AboutJoe McSorley Expertise I can answer questions dealing with Taoist philosophy and Zen and not the historicity and religion of Buddhism and its different schools. I studied under Dr. Richard DeMartino and Masao Abe of the Kyoto School of Zen.
Question I wish to know more about the concepts of Karma and Rebirth in Zen Buddhism. I think I understand it well in other buddhist lineages, but I was told that in Zen these concepts are different. Please explain more to me.
Answer Zen does not believe in reincarnation and admonishes that if it is true then it is of the utmost importance that you awaken in this life due to the fact that you might not be human again. There is no soul in Buddhism so this too creates a problem. Buddhism also teaches that the self has no substance that it is merely a collection of aggregates that perceives itself as self. So there is no true substance to self so what then reincarnates? It's been postulated by the Tibetans that we start from perfection, fall, and then strive to regain it. Again, what falls? I was in a lecture with one of Trungpa's (Tibetan Buddhist) associates who postulated this. My teacher replied “ how does one fall from perfection?”. This fellow would not address the problem but I took another tack. I agreed with him that this happened and then asked how one regains perfection. He told me and when he was finished I said, “ So when one does all of this they regain perfection identical with original perfection?” He said, “Yes”. And then I said, “ So then you fall again and start over” He exclaimed “ NO, you can't fall from it”. I said ,” But you already said we did and it's identical with original perfection, this is contradictory and problematic”. He was very upset for he had no answer. This along with the mathematical problem of there being so many more people today then there were years ago, where are all of these new ‘souls' coming from?
Please do not waste your time with concepts like this, they accomplish nothing. What you must deal with is who it is that even asks me this question, who is it that reincarnates, was born and will die? Answer this and you will have no problem.
As far as karma goes it is a matter of definition. The term originally comes from Jainism and meant “ reaction to action”. What that meant was that our minds stir up or react to outside stimulus and that it is a false view of the world. The idea was to keep the mind still and to see things without creating thoughts, to see things directly.
Karma has since come to mean causation in regards to reincarnation but that is not a very good understanding of it. What karma really means is simply cause and effect. If you hang out with thugs you will eventually end up in trouble, if you eat the wrong foods you will eventually get sick. It tries to explain the causal relationship between things whether it be pure physics or mental states; there is still a cause and effect. Most of us follow the same thought patterns over and over, do things the same way but expect different results. We ignore our karma by doing so. If you have been raised in an exceptionally disruptive household you will have learned to do things and to reason in a faulty manner. It is the cause and effect of one's upbringing. What one needs to do is to recognize their karma, what ever that be, and break through it, to free oneself from the confines of their own egotistical view of reality and to see a more complete reality. Needless to say this is a very difficult thing to do on any level. People pay no heed to what they eat, drink or smoke, full knowing that it is killing them so how can we expect them to question the legitimacy of their thought patterns? So it is man's karma to live life as if there were no consequence and to pay whatever price is exacted upon us for doing so.
It is the emphasis of Zen to deal with the here and now and not the theoretical future. Who is it that suffers, was born, and will eventually die? If we are reincarnated then how do we stop that process NOW, immediately and forever? Zen demands that we awaken to the identical awakening of the historical Buddha and has no regard for ritual or dogma but only for reaching true reality now.
I hope this helps you,
Take care,
Joe
