Kamma and Nirodha Pt 1: On the Architecture of Liberation
This description of karma captures a sense of hard determinism - bondage, juxtaposed against salvific refuge, wherein free will is given only the path of the whole of his being.
“Beings are owners of their actions, heirs of their actions; they originate from their actions, are bound to their actions, have their actions as their refuge.” (MN 135)
Karma and determinism
This description of karma captures a sense of hard determinism - bondage, juxtaposed against salvific refuge, wherein free will is given only the path of the whole of his being - that same conditioned action. Our actions are conditioned by our previous lives, so there are no excuses when it comes to purity. Even if we are swept up off of our feet, we are nonetheless duty-bound to our own liberation at a mental level.
Intentions and consequences
Karma categorically includes all intentional actions and their consequences, and excludes all unintentional ones. This is poetically captured in this quote from the Nibbedhika Sutta (AN 6:63),
“Cetana [intention/volition], O monks, is kamma, I declare.”
In a sense, the Buddha is declaring “wholesome and unwholesome intentions are the whole measure of the law.” All deeds are downstream of this mental steering. For this reason, unintentional actions like accidently stepping on a bug have no hidden bad karma. This also means that with skillfully-directed karma, we can steer a bad trajectory toward happiness and welfare.
Rebirth, Right View, and the four cases
Karma has immediate repercussions on one’s rebirth meaning that our deeds by way of body, speech, and mind have a direct causal relationship with the negative rebirth conditions that the bad deed was situated in as well as future rebirths. In MN136, The Buddha outlines this entanglement of intention and deeds that cause lower rebirth when addressing a fallacy made by another advanced contemplative.
“They say: ‘It seems that there is no such thing as bad deeds, and the result of bad conduct. For I have seen a person here who killed living creatures … and had wrong view. And I saw that that person was reborn in a heavenly realm.’ They say: ‘It seems that everyone who kills living creatures … and has wrong view is reborn in a heavenly realm.”
This sage rushes to a strong “sola fide“ wherein he discounts the role of bad deeds in karmic destination, but the Buddha, having surveyed 92 eons (MN 71:14.2), clarifies that this exception is defined by a profound breakthrough in Right View - a salvation-caliber karma. When the Buddha speaks about his supermundane vision of an eon, he is talking about an entire cosmic cycle of expansion (how it is now), and contraction (realm of streaming radiance - a really nice heavenly realm). We could put the entire cycle in the ballpark of 1.3 trillion years, weighed up against an infallible vision of one being’s rebirth, made by this advanced sage. The Buddha, having seen 92 of these eons, establishes his path initiation on the precise nature of this exception that the sage observed a case of - Right View. Right View is the 1st facet of the Noble Eightfold Path, and is thus part of what enables samadhi to be liberating. He responds to this sage, saying that apart from this exception, the karmic law is exact. Intentions become deeds and deeds are karmically consequential. He establishes the 3 other cases of bad deeds -> hell, good deeds -> heaven, and good deeds -> hell, and along the same lines with the exception on the 4th also being Right View (lack thereof).
Cessation (Nirodha) and the fruits
Cessation (Nirodha), plays the key role here of a salvific breakthrough for the dilemma of this sort of hard determinism pitted against a breakthrough of free will. The cardinal aim of Buddhist training is called dukkha-nirodha (cessation of dukkha), but on the way to this, one might glimpse it in the form of supermundane “fruits” of the contemplative life. These include the vision into the lives of other beings as previously mentioned, recollection of eons of one’s own past lives, encompassing the mind of another with one’s own and understanding his mind as if examining whether there are spots on a mirror, directed & non-local hearing across realms, siddhis, unsheathing one’s gandhabba (https://puredhamma.net/abhidhamma/gandhabbaya-manomaya-kaya/manomaya-kaya-gandhabba-and-the-physical-body/), supermundane knowledge into the nature of impermanence of the body, and the first 4 jhanas, among some more minor fruits. This material on the fruits comes from one of the most authoritative, and ancient strata of the Buddhist canon titled, the Sammaññaphala Sutta (DN2), Discourse on the Fruits of the Contemplative Life.
Nirodha-Samapatti (cessation of perception and feeling)
Another form of cessation in Buddhism is called Nirodha-Samapatti, or cessation of perception and feeling. It is marked as a state where one has no perceptual field, nor any feeling of the body including the sensations of the breath and heartbeat. Despite being transitory, it marks the person with insight into the 3rd noble truth (cessation of dukkha) and into the 3 aspects of existence (craving is transitory, non-self, and dukkha). This kind of cessation is described as a glimpse into ultimate reality, or in a sense, a perfect apperception of the nature of all phenomena.
Orienting practice: the Fourth Noble Truth (Magga)
When we properly orient these things in interrelation, this 3rd noble truth insight helps us to understand the relationship of deep experiences to the more practical realities of Buddhist practice - layperson precepts and monastic vinaya. The 4th Noble Truth has direct connection to the Noble Eightfold Path in that the recognition that Nirodha Samapatti is not Dukha-Nirodha, calls the contemplative to the cultivation of Right View either as an excellent lay devotee or ascetic monk. In a sense, one is deeply initiated into Buddhist teachings through the recognition that the teachings include these elaborate details about karma, rebirth, and samadhi, because ordinary contemplative life peaks at the 3rd noble truth, but the 4th noble truth, Magga, or path to enlightenment, orients purity here-and-now that one experiences in samadhi to the best and finest fruit of the contemplative life - which I will close this essay on:
The ending of defilements — from Sammaññaphala Sutta (DN2)
When their mind has become immersed in samādhi like this- purified, bright flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable - they project it and extend it toward knowledge of the ending of defilements.
They truly understand: ‘This is suffering’ ... This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ ... This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’. They truly understand: ‘These are defilements” ... This is the origin of defilements ... This is the cessation of defilements” ... This is the practice that leads to the cessation of defilements’. Knowing and seeing like this, their mind is freed from the defilement of sensuality, desire to be reborn, and ignorance. When they’re freed, they know they’re freed. They understand. Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is nothing further for this place.’
Suppose that in a mountain glen there was a lake that was transparent, clear and unclouded. A person with clear eyes standing on the bank would see the clams and mussels, and pebbles and gravel, and schools of fish swimming about or staying still. They’d think: “This lake is transparent, clear, and unclouded. And here are the clams and mussels, and pebbles and gravel, and schools of fish swimming about or staying still.’
In the same way, when their mind has become immersed in samādhi like this- purified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable- they project it and extend it toward knowledge of the ending of defilements. This too, great king, is a fruit of the ascetic life that’s apparent in the present life which is better and finer than the former ones. And, great king, there is no other fruit of the ascetic life apparent in the present life which is better and finer than this.” - Sammaññaphala Sutta (DN2)
Conclusion
It’s worth being a Buddhist just for the sake of the Noble Eightfold Path which initiates this 4th Noble Truth “Magga.” It is a way to the cessation of karmic outflows, and the training which accomplishes spiritual fruits which could only be found in the most ripe beings - paccekabuddhas and Buddhas. This is the gem of that wandering ascetic tradition which predated the Buddha being cut into a finely-faceted gem - that being the Noble Eightfold Path.