Core Teaching
The heart of Buddhist teaching lies in Dependent Origination, shaped and driven by Karma.
Pratītyasamutpāda Gāthā
ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgata uvāca । teṣāṃ-ca yo nirodha evaṃvādi mahāśramaṇaḥ । ajñānāc cīyate karma janmanaḥ karma kāraṇam । jñānān na cīyate karma karmābhāvān na jāyate॥Dependent origination can be contrasted with the classic Western concept of causation in which an action by one thing is said to cause a change in another thing.
Dependent origination instead views the change as being caused by many factors, not just one or even a few.
Those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathāgata has declared their cause.
And that which is the cessation of them, thus the great renunciant (sramana) has taught.
Through ignorance, karma is accumulated, karma is the cause of (re)birth.
Through knowledge, karma is not accumulated, through absence of karma, one is not (re)born.
The additional verse is Southeast Asia specific (fifth century date) and does not have an equivalent in any Buddhist text, whether in the original Indic language or Tibetan or Chinese translation.
ये धर्मा हेतुप्रभवा हेतुं तेषां तथागत उवाच । तेषांच यो निरोध एवंवादी महाश्रमणः । अज्ञानाच्चीयते कर्म जन्मनः कर्म कारणम् । ज्ञानान्नचीयते कर्म कर्माभावान्न जायते॥𑖧𑖸 𑖠𑖨𑖿𑖦𑖯 𑖮𑖸𑖝𑖲𑖢𑖿𑖨𑖥𑖪𑖯 𑖮𑖸𑖝𑖲𑖽 𑖝𑖸𑖬𑖯𑖽 𑖝𑖞𑖯𑖐𑖝 𑖄𑖪𑖯𑖓 𑗂 𑖝𑖸𑖬𑖯𑖽𑖓 𑖧𑖺 𑖡𑖰𑖨𑖺𑖠 𑖊𑖪𑖽𑖪𑖯𑖟𑖱 𑖦𑖮𑖯𑖫𑖿𑖨𑖦𑖜𑖾 𑗂 𑖀𑖕𑖿𑖗𑖯𑖡𑖯𑖓𑖿𑖓𑖱𑖧𑖝𑖸 𑖎𑖨𑖿𑖦 𑖕𑖡𑖿𑖦𑖡𑖾 𑖎𑖨𑖿𑖦 𑖎𑖯𑖨𑖜𑖦𑖿 𑗂 𑖕𑖿𑖗𑖯𑖡𑖯𑖡𑖿𑖡𑖓𑖱𑖧𑖝𑖸 𑖎𑖨𑖿𑖦 𑖎𑖨𑖿𑖦𑖯𑖥𑖯𑖪𑖯𑖡𑖿𑖡 𑖕𑖯𑖧𑖝𑖸𑗃ཡེ་དྷ་རྨཱ་ཧེ་ཏུ་པྲ་བྷ་བཱ་ཧེ་ཏུཾ་ཏེ་ཥཱཾ་ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་ཨུ་བཱ་ཙ། ཏེ་ཥཱཾ་ཙ་ཡོ་ནི་རོ་དྷ་ཨེ་བཾ་བཱ་དཱི་མ་ཧཱ་ཤྲ་མ་ཎཿ༎යේ ධර්මා හේතුප්රභවා හේතුං තේෂාං තථාගත උවාච . තේෂාංච යෝ නිරෝධ ඒවංවාදී මහාශ්රමණඃ . අඥානාච්චීයතේ කර්ම ජන්මනඃ කර්ම කාරණම් . ඥානාන්නචීයතේ කර්ම කර්මාභාවාන්න ජායතේ෴Karma Oversimplified
Think of karma as a long-running personal balance sheet - good karma adds to your assets, while bad karma becomes a liability.
Our birth as human beings is shaped by unresolved karmic debts, and life offers us the opportunity to settle them.
Paying Off Karma Debts
Settling karmic debts helps reduce the risk of unresolved karma surfacing unexpectedly. And it's worth remembering - being reborn as a human is never guaranteed.
Each debt we resolve brings us closer to the end of suffering. It's truly possible to break free from the cycle (nirodha) and move toward lasting peace and liberation (nibbāna).
Liberation Through Prayers
One of the most accessible ways to begin clearing karmic debts is through liberation prayers - such as Āryatārā Atiyoga. These practices offer a direct path toward healing, release, and spiritual progress.
Is This For Real?
Buddhism offers insight into some of life's deepest questions:
- Why are we born into certain families?
- Why do we cross paths with specific people?
- Why are we born at all?
- What's the purpose of our life?
- Why do we die?
The answer, in Buddhist terms, is that it's all the result of our own actions. We shape our reality through karma - and we hold the power to change it.
Paying off karmic debts isn't just beneficial - it's essential. Human life is rare and valuable because it gives us the best chance to resolve those debts. Other forms of existence, like that of a pig, make spiritual practice far more difficult.
It is easy to doubt the law of kamma. We see so many people who do good deeds and seem to gain no benefit. So many people do bad things and become rich and successful.
The Buddha said that the results of kamma will only appear rapidly if the surroundings allow it. For example, a corrupt person in a corrupt environment will receive the kammic results of his bad actions much more slowly than a corrupt person in an environment that values honesty. Sooner or later, however, the results will manifest.
Most important to note is that every time that we act with a good, kind, noble intention then those qualities are immediately strengthened in our hearts. And so with selfish, cruel intentions. This strengthening of good and bad qualities in the heart is the perceivable result of kamma, which we do not merely believe in, but can see for ourselves.
According to the Buddha, truth isn't something we can grasp through common sense or logic alone. Real understanding comes from direct experience - or from the insight of those who've walked the path with wisdom.
“Now, Kālāmas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the observant; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’— then you should enter & remain in them.
-- Kalama Sutta
The Buddha laid out clear criteria for how a thoughtful person can discern which teachings to trust. He cautioned against blindly accepting religious claims - whether they come from tradition, authority, or even sophisticated techniques.
Instead, he emphasized direct experience. Truth, in the Buddhist path, isn't something handed down - it's something tested, lived, and verified. Through ongoing reflection and personal inquiry, we discover which teachings genuinely reduce suffering (dukkha) and lead us toward greater clarity and peace.
How About God?
Buddhism doesn't center around a creator God - it focuses on ourselves. The Buddha isn't a deity, but a spiritual teacher who showed the path to liberation.
We're the ones who accumulate karma, and we're also responsible for resolving it. It's like taking out a mortgage - you wouldn't expect someone else, not even Buddha or God, to pay it off for you. The path is ours to walk.