The Cow Sutra! (AN 9.35)

"The Cow," Gavi Sutta (AN 9.35), derivative translation by Seven (Wisdom Quarterly)

[The Buddha:] "Suppose there were a mountain cow -- foolish, inexperienced, unfamiliar with its field, unskilled in roaming on rugged mountains -- and it were to think, 'What if I were to go in a direction I have never gone before, eat grass I have never eaten before, drink water I never drank before?'



"It would lift its hind hoof without having firmly placed its front hoof and [as a result] would not go in a direction it had never gone before, eat grass it had never eaten before, or drink water it never drank before.



"And as for the place where it was standing when the thought occurred, 'What if I were to...' it would not return there safely.



"Why? It is because it is a foolish, inexperienced mountain cow, unfamiliar with its field, unskilled in roaming on rugged mountains.



"In the same way, there are cases where a meditator -- foolish, inexperienced, unfamiliar with his or her field, unskilled in withdrawing from sensuality, withdrawing from unskillful states, and entering and remaining in the first absorption, which is characterized by rapture and happiness born of withdrawal, accompanied by applied and sustained attention -- does not stick with a meditation object, does not develop it, pursue it, or become firmly established in it [i.e., does not learn and practice the mastery of each absorption].



"The thought occurs to that meditator, 'What if I, with the stilling of applied and sustained attention, were to enter and remain in the second absorption, which is characterized by rapture and happiness born of concentration, intensification of awareness free from applied and sustained attention.'



"That meditator is not able... to enter and remain in the second absorption... The thought occurs, 'What if I... were to enter and remain in the first absorption... [but] is not [even] able... to enter and remain in the first absorption.



"This is called a meditator who has slipped and fallen on both sides, like the mountain cow, foolish, inexperienced, unfamiliar with its field, unskilled in roaming on rugged mountains.







SMART COW

"But suppose there were a mountain cow -- wise, experienced, familiar with its field, skilled in roaming on rugged mountains -- and it were to think, 'What if I were to go in a direction I have never gone before, eat grass I have never eaten before, drink water I never drank before!'



"It would lift its hind hoof only after having firmly placed its front hoof and [as a result] would go in a direction it had never gone before... drink water it never drank before. And as for the place where it was standing when the thought occurred, 'What if I were...,' it would return there safely.



"Why? It is because it is a wise, experienced mountain cow, familiar with its field, skilled in roaming on rugged mountains.



FOUR MATERIAL JHANAS

"In just the same way, there are cases where a meditator -- wise, experienced, familiar with the field, skilled in withdrawing from sensuality, withdrawing from unskillful states, entering and remaining in the first absorption, which is characterized by rapture and happiness born of withdrawal, accompanied by applied and sustained attention -- stays with a meditation object, develops it, pursues it, and becomes firmly established in it.



"The thought occurs, 'What if, with the stilling of applied and sustained attention, I were to enter and remain in the second absorption, which is characterized by rapture and happiness born of concentration, intensification of awareness, free from applied and sustained attention?'



"Without yet ascending to the second absorption -- but with the stilling of applied and sustained attention -- that meditator enters and remains in the second absorption, which is characterized by rapture and happiness born of concentration, intensification of awareness, free of applied and sustained attention.



"One stays with that meditation object, develops it, pursues it, and becomes firmly established in it.



"The thought occurs, 'What if, with the fading of rapture, I... were to enter and remain in the third absorption...' Without yet ascending to the third absorption, but with the fading of rapture, one remains equanimous, mindful, and alert, and experiences pleasure with the body. One enters and remains in the third absorption, of which the Noble Ones say, 'Equanimous and mindful, one abides joyfully.'



"One maintains that meditation object, develops it, pursues it, and becomes firmly established in it.



"The thought occurs, 'What if I... were to enter and remain in the fourth absorption...' Without yet ascending to the fourth absorption, but with the abandoning of both rapture and happiness -- and the earlier fading away of both pleasure and pain -- one enters and remains in the fourth absorption, which is characterized by equanimity [impartiality] and mindfulness, neither-pleasure-nor-pain.



"One keeps that meditation object, develops it, pursues it, and becomes firmly established in it.



FOUR IMMATERIAL JHANAS

"The thought occurs, 'What if I... were to enter and remain in the dimension of boundless space.' Without yet ascending to the dimension of boundless space, but with the complete transcending of perceptions of [physical] form, with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance, and not heeding perceptions of diversity [mental proliferation], [perceiving,] 'Space is boundless,' one enters and remains in the dimension of boundless space.



"One maintains that meditation object, develops it, pursues it, and becomes firmly established in it.



"The thought occurs, 'What if I... were to enter and remain in the dimension of boundless consciousness.' Without yet ascending to it, but with the complete transcending of the dimension of boundless space, [perceiving,] 'Consciousness is boundless,' one enters and remains in the dimension of boundless consciousness.



"One maintains that meditation object, develops it, pursues it, and becomes firmly established in it.



"The thought occurs, 'What if I... were to enter and remain in the dimension of nothingness [no-thing-ness, one of the 31 Planes of Existence, also called the sphere of the void].'



"Without yet ascending to the dimension of nothingness, but with the complete transcending of the dimension of boundless consciousness, [perceiving,] 'There is no-thing,' one enters and remains in the dimension of nothingness.



"One maintains that meditation object, develops it, pursues it, and becomes firmly established in it.



"The thought occurs, 'What if I... were to enter and remain in the dimension of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.' Without yet ascending to it, but with the complete transcending of the dimension of nothingness, one enters and remains in the dimension of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.



One maintains that meditation object, develops it, pursues it, and becomes firmly established in it.



ATTAINMENT OF CESSATION

"The thought occurs, 'What if I, with the complete transcending of the dimension of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, were to [emerge from the absorptions and, if one is at least a non-returner, were to] enter and remain in the cessation of perception and feeling.'



"Without yet going to the cessation of perception and feeling, but with the complete transcending of the [highest and subtlest absorption (jhana) known as the] dimension of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, one enters and rests in the cessation of perception and feeling.



"When a meditator [frequently a monastic] enters and emerges from that very attainment, the mind is pliant and malleable. With this pliant, malleable mind, limitless concentration is available.



"With this limitless concentration, whichever of the six higher knowledges one turns one's mind to know and see, one can witness it whenever there is an opening.



MAGICAL POWERS

"Moreover, if one wishes, one wields manifold supernormal powers: Having been one, the adept meditator becomes many; having been many, the adept becomes one.



One appears, disappears, goes unimpeded through walls, ramparts, and mountains as if through space; dives in and out of the ground as if it were water; walks on water without sinking as if it were dry land; sitting crosslegged flies through the air like a winged bird; extending a hand, touches and strokes even the Sun and Moon, so mighty and powerful; goes physically exercises influence over this body even as far as the brahma worlds [supreme divine planes of existence].



"All of this is possible whenever there is an opening.



"If one wishes, one hears -- by means of the divine ear, purified and surpassing the human -- both kinds of sounds, divine and human, whether near or far. One knows and [hears] this whenever there is an opening.



"If one wishes, one knows the mind of other beings, other individuals, having encompassed them with one's own mind. One knows a mind beset by passion as a mind beset by passion, and a mind free of passion as a mind free of passion... a mind beset by aversion... a mind beset by delusion... a contracted mind as a contracted mind, and a scattered mind as a scattered mind.... an expanded mind as an expanded mind, and a shrunken mind as a shrunken mind..... an excelled [surpassable] mind as an excelled mind, and an unexcelled mind as an unexcelled mind.... a concentrated mind as a concentrated mind, and an unconcentrated mind as an unconcentrated mind.... a released mind as a released mind, and an unreleased mind as an unreleased mind.



"One knows and sees this whenever there is an opening.



"If one wishes, one recollects manifold past lives (lit. previous abodes of existence), that is, one birth, two births, three births, four, five, ten, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 1000, 100000, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion, [recollecting]:



"'There I had such a name, belonged to such an extended family, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I was reborn [lit. reappeared] there. There, too, I had such a name, belonged to such an extended family, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I was reborn here.'



"Thus one recalls manifold past lives in general and in detail. One knows and sees this for oneself whenever there is an opening.



"If one wishes, one sees -- by means of the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human -- beings passing away and reappearing [being reborn], and discerns how they are inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate in accordance with their karma:



"'These beings -- who were endowed with unwholesome conduct of body, speech, and mind, who reviled [insulted, disregarded] the Noble Ones [ariya, i.e., anyone who has attained any of the stages of enlightenment], held wrong views, and who undertook actions under the influence of wrong views -- with the breakup of the body, after death, such beings have reappeared on a plane of deprivation, in an unfortunate destination, the lower realms, even the hells.



"But these [other] beings -- who were endowed with wholesome (kusala) conduct of body, speech, and mind, who did not revile [but who listened and regarded] the Noble Ones, who held right views, and who undertook actions under the influence of right views -- with the breakup of the body, after death, such beings have reappeared in fortunate destinations [human plane and higher], even in heavenly worlds.'



"Thus -- by means of the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human -- one sees beings passing away and reappearing, and discerns how they are inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate in accordance with their karma.



"One knows and see all this for oneself whenever there is an opening.



"Then if one wishes, through the stilling of mental proliferation, one remains in the unsurpassed freedom of mind, freedom of heart, freedom through wisdom, full liberation here and now.







"One knows and sees all this for oneself whenever there is an opening."

• The field of work (kamatthana) for serenity meditation
• Buddha or Arahant - Don't take the finger for the Moon
• Magic cow gone wrong: reptilian hybrid in Cambodia
  
  

For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted, reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish, however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and other derivative works be clearly marked as such.

Rape and the Prophetic Dream from Hell

Wisdom Quarterly based on original translation by Ven. Nyanaponika and Hellmuth Hecker in Buddhist Women at the Time of the Buddha Samsara, the "Wheel of Rebirth," in Buddhist art

Du: Dung-like life to live,
No willingness to give,
Although we could have given much,
We did not make our refuge thus.

Sa: Say the end is near?
Already 60,000 years have gone
Without respite the torture is
In this hellish realm.

Na: Naught, no end near, O, would it end!
No end in sight for us.
Who once did misdeeds here
For me, for you, for both of us.

So: So could I only leave this place
And raise myself to human realm,
I would be kind and restrained too,
And do good deeds in abundance.

A boiling cauldron of oil in the depths of Avici, a hellish realm in Buddhist cosmology

After Mallika gained unshakeable confidence in the Buddha, she also won her husband over to the Dharma:

One night King Pasenadi had a succession of 16 prophetic dreams. During them he heard gruesome, unfathomable noises from four voices: "Du, Sa, Na, So."

When he awoke, fear seized him. Sitting upright and trembling, he waited for sunrise.

When his brahmin priest advisors asked him whether he had slept well, he related the terror of the night. He asked them what could be done to counteract the menace. The brahmins declared that one would have to offer great blood sacrifices [of biblical proportions (Exodus 12:29)] to pacify the evil spirits.



In his fear the king agreed. The brahmins rejoiced because of the gifts they would surely reap and busily began to make preparations for the great sacrifice. They scurried about, building a sacrificial altar and tying animals to posts to be killed.

For greater efficacy, they demanded the sacrifice of four human beings, who also awaited their death tied to posts.

When Queen Mallika became aware of all this activity, she went to the king and asked him why the brahmins were so busy running around joyfully and expectantly. The king replied that she did not pay enough attention to him and did not know his sorrows: He told her of his dreams.

Mallika asked the king whether he had consulted the first and foremost "brahmin" (one ennobled by actions rather than birth) about the meaning and interpretation of his dreams.

Torture ancient Indian style, a man being boiled alive in oil under brahmin oversight

The king replied that she would first have to tell him who was "the first and foremost" among brahmins. Mallika explained that the Awakened One was foremost in this world of devas and hamans, the first of all noble individuals everywhere.

King Pasenadi decided to ask the Buddha's advice and went to Prince Jeta's Grove, to the abbey donated by the millionaire Anathapindika.

There he related to the Buddha his 16 dreams and asked what would happen to him as a result.

Life size scene depicting torment in the worst plane of existence, Avici

"Nothing," the Buddha replied and explained the meaning of each to him. The 16 dreams were prophecies, revealing that in the distant future living conditions on Earth would deteriorate due to the increasing moral laxity of rulers.

During a contemplative period, King Pasenadi had been able to see the future in a vision within his sphere of interest, as a monarch concerned with the well-being of his subjects.

The Results of Former Karma
The voices the king had heard belonged to four men who formerly lived in Savatthi and been rapists or seducers of married women in either case engaged in sexual misconduct.

As a result of that karma ripening at the time of death, it conditioned rebirth in a correspondingly hellish world. And for 30,000 years they drowned in red hot cauldrons of oil, coming nearer and nearer to the fire, which intensified their already unbearable suffering.

For another 30,000 years they slowly rose up in those iron cauldrons and had now come to the rim, where they could once again at least breathe the air of the human realm.

Each one wanted to give voice to a verse. But because of the gravity of their hurtful deeds, they could not get past the first syllable. Not even in sighs could they voice their suffering, having long lost the gift of speech.

The four verses -- which start in the ancient language of the Buddha's day with "du," "sa," "na," and "so" -- were recognized by the Enlightened One as follows

A glimpse of freedom every 60,000 years for violating the Five Guiding Precepts of happiness in the human world

Dung-like life to live,
No willingness to give,
Although we could have given much,
We did not make our refuge thus.

Say the end is near?
Already 60,000 years have gone
Without respite the torture is
In this hellish realm.

Naught, no end near, O, would it end!
No end in sight for us.
Who once did misdeeds here
For me, for you, for both of us.

So could I only leave this place
And raise myself to human realm,
I would be kind and restrained too,
And do good deeds in abundance.

After King Pasenadi had heard the dreams explained in detail, he became responsive to the request of his compassionate queen. He granted freedom to the imprisoned men and the animals. He then ordered the sacrificial altar to be destroyed (Jataka 77 & 314).

Dr. Death Dies: Euthanasia and Suicide?

Amber Dorrian, Seven Dharmachari, Ashley Wells Wisdom Quarterly
Advocate, enabler, possible murderer Dr. Kevorkian with suicide device he invented

Dr. Jack Kevorkian -- famed fighter for suicide "rights" -- has passed away overnight. His tireless efforts to change laws not only in Michigan but throughout the United States led him to prison for assisting in a suicide and being charged with murder in the process.

As American who feel entitled not only to our rights but to medical help to do everything from ruin our health, kill pain, transplant our organs, to kill ourselves. It's the American way.

But it is not the Buddhist way. As unpopular as this position has to seem to many "freedom" loving Western Buddhists, it must be said that suicide is not neutral karma. Euthanasia is not neutral karma. They are decidedly unprofitable. And this is why.

The reason is very simple and uncontroversial. It doesn't even get "religious." Because certainly let everyone and anyone do whatever s/he wants. No one is attempting to dictate or legislate what anyone else does.

Buddhism is not about how to judge others. It is about how to evaluate ourselves and our actions (karma) to maximize the good, eliminate the harmful, and bring about happiness for ourselves, others, and both (which we could think of as society or humanity in general).

All bad karma has only three roots. In fact, one can decide if something is skillful or unskillful (profitable or unprofitable) by honestly and insightfully examining the motivation (cetana, intention) prompting. Of course, karma is not just physical action but verbal and mental action as well.

What are the roots of the unwholesome?

If one's action is rooted (motivated, prompted, impelled, driven, caused, engendered...) by greed, hatred, or delusion then it is impossible for it to have a beneficial (pleasant, welcome, wished for result).

That's a strong statement. And the arguments against it are so painfully obvious that they do not need uttering. All of the confusion is based on details that people simply gloss over because they do not know or because they want to win arguments.

What motivates euthanasia? On the one hand, it would obviously seem to be compassion: "I can't bear to see you suffer. Let me put you out of your misery."

A careful examination of this motive reveals the hate (dosa). First of all "greed, hatred, and delusion" are, of course, not words the Buddha ever used. His words were lobha, dosa, moha (Pali, Prakrit, Magadhi terms). We translate them as with unsatisfactory and misleading English stand ins and then argue about what we know they mean in English. And it's as if we could not careless what they mean in Pali or Sanskrit or Magadhi, the language they were spoken in.

Greed (liking and preferring), hatred (aversion and fear), and delusion (wrong view and ignorance).

Of course, Dr. Kevorkian and euthanasia fans and supporters are not motivated by "hate." They are, however, often motivated by aversion (dosa). These terms differ from the English in one important respect that cannot be overstated. The ancient terms equally mean the entire range of the word. "Hate" (dosa) includes all shades of aversion.

And when someone is suffering (because of illness, because it is assumed they are about to die, because of loss of dignity or capacity, suffering because they are suffering), we think it is our compassion that would motivate us to kill them. But it is not. And the same is true for suicide or enabling suicide. In order to kill, in order to enable, in order to commend death, right at the crucial moment of acting (whether by flicking a switch, speaking a word, or approving in mind) the motivation is AVERSION.

What are we, or what is the person killing whether in the case of suicide or "mercy killing," expressing an aversion towards? That pain we observe. Our own empathy produces an unpleasant, uneasy, sometimes unbearable feeling. (Mirror cells in our brains are now implicated in this process).

It is not possible to kill without this aversion, which itself is rooted in delusion (because we neither understand the enormous value of human life nor the danger in death) and greed (preferring relief from our own empathic or sympathetic suffering).

We have died countless times. We will die countless more. We have been reborn just as many times. This is nothing new. Normally, our aversion does not have major consequences. We leave the room, leave the relationship, leave the situation. People themselves worsen what has happened by dwelling and reacting. That is their karma. What is ours?

Our kindness, our sympathy, our love will always be rewarded -- BUT it will almost never be rewarded on the spot or anytime soon.

Karma Works (out) in Mysterious Ways

The second terrible mistake we make, if the first is failing to comprehend what the Buddha taught by ignoring the actual terms he used, is failing to understand the result or reaction of our action.

• It is completely mistaken, and it bears emphasizing because it is so popular a misconception, that a suitable definition for karma runs: "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

This is true for Newton and Newtonian physics. It may or may not hold up in quantum mechanics. But it certainly fails to hold water in Buddhist terms. The reason is very simple. The actions we perform do not usually bear their result anytime soon. We naturally and naively rationalize when something "bad" happens to us that it is because we did something like that.

The Buddha forcefully rejected this naive view, which was prevalent in Vedic brahmin's ideas about karma (Vedic Brahmanism influenced Hinduism, but they are not the same; there was no Hinduism at the time of the Buddha but was only later developed and then traced itself back to before Buddhism to the time of the Vedas). The truth is the reaction is exponentially disproportionate to the action.

For example, toss a steel bearing at a large rubber mat on the ceiling at 10 MPH, and it will bounce back in the opposite direction at a little less than 10 MPH (some of the energy being dissipated as noise, heat, resistance, overcoming gravity, etc.) But toss it at a sheet of glass, and it will rupture and shatter that glass creating a massive crescendo of noise and shards falling and wounding and possibly gravely injuring the thrower.

For example, killing a human being is just killing -- just doing a simple but significant thing like flicking a switch on one of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's suicide devices. A family may or may not get hurt, society may or may not be negatively impacted, we usually have no idea about the unintended consequences of our killing. But whether or not the dead, the collateral damage victims, or society is harmed, the killer certainly will be. For that action, as simple as it was (maybe taking a pill, pulling a trigger, misusing a razor), brought about a karmically significant action. And that action has the capacity to bring about an exponentially disproportionate result.

• Since most Americans intuit that there is more to life than this life, acknowledging a future beyond it, most would probably not state that publicly. We are forced to say we hope so but don't know. Did the Buddha know? Did he say? Should we believe it? There's no reason to "believe." We can check. We ourselves can see. But we don't make that effort. We reason we'll just wait and find out. That's our choice; that's our karma. Meditation is the way to know. And for those who don't believe that "seeing is believing," there is empirical evidence and lots of it. Testimonials, hypnosis, legends, religious lore, we reject all of that and assume that's all there is. How many of us look into the scientific evidence for "reincarnation." (Scientists are not Buddhists and usually do not see the distinction between reincarnation and rebirth). The lines of evidence include prodigies, confirmed past life memories and identities, past life body markings, and so on. Having rejected spiritual tradition and science, we didn't know to even look for empirical evidence. Had we, we could have found it. If it runs counter to our view of the world, we'll reject it anyway. It is simply not a part of our experience. It doesn't fit. And until it becomes cool, fashionable, and part of the consensus-reality (zeitgeist), we'll have nothing to do with it, publicly.

As a result of killing (not the ripening of this karma but just societally), we may fall into disrepute, go to court, go to jail, are harmed by others, and may even be killed (death penalty, revenge, or vigilantism). So we suffer greatly, and yet our killing-karma (the deed's reaction) has NOT been met with.

When we, as a result of this karma bearing its results (as rebirth-linking karma, frustrating karma, or any of the many other types and categorizations of karma) meet with those results, it is woeful. It is unwished for. It is unwelcome. It is hard to bear.

If that karma ripens as we are passing away, it will produce rebirth in one of the "unfortunate destinations," the countless worlds categorized for simplicity by the Buddha as four general planes of existence loosely translated as: animal, hungry ghost, demon, and hellion.

(To prevent misunderstanding, these should not be confounded with Judeo-Christian conceptions and categories from which they differ. Those conceptions typically lead to absurdities that causes most of to reject them out of hand as nonsense, and few Christians have the capacity to correct our dismissals without resorting to blind faith. In Buddhism, these categories make sense and are internally consistent. A simple example is that the hells, of which there are eight major realms and countless individual experiences of it, are not populated by "demons" but by hellions and wardens, and while none of them are "eternal" damnation, they certainly seem interminable and agonizing and it is uncertain when one will ever find a way out).

Not satisfied with being a doctor or ex-convict, Dr. Kevorkian wanted to join Congress.

With these two points in mind -- the thorny problem of language and the near impossibility of knowing what karma (from our storehouse compiled in countless past lives) is ripening at any moment or with regard to any event we are experiencing -- all we can say is that karma is action conditioned by intention.

Motivated by wholesome intentions (nongreed, nonhatred, nondelusion, all of which are very wide categories), deeds yield profitable (pleasant, wished for, welcome, beneficial) results when they ripen, which is not likely to be soon.

In meditation it becomes possible to know why something happened. But it is no easy feat. The Abhidharma ("Higher-Dharma," a collection of technical works forming one third of Buddhism) explains how to discern this to some extent.

Only a supremely enlightened buddha actually has the capacity to know the circuitous and otherwise incomprehensibly tangled route karma will take as it works itself out. Yet it is possible for an ordinary person of ordinary capacity to gain absorption (profound meditative concentration) and use it as a foundation for insight practices (vipassana). Going back from the event or circumstance asking the question, "How did this come to be" one cannot directly trace the mind impression back to the significant karma that originated it. It will almost certainly take the help of a qualified teacher who has done it to accomplish, or facility that has been previously developed, but it is possible.

Euthanasia is not necessary

There is a difference between pain and suffering. Pain is a part of life. "Suffering" is optional. (Here it is very important to understand that English and not Pali/Sanskrit is being spoken). Most of our suffering is the result of "mental karma" -- that is, our mental reaction to pain or things we do not like even if it is pleasurable to most.

Dying can be painful. Often it is not. The body has mechanisms for dealing with physical pain. These are automatic and onlookers are almost certainly not aware of them. The mind leaves, the "spirit" (an energy inherent in breath that produces or sustains subtler bodies) leaves. Even if pain or the causes of pain are in the body, they may not be in the mind. Likewise, much suffering may be in the mind that is not first in the body.

Help the dying be in peace and have quiet, relieving their pain, worry, or misgivings. This is compassion. There is no reason to kill them. Their otherwise good result from whatever karma might ripen can be replaced with the unwholesome, unprofitable karma of killing if they kill themselves prematurely. "Anything can happen." Any and many things do happen that we could not have expected. When we are control freaks trying to control the outcome, we almost always make a mess of it. Trust in karma, or produce good (mental and verbal karma) at the time of dying. For whatever ripens at these junctions (these countless transitions from one state to another) conditions the next state.

• Wishing someone harm will always bring harm (when it ripens, which is not immediate) to the wisher, rarely to the person upon which harm is wished.
• Wishing someone well will always bring good (when it ripens) to the well wisher, only rarely to the person whom we wish well.
• Speaking words motivated by greed/hate/delusion (lobha/dosa/moha) will always hurt the speaker, and lots of times the spoken to, too.
• Speaking words motivated by nongreed/nonhate/nondelusion (alobha/adosa/amoha) will always help the speaker, and lots of times the spoken to as well.

Finally, if there are any misgivings, an important line of evidence comes from the Vinaya ("Monastic Rules," another collection that comprises a third of Buddhism, with the Abhidharma and the Sutras being the other other two thirds). If killing were only the physical act of killing, the Buddha would not have made a rule against the verbal karma of killing.

The rule states that any monastic who kills a human being is "defeated," that is to say, is immediately and irrevocably no longer a monastic and cannot reordain in this lifetime. Loss of this status is not the karmic-result of killing but rather the consequence of violating this disciplinary rule. The karmic result is yet to be met with!

The Monastic Rules goes into more detail. Any monk or nun who encourages or persuades or speaks in praise of another committing suicide (or euthanasia or abortion) will have violated this rule if that person subsequently commits the act. Some words can be as or more harmful than deeds. What motivates such words other than unprofitable mental-karma (motivated by greed, hate or, most likely, delusion)? Such is the power of karma that traps us and that can free us.

Good actions have exponentially disproportionate results. Even a small good act can bear incredible and seemingly undeserved rewards and happiness. Abstaining from killing (in thought, word, or deed) is just such a good act.

We know Dr. Kevorkian was a good and high minded person. His intention was not to harm. Nevertheless, overcome by delusion, he was not helping his karma and ended up doing more harm than good for society. Progress depends on mavericks, rebels, and trailblazers. He certainly opened up conversations about medical treatment, privacy, and choice, but by bringing legitimacy to the unprofitable act of killing, he seems to have further muddied the waters and legitimized the perverse allopathic medical model.

• AIDS turns 30 (HIV is still not the cause)

Rebirth: Wandering Without End

Bhikkhu Bodhi and Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The Buddha's teaching addresses something not immediately perceptible to us: our bondage to the Round of Rebirths.

From the selection of texts on similes regarding the boundless series of rebirths that has been cycling without any discernible beginning in time comes a frightening possibility.

This cycle is called samsara, a Pali/Sanskrit word that suggests the idea of directionless wandering or faring on. No matter how far back in time we may seek a beginning to the universe, there was never a moment of initial creation.

There are, however, periodic "creations" or, more correctly speaking, "impersonal formations" at the beginning of each world-system.

There was no creator; they simply follow a natural cyclical process of evolution and devolution. At times these world-systems are referred to as universes within a multiverse.

But if we reserve the term "universe" to everything in the entire cosmos inclusive of all the countless world-systems, there is no beginning to be found. World-systems last a great aeon (maha-kalpa) passing through four incalculable or uncertain phases: formation, duration, contraction, and an empty time.

This period of calm is followed by yet another formation, another revolution, which may be thought of as a Big Bang. But a Big Bang in no way explains the actual first cause or creation of the universe ("all that is") only another round of development, operation, chaotic dissolution, and quiescence.



Similarly, just as world-systems evolve and dissolve over billions of years, each different but each arising from the former, the same goes for individual rebirths. Each past and future life is a point along an ever-changing line of identity and attachment, the sense that a single entity is carrying on. Aggregates of clinging recur through countless deaths and rebirths.

As in the former case so in the latter, there is no beginning point to be found. Moreover, there would be no benefit to finding one if it became possible to find. For knowing it would not bring about the end of suffering (nirvana).

No matter how far back we may trace any given individual sequence of lives, we can never arrive at a first point.

How long will the Round of Rebirth last?
According to these texts (given in full In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha), even if we were to trace the sequence of our mothers and fathers across world-systems, we would only come upon still more mothers and fathers stretching back into the far horizons.

Moreover, the frightening prospect is that the process is not only beginningless, it is also potentially endless! This may not seem frightful to anyone who does not see suffering -- or grasp the Four Noble Truths even intellectually -- and the potential for far greater suffering due to karma produced in ignorance driven by craving.

As long as ignorance and craving remain intact, the process will continue indefinitely into the future.

For the Buddha and Early Buddhism, this is above all the defining crisis at the heart of the our condition: We are bound to a chain of rebirths, and bound to it by nothing other than our own ignorance and craving.

The pointless wandering on in samsara -- suffering as we chase pleasure, enduring happiness, and security where it cannot be found -- occurs against a cosmic background of inconceivably vast dimensions.

The period of time that it takes for a world system to evolve, reach its phase of maximum expansion, then contract, and disintegrate is called a kappa (Sanskrit, kalpa) or aeon.

The texts offer vivid similes to suggest the duration of the various types of aeons; others offer vivid similes to illustrate the incalculable number of aeons through which we have already wandered interacting in all kinds of relationships with one another.

As beings fare along, wandering and roaming from life to life, shrouded in the darkness of ignorance over what is going on or what is causing the unsatifactoriness and rebirths, they fall again and again into the chasm of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

They fall again and again into the chasm of incomprehensibly woeful realms in the unfortunate destinations -- the worlds of animals, ghosts, monsters, and hellions.

Because their craving propels them forward in a relentless quest for gratification of sensual desires, ambitions, and running from pain, they seldom pause long enough to step back and carefully consider their existential plight.

As Text 1,4(5) states, they just just keep revolving around the Five Aggregates in the way a dog on a leash might run around a post or pillar. Since their ignorance prevents them from recognizing the vicious nature of their condition, they cannot discern even the tracks of a path to deliverance.

Most beings live immersed in the enjoyment of or the search for sensual pleasures. Others -- driven by the need for power, status, and esteem -- pass their lives in vain attempts to fill an unquenchable thirst.

Many, fearful of annihilation at death, construct belief systems that ascribe to their individual selves, their "souls," the prospect of eternal life. They do not perceive that this constructed "self" is perishing at every moment, changing, altering, and hurtling towards destruction.

A few yearn for a path to liberation. But they do not know where to find one. It was precisely to offer such a path that the Buddha has appeared in our midst. Buddhism originally was precisely a path-of-practice to the end of suffering.

• AUDIO: Nirvana explained (D.I.Y. Dharma)