Core Teaching
The core teaching of Buddhism is Dependent Origination induced 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 Oversimplification
Karma is like a very long personal balance sheet, where good karma is an asset and bad karma is a liability.
We are born as human being because of karma debts and we need to pay those off.
Paying Off Karma Debts
Paying off karma debts comes with the benefit of reducing the risk of karma due at unexpected times. Not to mention that being reborn as a human being is not a guarantee.
When some of the karma debts are paid off, we contribute towards the permanent cessation of suffering. It is indeed possible to end the cycle of suffering (nirodha), and to attain a state of inner peace and freedom (nibbāna).
Liberation Through Prayers
The most practical way to pay off karma debts is through liberation prayers. (e.g. Āryatārā Atiyoga)
Is This For Real?
Buddhism helped us answer a lot of questions like:
- Why are we born in certain families?
- Why do we meet some group of people?
- Why are we born at all?
- What's the purpose of our life?
- Why are we dying?
The answer to those questions is all our own doing. We caused all those and are in full control of our own decisions and lives.
The benefit of paying off karma debts outweighs the risk of not doing it. Life as a human being is precious because it gives us a better opportunity to pay off our karma debts. A pig would have a harder time doing liberation prayer.
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.
Buddha says common sense and logical thinking are insufficient to determine the truth. We can be sure of what to follow, only through our own experience or the experience of the wise ones.
“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 proceeds to list the criteria by which any sensible person can decide which teachings to accept as true. Do not blindly believe religious teachings, just because they are claimed to be true, or even through the application of various methods or techniques. Direct knowledge grounded in one's own experience can be called upon.
The Buddha proposes not a passive acceptance but, rather, constant questioning and personal testing to identify those truths which verifiably reduce one's own suffering or misery (dukkha).
How About God?
Buddhism does not focus on God but rather on ourselves. Buddha is not a God but a spiritual teacher.
We are the one who accumulates bad karma, and we are the one who has the responsibility to pay for it. If we took a mortgage, we don't expect Buddha or God to pay for it, do we?