Harmless Soul

Author(s): W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 27

Early Jainism 13 danda, however, is at least as frequently used.)24
The term preferred by the Buddhists - kamma - is in essence a more neutral term than danda, in that action is either sinful or not, depending upon intention, i.e. the karmic quality of any action is determined by the quality of volition (cetanā) underlying it. Nothing can be called karmically wholesome (kusala) or unwholesome (akusala) independently of volition; acts in themselves are karmically indeterminate (avyākata).25 Whether a particular volitional state is karmically binding or not depends on the absence or presence of lobha (greed), dosa (hate), and moha (delusion) - perhaps comparable to the 'passions' (kaşāyas) of classical Jaina thought. For this reason, the Buddha can state explicitly that 'volition, O monks, is what I call action (cetanāham bhikkhave kammam vadāmi), for through volition one performs [significant] action by body, speech or mind'.26
From the above, it is clear that for the early Jains physical activity is, by definition, 'hurtful' and thus binding, whereas for the Buddhists it is only binding if accompanied by the mental factors of lobha, dosa and moha. And it is perhaps significant that it is a lay disciple of Mahāvīra's who is converted by the Buddha, since the Buddha's view of what is karmically binding, as represented in the Upālisutta, is clearly more compatible with lay life than the view attributed to Mahāvīra. . It is also interesting to note that 'yoga', the Jaina term
24 Jacobi 1895, intro. p. xvii. See, for instance, Sūy. 2.2 (p. 357ff. in Jacobi's trans.), where thirteen ways of 'committing sins' are treated of, and where the first five are danda-samādāne and the rest are kiriyāthāne (i.e. kriyāsthāna). Cf. also Sthânănga Sūtra (third uddeśaka) where, according to Jacobi (ibid. p. xvii), the doctrine of the three danda is expressed in nearly the same words. Norman p. 15, translating Utt. 8:10, renders damda as 'punishment'.
25 See Buddhist Dictionary, p. 122ff. > 26 Anguttara Nikāya 6.63, quoted in Buddhist Dictionary, p. 92.