KARMA: The 10 Courses of Action

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka (Anton Gueth) UPDATED AN D EXPANDED by Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu

 

Mental-karma is important as are deeds.

"Karma" refers to deeds able to produce results in the future.

 

"Courses of Action" (karma-patha) are a little different. This is a name for a group of ten kinds of karmic actions -- either unwholesome or wholesome -- the Buddha taught as particularly important to living beings.

 

The Buddha was not known as the Buddha, one of his many epithets, in ancient India. Nor was he "Buddhist," a "god" (deva), or a Brahmin (priest). He was known as a karma-vadin ("teacher of karma," teacher of the efficacy of deeds to produce results).

 

The Buddha's teaching concerning karma is that deeds have the efficacy to produce corresponding actions, effects, consequences, results. This is not cause-and-effect, however, if only because the results are usually exponentially larger than the original deed. One "killing" does not produce one "being killed" later on.

 

How well the Buddha knew! (xiangjiaocao)

That is because the seed, potentially, or karma laid down in the mind/heart is a citta, of which there are countless millions in a moment. Cittas have the potential to act as death-proximate karmas leading to rebirth, and when they serve this function, the result is very bad. Similarly, all skillful karma produces disproportionate results as well, which is beneficial and welcome by living beings experiencing the result.

 

Not all karmas can serve as death-proximate karmas (the thought-moment passing through the mind at the exact moment of passing from one life to yet another life), but "courses of action" (karma-pathas) can. That is why they are called "courses." Like corridors or pathways, they can lead to a consequence, welcome or unwelcome, directly.

 

There are three kinds of deeds -- those of body, speech, and mind -- be they unskillful or skillful:

 

I. Ten Unwholesome Courses of Action

• There are 3 bodily actions: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct;
  
• 4 verbal actions: perjury, slandering, harsh speech, babble;
  
• 3 mental actions: covetousness, ill-will, wrong views.
  

Unwholesome mental courses of action comprise only extreme forms of defiled thought: The greedy (rapacious) wish to appropriate others' property, the hateful (antagonistic) thought of harming others, and the holding or clinging to pernicious wrong-views.

While milder forms of mental defilement are also unwholesome, they do not constitute "courses of action."

 

Karma "courses"

Karma is following us everywhere we go. It's everywhere we're going to be.

 

The American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi -- the most famous translator of large collections of Buddhist sutras -- explains (in "Rebirth and Karma," from Recording 5 of The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is) that these ten are called "courses" of action rather than ordinary karma.

 

As mentioned above, this is because they have the power, in and of themselves, to lead to rebirth. They are courses or corridors leading to particularly unfortunate or fortunate future states.

For example, even a relatively minor good intentional-action can lead -- IF it serves as the death-proximate karma -- has the power to get one into a heaven. There are many heavens, and not a single one of them is eternal, so rebirth in a heaven is not the goal of Buddhism. But it is a welcome rebirth, a fortunate destination, while cycling through samsara. Samsara is the ongoing Wheel of Rebirth and endless disappointment.

II. Ten Wholesome Courses of Action

• There are 3 bodily actions: avoiding killing, stealing, sexual misconduct (or preserving life, protecting what belongs to others, avoiding harm);
  
• 4 verbal actions: avoiding perjury, slandering, harsh speech, foolish babble (or honest, reconciling, gentle, and wise speech);
  
• 3 mental actions: unselfishness, goodwill, right views.
  

Both lists repeatedly occur in the texts (e.g., in AN X.28, 176; MN 9), and they are explained in detail in MN 114 and in the Commentary to MN 9 (R. Und., p. 14), Atthasālini Tr. I, 126ff.

Ven. Saint Sivali

Ven. Sivali: shining example of good karma

An enlightened monastic from the time of the Buddha, Venerable Sivali, is remembered and venerated as having unbelievably good karma -- a store of "merit" (punya) that benefited many and for everyone to emulate.

 

There is no reason to "envy" Ven. Sivali his good fortune because he created it, and we ourselves can also create it. We can accrue a vast store of merit by good mental, verbal, and physical deeds, actions that benefit ourselves and others. Such deed will follow us through this life and future lives, redounding with welcome results whatever we are doing almost anywhere we find ourselves, until we realize enlightenment. They also help in this realization. Karma, it's everywhere you want to be (and it will even be there helping everywhere you don't want to be).

 

We are always generating karma, albeit we are rarely doing it consciously or with any appreciation of what we are doing and what the result will be when our deeds come to fruition for us.

 

And we are always passing away and being reborn. But a rebirth as a human is extraordinarily rare. It is a precious opportunity to make merit with reverberating with pleasant, pleasurable, and welcome karmic-results and effects (vipaka and phala).

 

"King of the 'Gods'"

Sakka is St. Michael (saintmichaelwarrior)

Sakka, the king of the devas, also made incredibly good karma -- sufficient not only to be reborn in a celestial world in space (one of the many "heavens") but as king of it and king of the four kings in the celestial world just below his world. In his world, he is lord of lords, the "lords" being the 33 deva rulers he oversees as chief among more or less equals.

 

Wisdom Quarterly has often shown that Sakka's fame extends around the Earth, a terrestial world in space which he protects from titans and nagas and other inimical forces. Why does he visit Earth, assign the regents of the Catumaharajika-deva-loka to guard, and get updates on human progress every fortnight?

 

It is because Sakka is a stream enterer devoted to the Buddha and the protection of the Dharma in the world for as long as possible. In Christendom he is known as Saint or Archangel Michael, in India as Indra (in fact the name "India" may derive from Indo, one of Sakka epithets), in Taoism as the Jade Emperor, in the Yarsanism (Islam) religion of Iraq and Iran Pir Dawud the deva (called Yazidis or Yezidis)...

Sivali: good luck and enlightenment

G.P. Malalasekera; Seth Auberon and CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The great "saint" (enlightened monastic) Ven. Sivali is widely revered in Thailand (WQ)

 

Sivali amulet charms, Thailand

Venerable Sīvalī was the luckiest enlightened Buddhist monk at the time of the Buddha, the son of Suppavāsā, daughter of the king of Koliya.

 

For seven years and seven days he resided in his mother's womb, and for seven days she was in labor unable to bring him forth. She finally said to her husband: "Before I die I will make a gift [donation]." She sent a gift from her husband the king to the Buddha, who accepted it and uttered a blessing on her. She immediately gave birth to son, Sīvalī. When her husband returned, she asked him to show hospitality to the Buddha and his ascetic disciples for seven consecutive days.

 

From the time of his birth, Sīvalī could do anything. Ven. Sāriputra, the Buddha's chief male disciple "foremost in wisdom," talked with him on the day of his birth and ordained him [when he turned 7-years-old in accordance with the "Monastic Code" (Vinaya)] with Suppavāsā's permission.

Golden Sivali traveling

Sīvalī soon became a stream enterer -- the first stage of enlightenment -- in the Tonsure Hall when his first lock of hair was cut, and a once returner (the second stage) with the second lock. Some say that after his ordination, he left home on the same day and lived in a secluded hut, meditating on the delays in his birth thus winning final insight and attaining full enlightenment (arahantship).

 

In the time of the Buddha Padumuttara he had made the resolve to be preeminent among recipients of gifts, like Sudassana, a disciple of Padumuttara. To this end he gave alms for seven days to the Buddha and his community of disciples [the noble Sangha or "community" of enlightened male and female monastics, and male and female lay disciples].

In the time of the Buddha Vipassī, he was a householder near Bandhumatī. The people competed with the king giving alms to that Buddha and the Monastic Order of that time. When they were in need of molasses, curds, and sweets, Sīvalī gave enough of these for 68,000 monastics. 

 

In the time of the Buddha Atthadassī, he was a king named Varuna, and when that Buddha passed away into final nirvana, he made great offerings to the Bodhi tree [the treee under which Atthadassi had become enlightened], passing away under it later. Then he was born in the Nimmānaratī world. 

 

Thirty-four times he was a ruler of men under the name of Subāhu (Thag.vs.60; ThagA.i.135). According to the Apadāna account (Ap.ii.492f) his father in his last birth was the Licchavi Mahāli. 

 

The Asātarūpa Rebirth Story (Jātaka) gives the reason for the delay in Sīvalī's birth (cf.Ap.ii.494, vs.29f). The story of Sīvalī is also given at the Verses of Uplift (Udana.ii.8) and elsewhere (AA.i.130f.; DhA.iv.192f.; ii.196; J.i.408f). The Verses of Uplift or Inspired Utterances (Udana) follows the DhA. (iv.192f.) very closely. 

 

Thai dana (Prayudi Hartono)

Both The Verses of Uplift and the Buddhist Birth Tales (Jataka) state that a lay supporter of Maha Moggallāna -- the Buddha's other chief male disciple foremost in psychic powers -- postponed his giving a meal to the Buddha (who requested him to do so) to enable the Buddha to accept Suppavāsā's invitation after the birth of the child. Other accounts omit this. The Verses of Uplift states nothing about Sīvalī's renunciation of the world. The DhA. account of this differs from the others.

 

Sīvalī was declared by the Buddha the monastic disciple "pre-eminent among recipients of gifts" (A.i.24). It is said (ThagA.i.138; Ap.ii.495; AA.i.139) that when the Buddha visited Khadiravaniya-Revata, he took Sīvalī with him because the road was difficult and alms scarce. Sivali's good karma was such that he was never without alms, offerings, and gifts as a result of his ancient karma.

Deva, "shining one" (WQ)

Sīvalī went into the desolate wilderness of the Himālayas with a great number of others to test his good luck, namely, his ability to always receive alms and provisions no matter where he was. The devas (the "shining ones" normally invisible to us) provided all of them with everything. 

 

On Gandhamādana a deva named Nāgadatta supported them for seven days on rich meals of milk rice.

KARMA: The 10 Courses of Action

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Nyanatiloka (Anton Gueth)

Mental-karma is important as are deeds.

Karma: "Courses of Action" (kamma-patha) is a name for a group of ten kinds of either unwholesome or wholesome actions the Buddha taught. 

He was known in ancient India not as a "Buddhist" or a Brahmin but as a Karma-vadin ("Teacher of Karma"), one who teaches the efficacy of personal deeds. There are three kinds of unskillful deeds -- of body, speech, and mind -- and three kinds of skillful ones:

 

I. Ten Unwholesome Courses of Action

• three bodily actions: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct;
  
• four verbal actions: perjury, slandering, harsh speech, babble;
  
• three mental actions: covetousness, ill-will, wrong views.
  

Unwholesome mental courses of action comprise only extreme forms of defiled thought: The greedy (rapacious) wish to appropriate others' property, the hateful (antagonistic) thought of harming others, and the holding or clinging to pernicious wrong-views.

While milder forms of mental defilement are also unwholesome, they do not constitute "courses of action."

 

Good Karma

Karma is following us everywhere we go.

Bhikkhu Bodhi (Tape 5: Rebirth and Kamma, "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is") explains that these ten are called "courses" of action rather than ordinary karma because they have the power, in and of themselves, to lead to rebirth -- a course or corridor leading to a particularly unfortunate or fortunate state. 

For example, even a relatively minor good intentional-action can lead, IF it serves as the death-proximate karma (the thought passing through the mind right at the moment of passing away from one life to yet another) -- has the power to get one into a heaven. There are many heavens, and not a single one of them is eternal, so rebirth in heaven is not the goal of Buddhism. But it is a fortunate destination for rebirth in samsara, the ongoing Wheel of Rebirth and disappointment.

II. Ten Wholesome Courses of Action

• three bodily actions: avoiding killing, stealing, sexual misconduct (or preserving life, protecting what belongs to others, avoiding harm);
  
• four verbal actions: avoiding perjury, slandering, harsh speech, foolish chit chat (or honest, reconciling, gentle, and wise speech);
  
• three mental actions: unselfishness, goodwill, right views.
  

Both lists repeatedly occur in the texts (e.g., in AN X.28, 176; MN 9), and they are explained in detail in MN 114 and in Commentary to MN 9 (R. Und., p. 14), Atthasālini Tr. I, 126ff.

Sivali

Ven. Sivali: shining example of good karma

An enlightened monastic from the time of the Buddha, Venerable Sivali, is remembered and venerated as having unbelievably good karma -- a store of "merit" (punya) for everyone to emulate.

 

There is no reason to "envy" him his good fortune because we ourselves can also accrue a similar store of merit by good works (mental, verbal, and physical),  deeds that benefit ourselves and others that follow us through this life and from life to life until we find enlightenment.

We are always generating karma and always being reborn, but a human birth is extraordinarily rare, a precious opportunity to make merit with redounding pleasing and welcome karmic-results and effects (vipaka and phala).