions of past and future lives depends on whether or not you believe in rebirth, as I talk about in the Epilog to the book. What does that say about the actual existence of karma and rebirth? Who knows! Like I said at the beginning, it's impossible to gather any evidence, either physical or psychological, for it. You either believe in it or you don't.

But if you don't, it's not like the Christian view of belief, that you are going to hell if you don't believe in God. It's more like if you don't believe in the science behind global warming and continue to pollute, the planet is going to cook regardless of your belief. In other words, the view is that karma works whether you believe in it or not, and that your next life will depend on how you comport yourself in this life. If you do good acts, then you'll be reborn in a happy destination, if not, well then too late. People in the Secular Buddhist community, like Stephen Batchelor, are perfectly in harmony with the Buddha's teachings if they don't believe in rebirth.

Despite what some Buddhist Web sites and teachers say, you can be a perfectly good Buddhist and not believe in karma and rebirth. The important point is not to behave like a self-centered jerk, and try to bring some generosity and compassion to your interactions with others and yourself. Whether or not you get reborn into a better next life..well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see, eh?



* Another body of evidence comes from Ian Stephanson a former professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, who  conducted research by interviewing young children about their memories of past lives. I feel this is in the same category as meditative visions, namely there is no plausible hypothesis about how the memories could have gotten from the former life to the current one, so their cause must be something different.

** This is contrary to the predominant Secular Buddhist view, that the stories in the suttas about the Buddha's visions on past and future lives were added by later editors, to reinforce a particular theological view of the universe.

Image source: buddhaweekly.com