Karma accounts: supplementary thoughts on Theravāda, Madhyamaka, theosophy, and Protestant Buddhism
2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 43; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0048721x.2013.834213
ISSN1096-1151
Autores Tópico(s)Religion and Society Interactions
ResumoAbstract This article supplements Jens Schlieter's discussion of the cognitive metaphor of a karmic bank-account, adding selected points on karma monetary/fiscal metaphors as preserved chiefly in Pāli and Sanskrit sources. It explores various strands of the history of South Asian religions where distinct economic metaphors for karma come closer to the late 'bank-account of karma': i.e., the Vedic 'three debts,' a Hindu concept of God as accountant, the varieties of weighing the (mis)deeds, the Buddhist monastic status of debt and fiscal transactions, the equivalence of karma and debt as discussed by Madhyamaka thinkers, and others. While endorsing Schlieter's point, it also takes into account such modern Western sources as early theosophical discourse and 'Protestant Buddhism.' Keywords: karmafiscal/monetary metaphorsTheravādaMadhyamakatheosophyProtestant Buddhismeconomy of religion Acknowledgments I am very grateful to Michael Stausberg, Steven Engler, Jens Schlieter, and an anonymous reviewer for graciously disclosing a fine instance of adṣṭa-karma in the academic study of religions, including a unique occasion to improve upon my own previous review. Notes 1Benavides Citation2004: 29; more in Benavides Citation2005. 2See Schopen Citation2000 and Citation2009, although his contributions, especially on the Vinayas' ban of monks-money connection versus the actual situation of Buddhist communities during their first millennium, are much more copious and far-reaching. 3Richard Gombrich and Richard Seaford's observations on monetization (Schlieter 2013: 476 n. 23) are more recently followed by Fynes Citation2011: 213–214. It may be useful for comparative scholars to note that, later on, a process similar to the Catholic indulgences (Schlieter 2013: 466 and 479) underwent the religious Hindu fellows in modern Bengal – 'dāyika or "mortgage" [or "indebtedness"] fee, an additional tax placed upon the body/house of the devotee as the "price of sin"'; see Urban Citation2001: 186 (and Chapter 2 passim). 4Weber Citation1988: 120: 'der konsequentesten Theodizee, welche die Geschichte je hervorgebracht hat'; cp. Potter Citation2001. 5Staal Citation1985: 48. Even if this French article, reworked, constitutes chapter 28 in Staal Citation1989/Citation1996, these very lines as well as the references cited there are absent. As for its quotation, a later avatar of it is somehow different: 'The analogy with the common mercantile practice of the accumulation and transference of capital is striking' (Thapar Citation2002: 271). 6Liz Wilson, for instance, paraphrases a group of apsarās from the Udāna in their dialogue with the picky beggar Kassapa: 'In other words, "We desperately need to deposit some karmic funds in your high-yield bank account […],"' as 'Mahākassapa is […] a higher yielding karma-depository,' in order to also speak of a 'karmic accountancy' (Wilson Citation2003: 61 and 64). 7My own suggestion of an alternative and similarly cognitive ingestion/digestion model for the workings of karma (Schlieter 2013: 471 n. 18; one may add Granoff Citation1998) relies mostly on a parallel study of the hierarchy of beings regarding their karma, alimentation, digestion and excreta (unpublished paper, 13th World Sanskrit Conference, Edinburgh, 2006). Thus, plants are mostly classified as stationary beings ([s]thāvara), one-facultied (ekindriya), which only consume karma (like in several Indic hells) but have no stomach and no (or minute) excreta, while animals and humans are mobile beings (t[r]asa), many-facultied, which consume and accumulate karma, having stomach and producing excreta. Besides the Vedic antecedents, there are occasional references in India to 'eating sins,' cp. Parry Citation1980, Wadley and Derr Citation1989. For more on the embodiments of karma (Schlieter 2013: 468) in Ciurtin Citation2010–Citation2011 [Citation2013]. 8Transl. Bronkhorst (after Th. Oberlies) Citation2000: 44 (slightly adapted). 9Bronkhorst (Citation2000: 45) perceptively admits there is a fuller 'history of God as the book-keeper of karmic accounts,' though unaddressed in his book. Bronkhorst returned twice to this question: showing that for Vaiśeṣika 'this God is no more than an accountant' (2011a: 62), and considering that 'for a long time the belief in rebirth and karmic retribution was not accompanied by a belief in a God who oversees the process; this notion came later' (2011b: 41). 10 Baudhāyana-dharmasūtra 1.10.21-23: 'Usury and abortion were once weighed in a balance. The abortionist rose to the top, while the usurer trembled' (transl. Olivelle 2000: 216–217 and 579). 11The fuller Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan references I will not reiterate here migrated from La Vallée-Poussin's edition of Nāgārjuna cum Candrakīrti (1903–1913) up to Lamotte Citation1958: 674–675 or 1988: 609. Their best treatment, including the Sanskrit edition and English translation of Candrakīrti, is now Kragh Citation2006: 209 sq. Lamotte might have been the first to query the relevance of a Judeo-Christian parallel, as he referred to the Epistle to the Colossians 2:14 and Origen (Lamotte [Citation1935–Citation1936] Citation1987, 106–107). 12See Walser Citation2005: 229, 245. In Pāli iṇa (and iṇa-paṇṇa, lit. 'debt-sheet,' or any other compounds with iṇa, mostly in the Jātaka) is rather rare, and has a lesser conducive force than in Nāgārjuna. These, already noted by C. A. F. Rhys Davids (Citation1901: 879–880), 'have been simply registrations as between borrower and lender and their respective heirs.' Incidentally, the use of iṇa-paṇṇāni received a cognitive avatar from the eminent scholar of Indian religions P. S. Jaini: 'the karmas, like a giant computer, take note of each and every passion and action and work out their consequences for each individual in strict accordance with the law of moral retribution without the aid or the supervision of a conscious being like a God' (Jaini Citation2001 [1970]: 68). The Critical Pāli Dictionary notes Buddhaghosa's stock formula kāma-cchanda-iṇa as 'the debt which is desire for the objects of sensual pleasure,' a contracted unwholesome debt through sensual desire (Sumaṅgalavilāsinī 213,3 and 471,6; Papañcasūdanī II 179,8; Samantapāsādikā 962,30). On the (para)canonical use of the adjective anaṇa, see Pruitt Citation1988: 14–15, 142, 342; the fullest outlines are Hara Citation1996 and Norman Citation2000/Citation2007. 13Cp. Bugault Citation2002: 215–217 on 'comparaison comptable' and 'dette,' but Lévi had once again 'arriéré de karman' (Citation1911: 28), insofar it expresses the rest of corporeal life of an arhat; see also Ruegg Citation1989: 141–147 on 'the giving up of activity and karman' in Āryadeva, Candrakīrti, Kamalaśīla. On 'dette karmique,' see also Masset Citation2005: 106–107. For puṇya and the 'field-of-merit' metaphor, add Filliozat Citation1980. 14Lamotte Citation1944–Citation1980: 5.2250. 'Les actes longtemps accumulés (upacita) poursuivent leur auteur à la façon d'un créancier poursuivant son débiteur sans le lâcher,' Lamotte Citation1944–Citation1980: 1.347. Cp. also the references to ṇapatra (1.347-348 n. 2, 2.665 n. 2), ṇa (3.1401, 3.1440) as well as ṇāyika 'debtor' (Lamotte Citation1944-Citation1980: 3.1533) 15Thus Lamotte Citation1935–Citation1936: 230 or 1987: 87–88, 106–107 n. 57, to be corroborated with Tsong-kha-pa's commentary (cp. Schlieter, 473 n. 25) on Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra about the efficiency of karma, as noted by Wayman: 'Certain Vaibhāṣikas (non-Kashmirian), as the commentator Avalokitavrata explained, take it to be like a debt-document, two acts that have different meaning; not saying it is "not wasted," they believe it a saṃskāra' (Citation1997: 253). Much less convincing is the Derrida-styled essay on ṇa by Berger, who furthermore naively thinks this would be 'Nāgārjuna's own trope' (Citation2007: 35–43, here 42). 16Studied by Kragh Citation2006: 309–324 together with the Madhyamaka philosophical lineage of strict commentators. Kragh Citation2009: 17–21 analyses the 'omnipresent exegetical parallel' of the karma botanic analogy in five Madhyamaka commentaries. 17AN III.351-354, transl. in Bodhi [Citation2012]: 914–917, with grammar elucidations by Norman Citation2000/Citation2007. 18For South Asian Hindu compared with sophisticated Buddhist Mūlasarvāstivādin casuistry, as Schopen notes, 'The idea that a debtor ends up in hell even found its way into inscriptions' (Citation2001: 113 or 2004 [2010]: 135). Monetary regulations of different Buddhist schools are studied anew by Juo-hsüeh Citation2008. 19See Tabarasi-Hoffmann Citation2011, mostly on Kierkegaard's 1843–1844 Opbyggelige Taler / Upbuilding discourses, alarmed by the 'bankruptcy' and 'inflation' of Christian theological truth. 20Cited in Almond Citation1988: 74 and 88. In an otherwise informative article, Spandri borrows Almond's phrase: 'Eitel sostiene che il karman converte la moralità in un sistema di profitti e guadagni, accusa mossa sovente all'utilitarismo' (Spandri Citation2009: 37). 21See however Harvey Citation2001: 31–37, adducing some instances which really depart from ordinary understanding of the 'unforgiving' law of karma. Such explorations (on karma and regret, guilt, and self-loathing) are incipient, see e. g., Heim Citation2009. 22Thus Blo gsal bstan skyong kept a 'highly detailed records describing the protagonist's receipt and use of monastic donations […] in each story, narratives of financial transactions constitute (external) testaments to protagonists' (internal) soteriological advancement' (Wood 2013: 37–38). 23Atonement as financial transaction has not escaped the attention of Caillat Citation1965: 30 / 1975: 20. On the meditational 'ladders' of karma for advanced Jain ascetics, see Wiley Citation2008, esp. p. 49 n. 19, on upaśama-o and kṣapaṇa-śreṇi, 'ladders of the suppression/destruction of karma.'
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