Artigo Revisado por pares

Checking the heavenly ‘bank account of karma’: cognitive metaphors for karma in Western perception and early Theravāda Buddhism

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 43; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0048721x.2013.765630

ISSN

1096-1151

Autores

Jens Schlieter,

Tópico(s)

Language, Metaphor, and Cognition

Resumo

Abstract To visualize the accumulation of good and bad karma in terms of credit or debt in a bank account is a common feature in works on Buddhism and other Indian traditions. Applying conceptual metaphor theory, this article tracks the metaphorical framework of understanding karma as a kind of 'heavenly bank account' back to its roots in early European scholarship. Based on a comparison with metaphors for karma to be found in Pāli texts of the Theravāda tradition, namely, the analogies of ripening, inheritance, and the dark/bright dichotomy, this article argues that the 'bank-account' imagery differs in significant – if subtle – respects from these emic metaphors, displaying certain Judeo-Christian preconceptions of moral bookkeeping, sin, and salvation. Keywords: karmaBuddhismreligions'karma-account' metaphorEuropean Buddhologyconceptual metaphor theoryworks-righteousness Acknowledgements I am particularly grateful for numerous helpful comments provided by Eugen Ciurtin – especially for directing my attention to additional sources. Advice given by Sven Bretfeld, Oliver Freiberger, Seline Reinhardt, Roland Kübler, and two anonymous referees, has been a great help for improving the argument. Notes 1Lalitavistara, 26th chapter (Vaidya 1958: 297; GRETIL-ed.). Unless stated otherwise, translations from Pāli and Sanskrit are my own. Remarkably, immediately after this episode, King Bimbisāra declared a tax exemption for ascetics. Cf. for this episode Avāriya Jātaka (no. 376), summary in Malalasekera Citation1937–38, vol. I: 196–197. 2Cf. Flügel Citation2003. Due to restricted space, I will not discuss (scholars of) the Jain or Hindu traditions here. 3See, for instance, O'Flaherty Citation1980: 33. 4Cf. however, Gombrich's reply to Krishan Citation1991 in Gombrich Citation1992. 5Rita Langer provides the following quotation: 'One monk illustrated this with a simile: the dying thought is like an air ticket to a nice place, but without money (i.e., sufficiently good kamma) one will not be able to stay there for very long' (Langer Citation2007: 16). 6I am indebted to an unknown reviewer for directing me to this plausible interpretation. 7Historian Arnold Toynbee, in his introduction to the published dialogues with Daisaku Ikeda, states: 'In spite of the difference between the authors' religious and cultural backgrounds, a remarkable degree of agreement in their outlooks and aims has been brought to light in their dialogue. Their agreement is far-reaching […]. They […] agree in believing in the reality of karma, a Sanskrit word […] that, in the vocabulary of Buddhism, has acquired the special meaning of an ethical "bank-account" in which the balance is constantly being changed by fresh credit or fresh debit entries during a human being's psychosomatic life on earth. The balance of a human being's karma, at any particular moment, is determined by the plus or minus sum of the previous credit or debit entries; but the karma-bearer can, and will, change the balance, for better or for worse, by his further acts. In fact, he makes his karma for himself and is thus, at least partially, a free agent' (Toynbee and Ikeda 2007: xi). 8Hardy is more or less literally quoting from Davis' The Chinese (1840). The latter concludes his summary of these bookkeeping practices – which, to him, are not peculiarly Buddhist, 'but prevail universally among the Chinese' – with the words: 'This method of keeping a score with heaven is as foolish and dangerous a system of morality, as that of penances and indulgences in the Roman church' (Davis Citation1840, vol. II: 87). 9'As for the way of practice, one should always have […] a notebook ready by the head of the bed in the bedroom. First one should write down the month, then write down the day of the month. Under each day, make two columns for merits (kung) and demerits (kuo). Just before one retires for the night, one should write down the good and bad things one has done during the day. Consult the Ledger for the points of each deed. If one has done good acts, record them in the merit column. If one has done bad things, record them in the demerit column. […] At the end of each month count the total of merits and demerits. Compare the two. Either subtract the number of demerits from the number of merits or use the number of merits to cancel out the number of demerits. After subtraction or cancellation, the number of merits or demerits remaining will be clear' (The Ledger of Merits and Demerits, quoted in Yü Citation1981: 120–121; cf. Robson Citation2012: 84–85). 10With more or less identical words, Eitel refers in 1871 again to the Chinese Ledger of Merits and Demerits: Buddhism 'converts morality into a vast scheme of profit and loss. Hence the Chinese Buddhist actually keeps a debtor and creditor account with himself of the acts of each day, and at the end of the year he closes his current account and makes out a balance-sheet. If the balance is in his favour, it is carried on to the account of the next year, but if the balance is against him, something extra must be done' (Eitel 1871 [3rd ed. 1884]: 83 f.). 11Even the famous poem The Light of Asia (1879) by Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) alludes to this conception: 'It seeth everywhere and marketh all: / Do right – it recompenseth! do one wrong – /The equal retribution must be made, / Though Dharma tarry long. // It knows not wrath nor pardon; utter-true / Its measures mete, its faultless balance weighs' (Arnold Citation1890: 218). 12'The productive power of the seed or the fruit may illustrate man's origin, as possessed of an organized body, but we may not carry it further. The passing on of an apparent moral and mental identity may be witnessed in some families [….]. But Buddhism teaches that the new being may be of an entirely different species to that from whence it proceeded' (Hardy Citation1866: XLV); 'When existence ceases, the karmma [sic] still lives, and it passes over to its new possessor, with all its interests, properties, obligations, and liabilities, whether of punishment or reward' (Hardy Citation1866: 64). 13To quote the crucial sentences from the French original: 'La pensée du salut éternel n'est plus alors une vertu ; c'est un calcul […]. Dans une religion plus vraie et plus sainte, il peut s'en remettre à la justice de Dieu du soin de récompenser ou de punir éternellement ; mais, dans une religion qui ne connaît point Dieu, malheur irréparable de religion Bouddhique, l'homme demeure son propre juge ; c'est lui qui, de son autorité privée, décide de ce qui mérite le salut ou de ce qui s'en éloigne' (Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire 1866: 150 f.; cf. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire Citation1855: 215 f.). 14'Alle (rituellen oder ethischen) Verdienste und Verschuldungen des Einzelnen bilden eine Art von Kontokorrent, dessen Saldo unweigerlich das weitere Schicksal der Seele bei der Wiedergeburt bestimmt, und zwar ganz genau proportional dem Maß des Überschusses der einen oder der anderen Seite des Kontos. "Ewige" Belohnungen oder Strafen kann es also unmöglich geben: sie wären ja absolut unproportional einem endlichen Tun' (Weber 1988: 118; cf. Weber 1963: 146). Needless to say, this metaphor concurs perfectly well with Weber's background and his theory of the close interaction between religious ideas (such as Protestant ethics) and economics (e.g., the rise of capitalism). 15In the Avadānaśataka (31), the Buddha explains: 'The acts that [a person] performs and accumulates, monks, do not bear fruit outside [of that person] … Rather, the acts […] – whether pure or impure – bear fruit in the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas that [he] receives' (trl. in Ohnuma Citation2007: 225 f.). 16We have to admit that the early texts of Theravāda are by no means completely transparent and unaffected by later changes. Oskar von Hinüber could demonstrate how the canonical 'threefold' or 'fourfold' workings of karma (regarding the time of ripening) are most probably a 15th-century correction of the textus receptus. Changing an absolutive (P. upapajja[ṃ]) with a tentative locative (upapajje) and inserting the 'correction' in the canonical manuscripts (M III. 214, A I.134) has popularized a new understanding of karma ripening, namely, 'in the here and now, or in (a future) rebirth, or in some future period' (cf. von Hinüber Citation1971: 247–248; cf. Bhikkhu Anālayo Citation2011: 2.779–780 n. 118). While we have to allow for changes in the textus receptus, we may nevertheless concord with Anālayo's conclusion that the finalization of the Pāli discourses was, in doctrinal terms, 'fairly closed [...] by the time of the 1st century BCE' (Anālayo Citation2012: 224). 17Included in this class of metaphors are also those with the imagery of 'dark/clouded' and 'light/luminous,' e.g., Theragāthā, verse 872: 'He whose evilly-done action is blocked off by a good action, illuminates this world like the moon released from a cloud' (Norman 1990: 83). 18More infrequently used metaphors of karma are: a 'shadow' or a 'servant,' closely following the doer of deeds (cf. Krishan Citation1997: 69); and yet other metaphors are 'food' (P./Skt. āhāra) and 'digestion' in relation to karma (e.g., S II. 11); '[non-] coagulating' (P. mucchati) of karma (Dhp. 71, cf. Norman 2006: 115); or the metaphor for 'meritorious effects' as resulting in 'tasty flesh' – if we may still call this a 'metaphor,' because it has a rather literal meaning – in connection to the self-sacrificial giving away of the Bodhisattva's body (cf. Ohnuma Citation2007: 224–231). A closer look might even reveal an influence of medical metaphors (purity, health, hygiene, etc., cf. Pingree Citation1997, and the karmic 'disease etiology', cf. Wujastyk Citation2003: 403–404), intended to 'defatalize the karma' ('defataliser le karman'), as observed by Arion Roşu (cf. Roşu Citation1978: 90; 217). 19Cf. Anālayo Citation2011, vol. II: 767–781; cf. also A III. 72; A V.289; M I. 390; Sn 666; for the Burmese tradition: Spiro Citation1970: 116–122. 20For example, we read in the Kathāvatthu (XVIII.1) in regard to untenable proposition that Arhats still accumulate merit: 'You must further admit that, in his karma, he is heaping up or unloading, putting away or grasping […] dispersing or collecting' (Aung and Rhys Davids 1993 [1915]: 312). 21One may refer to the classifications of 'undetermined' (P. aniyata) and 'indeterminate' (P. avyākata) kamma here (cf. McDermott Citation1977, 32 f.) 22Critical in this context of the gain of 'fruits' (phala) is the question addressed in the Sāmaññaphalasutta (D I. 47 ff.) regarding the fruits of asceticism to be experienced in this very life. In the Milindapañha, Nāgasena explains the impossibility of pointing out directly the karmic quality of deeds with a telling metaphor: '"Now what do you think, O king? Can any one point out the fruits which a tree has not yet produced, saying: "Here they are, or there"?" "Certainly not, Sir." "Just so, great king, so long as the continuity of life is not cut off, it is impossible to point out the deeds that are done"' (Mil 72; Rhys Davids 1890, vol. I: 112). However, 'knowing the fruits of karma' is included among the 'ten powers' (P. dasabala) of a Buddha. 23Compare in this respect the argumentation of M I. 36; S III. 210; or A IV. 197. 24Merit is 'sometimes treated like a kind of merchandise which can be bought or sold, or a kind of spiritual money. Its transference can be demanded or even extorted. Yet, in spite of such borderline cases, the non-magical ethics of Buddhism reasserts itself by the fact that transference of merit always seems to require, on the part of the transferer, the explicit intention to transfer and, on the part of the transferee, the thankful or joyous consent (anumodanā) to accept the transference' (Schmithausen Citation1986: 214, referring to Matthews Citation1983: 135–136). 25The Tibetan commentator Tsongkhapa explains this verse in his 'Ocean of Reasoning': 'In virtue of executing the promissory note, even though the money has been spent, the creditor will receive the money with interest at a later time. […] Once the money is repaid to the creditor – whether or not he still has the money – he cannot claim the money again with the same promissory note. In the same way, when the indestructible karma has ripened […] it can no longer have anything to do with that agent' (rTsa shes ṭik chen rigs pa'i rgya mtsho [Tsongkhapa Citation1987: 304], Ngawang Samten and Garfield Citation2006: 355). 26The inaptitude of the bank-account metaphor could be shown for other forms of karma, too, such as the 'in-' and 'undeterminate' karma (cf. McDermott Citation1977: 31), or the 'immovable karma' (e.g., in the Abhidharmakośa IV.45–46). 27There is an important difference in the use of the Pāli terms kusala/akusala and puñña/pāpa. The former, symmetrically coextensive terms are used to qualify the (un-)wholesome quality of conditions, behavior, intentions etc., such as 'faulty/faultless' or 'un-/healthy' states (a-/kusalā dhammā, Asl 38 f.). Yet, both are incongruent with puñña (the 'meritorious karma') and pāpa, the 'bad karma' (the literal meaning of papa being 'infertile,' 'barren,' cf. Cousins Citation1996: 156; Harvey 2010: 201). Actually, puñña and pāpa are explicitly used in relation to the karmic ripening of effects, which will take place in the future (e.g., Dhp 116; Dhp 119; cf. Harvey 2010: 202), whereas the terms kusala/akusala denote present qualities of given conditions. The mental states of the Arhat, for example, should be considered as kusala while at the same time being no longer endowed with puñña – because the Arhat is beyond kamma (cf. Adam Citation2005: 71). 28Though 'bank accounts' (and the respective metaphors) are absent in the early and later Indian texts, the Pāli canon mentions the existence of 'store-rooms' for riches and money – helpful for bribery, as King Pasenadi of Kosala freely admits, but of no merit beyond death: 'In my court there is ample gold and bullion stored away underground and laid up in storerooms to buy over advancing enemies with money; but there is no scope or use for those battles when ageing and death are closing in upon me. When ageing and death are closing in upon me, Lord, what else can I do but walk in the Dhamma, walk in righteousness, cultivate what is wholesome and make merit?' (S III. 25; Ñāṇamoli Citation1972: 274). 29It is tempting to comment on David Graeber's recent theory on primordial debts which is, though part of an impressive enterprise, not convincing in every respect. In short, Graeber seems to be quite 'indebted' to a Christian understanding of 'existential debts' – compare, for example, his interpretation of Brāhmaṇa texts (Graeber Citation2011: 43, 56–57). 30Bailey and Mabbett refer to the findings of Jonathan Cribb Citation(1985), who 'concludes that the earliest Indian coins, the various punch-marked silver issues, originated in the Gandhāra area from imitations of Greek coins early in the 4th century BC' (Bailey and Mabbett Citation2003: 57). 31Instrumental for economic well-being, re-investment of a certain amount of the income is praised (D. III. 188), and even an attitude of economic cleverness, which is used as a comparison for character traits to be praised in monks, seems to be tolerable: 'A shop owner (P. pāpaṇika), monks, knows his merchandise. "If this article is bought for so and so much, and sold for so and so much, then this much money (mūla), this much profit (udaya) will be there." That is, monks, how a shop owner is shrewd' (A I. 116). 32Debts should, of course, be paid back in one's lifetime. In the Suttanipāta, we read: '120. Who(ever) indeed having contracted a debt, when urged (to repay it) absconds, saying: '(I have) no debt to you', him one should know (to be) an outcaste. […] 122. What(ever) man for his own sake or for another's sake or for wealth, speaks falsely when asked in person, him one should know (to be) an outcaste' (Norman 1995: 14). 33In his recent work What the Buddha Thought, Richard Gombrich acknowledges the 'radical effect on thought of monetization' by quoting Richard Seaford: 'There is a striking similarity with what I have argued to be the socio-economic preconditions for the […] beginnings of western "philosophy" (in my Money and the Greek Mind). […] The "metaphysics of money" involves "the belief that we are primarily individual agents and only secondary (if at all) members of a larger [social] entity"' (Seaford, cited in Gombrich Citation2009: 24; cf. Seaford Citation2004). 34This text portrays the encounter of Brahmins with rich kings of the 'warrior'-caste (P. khattiya) as the initial situation in which the Brahmins got interested in prosperity (cf. Schlieter Citation2012). The accusation in condensed words: only for that purpose Brahmins invented the ideology of sacrificial duties. The king and other wealthy individuals had to pay for the sacrificial services offered by organized Brahmins. Brahmins were moreover criticized for their corrupt behavior, cf. Bailey and Mabbett Citation2003: 120; cf. D II.244 ff.; M III.167. Other texts such as the Brahmajālasutta (D I. 1 ff.) criticize the arrangement of auspicious dates in order to accumulate money, and other lucrative religious services of Brahmins and ascetics. According to the new ideology of Buddhism and other ascetic movements, there is no need for large sacrifices because they are not only harmful to sentient beings but, moreover, a waste of resources. Instead, lay adherents should give donations to the saṅgha and kings are encouraged to redistribute their wealth, e.g., to enable trade and commerce (cf. the Kūṭadantasutta; D I.127–149). 35An interesting, although rather late, example is an episode of the Aśokāvadāna, preserved in Chinese, the Ayuwang zhuan (Taishō 2042, 50:131a, transl. by Przyluski Citation1923: 425–427), in which 'the weight of merit' is equated with literal weight: Aśoka is told that he will be able to obtain certain relics when his merit outweighs that of a guarding nāga king. 'Accordingly, two identical gold statues – one of Aśoka and the other of the nāga king – are fashioned and used to weigh their relative merit. At first, the nāga king's image is twice as heavy' (Strong 2007: 132 f.), but Āsoka manages to do more meritorious deeds, which eventually results in his statue becoming more heavy than the nāga's statue. Again, only 'merit' (and not bad karma) figures in this rather literal 'accumulation.' 36I.e., the murder of one's mother, father, or of an Arhat; injuring a Buddha; creating a schism in the saṅgha, cf. A III.146; A V.129. 37 Kammamūlam˙ gahetvāna āpaṇam˙ upagacchatha, ārammaṇam˙ kiṇitvāna tato muccatha muttiyā ti (Trenckner Citation1880: 333, 5–6). 38Surely, it might be possible that the text dwells on the concept that the 'price' to be paid is 'negative karma' that the Buddha takes off from the respective buyers. In that case, which resembles the medieval Catholic idea of 'selling of indulgences,' the Buddha would offer some kind of remission or 'indulgence'; nevertheless, this interpretation goes in several aspects 'against the grain' of the allegory. 40The verse being in Pāli: Āyu ārogatā vaṇṇam˙ saggam˙ uccākulīnatā asankhatañ–ca amatam˙ atthi sabbāpaṇe Jine. Appena bahukenâpi kammamūlena gayhati; kiṇitvā saddhāmūlena samiddhā hotha bhikkhavo ti (Trenckner Citation1880: 341, 22–25). 39 Kammamūlaṃ gahevānā'ti pubbabuddhānaṃ santike katakusalamūlaṃ gahevā (CSD-ed.). 41Gombrich provides two stories in this respect in which money and merit are equated (J IV.21; Dhp-A IV.200); but, as seen above, only cautiously alluding to the 'bank-account' idea (cf. Gombrich Citation1971: 216). Additional informationNotes on contributorsJens Schlieter This article was originally published with incorrect submission and acceptance dates. This version has been corrected.

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