Jain Spirit 2002 03 No 10

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 55

PHILOSOPHY
IT'S YOUR KARMA
Robert Zydenbos examines the unique contribution of Jain philosophers and scientists to the understanding of Karma
MONG THE SEVERAL CONCEPTS OF INDIAN ORIGIN THAT It seems beyond doubt that the doctrine of karma and have found their way to the people in the wide world rebirth is not of brahmanical Hindu origin. In the oldest
far beyond India's borders, karma is one of the best Upanishads we read that these concepts were unknown to known. In all the developed schools of Indian religious and the brahmin priests, and it was a king, a kshatriya, named philosophical thought, the concept of karma plays a crucial Pravahana Jaivali, who in the Brihadaranyaka and role. The fact that this Sanskrit word has found its way into Chandogya Upanishads teaches these ideas to brahmins for most of the languages of the Western world shows that in those the first time. The concepts from then on became a part and languages no word conveys a similar meaning. This is because parcel of Hindu thinking, but it remains interesting that a the concept was not there to begin with.
kshatriya introduced them. It is important to remember here What exactly karma is and how it can be effective, is a that the Tirthankaras of Jainism, as well as the Buddha, matter about which the various schools of Indian thought have were kshatriyas too. In Jainism and Buddhism we find a divergent views. Generally speaking, Indian thought accepts more consistent development of the karma doctrine than in that the notion of metamorphosis or "rebirth" reflects a reality any brahmanical school of thought. Thinking about karma of existence. This is largely a matter of belief, although there is more natural to Jainism with its stress on conscious are quite strong arguments to accept
individual responsibility than to the metamorphosis as a fact of life. Para
ritualistic thinking of most of Hinduism. psychological research has produced quite
"Karma is often
In popular literature we frequently interesting data that suggest the continued
read that the karma doctrine and the existence of a core personality that resumes
mistaken for fate."
notion of metamorphosis are "scientific life in this world in a different body. As
and that the Indian religions are generally long as one's thinking is not materialistic, it appears that to be more "scientific" in their outlook than other religions. The born more than once is in itself not more amazing than to be concept of karma has often been compared to that of born once. If one can be born at all, there seems to be no reason causality, but extended into the metaphysical sphere. Here why one cannot be born again.
we should be very clear about what is meant by the term Indian thinkers have traditionally set out from the idea that "scientific". In English, the word usually means "supported there is something central in each individual person that does by evidence from the natural sciences", i.e. from the not die when the physical body dies. Instead, it continues to material sciences in comparison to the humanities or to the exist and will also assume a new body, thus being "reborn" as social sciences. If we take the English word in this usual an apparently new individual. Most people would choose to meaning, then these statements are clearly not true. But this call this the "soul" of a person, but Buddhists think otherwise. should not be a matter of any great concern. The natural We should say "apparently new" because the new person may sciences, by their very nature, are very limited. As soon as appear new but his or her core is the same. He/she is identical any thinker tries to bring together the results of research in to the one who has physically lived earlier in a different body, different sciences, he steps outside the boundaries of any with a different name and identity, under different social science and engages himself in an intellectual activity that circumstances and probably in a different location. We speak is not "scientific" but philosophical Science can at best about the "earlier life" as a different incarnation. The new provide material proof of the correctness or incorrectness of physical form, name, circumstance etc. which this present an idea. Many questions cannot be answered by means of incarnate person has assumed have been determined by factors material proof because the questions concern matters that in the previous incarnation. These factors are called karma. are not material. The discussion of Jain "science" is Venerably old Jain texts have described karma and all its complicated by the classical Jain imagery of karma as a kind varieties in great detail: there are eight main types of karma, of fine matter, pudgala, attached to a soul which is not subdivided into many dozens of sub-types. These largely material. But a closer look at what pudgala is will show determine practically all aspects of life, including one's bodily that it should not be understood as "matter" in the same form, gender, health, longevity, character and the social circum- sense as, for instance, in contemporary physics. After all, stances under which one was born.
the classical Jain thinkers were not technicians in physics
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Jain Spirit • March - May 2002