retrofuturist wrote:Greetings SeerObserver,
Is there any evidence in the suttas that supports your exposition of kamma?
Particularly this bit "Being born into such a position is definitely a negative karmic fruit."
How can this be explained without recourse to an invisible omniscient hand (i.e. directing people to certain locations by ) foreseeing (i.e. knowing in advance what Germany was going to become in 10-20 years time) and directing the affairs of the universe (i.e. so that fruit poetically bears for those who have been naughty in previous lives)?
Metta,
Retro.
My understanding of the matter comes in part from articles (scholarly and otherwise) written on the subject. There is sutta citation within them as well.
No invisible hand is needed to put beings into appropriate conditions dictated by their karma. There is always oppression, misguidance, etc. If not Germany, these people would have been born somewhere else...maybe as disciples of another oppressive leader or members of some other group.
The same follows for any good or bad condition a being is to be born into. There is no hand or timing scheme necessary. These conditions are always present somewhere, and when they are not then the dependent origination does not yet come to fruition. For example, Buddha Maitreya is still in Tusita Heaven and will not originate in the human realm until the proper conditions are present.
Here are some writings I have looked at on the subject.
Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote:They show us that our present living conditions, our dispositions and aptitudes, our virtues and faults, result from our actions in previous lives. When we realize that our present conditions reflect our kammic past, we will also realize that our present actions are the legacy that we will transmit to our kammic descendants, that is, to ourselves in future lives.
Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote:The teaching of rebirth, taken in conjunction with the doctrine of kamma, implies that we live in a morally ordered universe, one in which our morally determinate actions bring forth fruits that in some way correspond to their own ethical quality.
Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote:The sentient universe is regulated by different orders of causation layered in such a way that higher orders of causation can exercise dominion over lower ones. Thus the order of kamma, which governs the process of rebirth, dominates the lower orders of physical and biological causation, bending their energies toward the fulfillment of its own potential. The Buddha does not posit a divine judge who rules over the workings of kamma, rewarding and punishing us for our deeds. The kammic process functions autonomously, without a supervisor or director, entirely through the intrinsic power of volitional action.
Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote:It is mental activity, in the form of volition, that constitutes kamma, and it is our stock of kamma that steers the stream of consciousness from the past life into a new body. Thus the Buddha says: "This body, O monks, is old kamma, to be seen as generated and fashioned by volition, as something to be felt" (SN XI.37). It is not only the body, as a composite whole, that is the product of past kamma, but the sense faculties too (see SN XXV.146). The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body-sense, and mind-base are also fashioned by our past kamma, and thus kamma to some degree shapes and influences all our sensory experience. Since kamma is ultimately explained as volition (cetana), this means that the particular body with which we are endowed, with all its distinguishing features and faculties of sense, is rooted in our volitional activities in earlier lives.
Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote:The ultimate implication of the Buddha's teaching on kamma and rebirth is that human beings are the final masters of their own destiny. Through our unwholesome deeds, rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion, we create unwholesome kamma, the generative cause of bad rebirths, of future misery and bondage. Through our wholesome deeds, rooted in generosity, kindness, and wisdom, we beautify our minds and thereby create kamma productive of a happy rebirth.