Practical Dependent Origination by Bhikku Buddhadasa

“Karma is not an ever – enduring chain; it is a chain that can be broken at any time. What was done yesterday can be undone today; there’s no permanent continuance of anything. Continuance can and must be dissipated through the understanding of its process. So when you SEE this process, when you are really aware of it without opposition, without a sense of temptation, without resistance, without justifying or judging it then you will discover that the mind is capable of receiving the new and that the new is never a sensation therefore it can never be recognized, re-experienced. It is a state of being in which creativeness comes without invitation, without memory and that is reality.”  J Krishnamurthi 

During my visit to Thailand in September of this year I came across the works of Bhikku Buddhadasa. I had somehow missed him out all these years. I was aware of the Thai forest Buddhist traditions of Ajahn Chan and his disciples like Ajahn Sumedho. They were the contemplatives and the Meditators. Buddhadasa was a philosopher and reformer. He wanted to clean up Buddhism from all the ritualistic and non essential elements. He was an innovative interpreter of the Buddhist scriptures and had influenced the social revolutionaries in the overthrow of absolute monarchy in Thailand. 

While browsing through the Buddhist books in Jomtien beach in Pattaya, I found some books of Buddhadasa and one which really caught my attention was the reinterpretation of paticcasammupada or Dependent origination. I picked this book which was titled ‘Practical Dependent Origination’ and upon reading it I could see that Buddhadasa had been heavily influenced by Marxism as well as the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthi as his explanation of dependent origination is quite similar to the way Krishnamurthi explained it. Of course there are no references to either of these in the books. I am also open to the idea that Buddhadasa reasoned his new interpretation of dependent origination all by himself but it seems a bit likely considering his association with the political and social movements of his time that he might have borrowed some ideas. But what finally matters is the intent. 

Dependent origination is one of the key aspects of the teaching of the Buddha and according to this doctrine there is nothing which is absolutely singular. A thing is nothing more than the coming together of all its causes, and no thing has a single cause. No phenomenon is independent and it depends on many causes for its existence. When applied to concepts we can deduce that no concept is primitive and basic and every concept is derived from other concepts. Every concept has meaning only within the framework of a specific context of other concepts. There are no primal ideas or axioms present through which we can derive other concepts. When applied to activities and causes of incidents in human lives there is no incident which exists without it being influenced by other dependent causes.

This doctrine is also very strongly associated with the concept of karma and rebirth in Buddhism. Buddhadasa argues that the culprit for this association is primarily the 4th century Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist Scholar, Buddhagosha and his seminal work Visshudhimagga. In the Vishuddhi magga, Buddhaghosa has explained the doctrine of dependent origination based on the idea of three connected lifetimes (past, present, and future). According to his idea, ignorance and action in the past gave birth to the present and the consequences of past actions are thus experienced in the present. The activities of the present influences the future even spanning across many life times. 

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu cuts across the doctrine of rebirth and strongly focuses the doctrine of dependent origination to the present moment to provide an explanation for the cause and cessation of suffering right in the present moment itself. Buddhadasa argues that If the causes of suffering exist in the previous life, as Buddhaghosa said, then freeing oneself from suffering in this life is impossible because the cause of suffering is inaccessible.

Buddhadasa’s teachings to put it very grossly is similar to the modern new age teaching of ‘Living in the moment’. And since there is no empirical evidence for rebirth, Buddhadasa finds it very difficult to accept the teachings of Vishuddhimagga. He goes back to the tripitaka pali canon and picks up teachings of the no-self to attack Buddhagosha’s teachings of rebirth in Vishuddhimagga. Buddhadasa also claims that the doctrine of rebirth was introduced much later by the Brahmins scholars like Buddhagosha into Buddhism. 

Bhikku Buddhadasa towards the end of his life embraced a world view which rejected belief in any religion as he mentioned that those who have penetrated to the highest understanding have no use for any religion. He also has given a series of lectures on the practice of Anapanasati or mindfulness of breath meditation and his explanations are quite innovative.Buddhadasa was indeed a courageous monk and people who would like to understand religion on an empirical and rational basis can find an excellent source in his teachings.