All my life,
I've been interested in two worlds.
The world around me,
And the world inside of me.
Both appear to follow orderly rules,
Some kind of cause and effect.
Yet for years,
I couldn't seem to get a handle on what those rules actually were.
The exacting,
Reductionist approach of science offered many answers,
But my own experiences,
Feelings and perceptions seemed to occur in a world about which science had little to say.
I mean,
What did science tell me about my happiness,
Or the ache in my heart?
Being born into a Buddhist family,
I was familiar with many teachings illustrating the law of cause and effect,
The law of karma.
Yet many of those teachings were difficult for me to grasp.
Some even added to my confusion.
Allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Pra Basakon,
And I am a Buddhist monk from Thailand.
I was born into an intellectual Buddhist family,
And was a layman until the age of 35.
I studied physics at university,
And then worked for 10 years as a professional photographer.
I had my own photography studio in Bangkok,
Where,
As an urban professional,
I gained valuable experiences about life,
Achievement,
And myself.
Big questions about life,
The world around me,
And the world within me,
Sent me looking for big answers.
In time,
This quest grew more important for me than my mundane professional life,
And it led me deeper and deeper into Buddhism.
The approaches and answers that I found there changed my life.
Finally,
I gave away my business and donned the saffron robes.
I've been a monk now for over 10 years.
The questions I asked appeared simple,
Like those of a child.
If doing good means good comes back to me,
And doing bad means bad comes back to me,
Why do bad things happen to good people?
And why do bad people often seem to have very good lives?
How can these things happen in a just world?
Does good really beget good?
What is really going on?
And what about intention,
The thought behind the action?
Certainly,
Intentionally doing bad is worse than accidentally doing bad.
Yet how does it all work?
Are there some divine,
Bureaucratic bookkeepers recording all of our actions and intentions throughout our lives,
Entering the information into some great karmic ledger?
And if so,
Knowing how quickly our thoughts can shift from good to bad and back again,
The bookkeepers must be quite busy.
The physics part of me found these angelic accountants very dissatisfying.
To complicate matters further,
Buddhism also talks about seemingly minor actions having enormous consequences that appear to defy balance and logic.
For example,
If you've ever been to Thailand,
You have no doubt seen barefoot Thai monks in orange robes walking along the street at sunrise.
Thai laypeople come up to fill the monks' alms bowls with their daily food,
Therefore making merit for themselves.
Many devout Thais believe that if a person is lucky enough to offer food to an enlightened monk,
An arahant,
The merit will be huge.
How huge?
It is said that the offering of one portion of food into the alms bowl of an arahant will be rewarded with many future lives born in material comfort.
How is this possible?
When I was a layman and had not yet been ordained as a monk,
I didn't understand this and slanderously thought that the Buddha might have been worried about his disciples,
Thinking that they would face starvation.
Thus,
I thought,
He made up a story to encourage people to offer food to his disciples,
Saying that they will earn merit by this way.
I am now however convinced that I was wrong.
I now believe that the one portion of food equals many comfortable lives equation is actually true,
And if you bear with me for a while,
I will try to show you why.
I would like to begin with a story,
Well known to Buddhists,
That illustrates some of the perplexing questions of karma.
We shall return to this story throughout the book.
The Story of Angulimala During the time of the Buddha,
There was a brilliant student from a wealthy family called Ahimsaka.
The other students were jealous of him and eventually managed to turn his teacher against him.
As a result,
In order to get rid of him,
His teacher made the outrageous demand that to receive the high teaching that he desired,
Ahimsaka must first kill 1,
000 people.
Amazingly,
Ahimsaka did not at this point give up,
But he continued to trust his teacher,
Trusting that this shocking demand must somehow be for overall good.
So he set out to complete his task.
Ahimsaka became a murderer,
Lurking in a forest and killing people.
But keeping count of so many victims is difficult,
Especially as his murderous action filled his mind with hatred and delusion.
So finally,
To stay organized and keep track of his progress,
He began to cut off the little fingers of his victims and strung them in a gruesome growing garland which he wore around his neck.
This earned him the infamous nickname Angulimala,
Which means finger garland.
One fateful day,
When he had 999 fingers around his neck,
There was a convergence of events.
The local king,
Tired of the murderer in the forest,
Organized his troops to sweep the forest and put an end to Angulimala.
At the same time,
Angulimala's mother realized that it was her son who was the terrible killer.
Yet despite the fact that he was a mass murderer,
Her motherly love compelled her to go into the forest to warn him about the king.
Angulimala,
His mind twisted by his murderous deeds,
Failed to recognize his own mother and was preparing to kill her to complete his tally when the Buddha intervened.
The Buddha positioned himself between Angulimala and his mother,
And Angulimala shifted targets and began to chase the Buddha.
But then something strange happened.
Even though the Buddha was only walking calmly and unhurriedly,
And Angulimala was running with all his might,
He still couldn't catch the Buddha.
Finally,
In his aspiration,
Angulimala screamed at the Buddha to stop.
Still walking serenely,
The Buddha calmly said,
I have stopped,
But you haven't.
This confused and enraged Angulimala even more,
And he screamed again for the Buddha to stop and explain what he meant.
At this point,
The Buddha stopped,
Turned to Angulimala and said that he had already stopped.
He had stopped killing and harming other living beings,
And it was time now for Angulimala to do likewise.
Those words struck Angulimala with such force that he dropped his weapons,
Followed the Buddha back to his monastery,
And became a monk.
Not knowing that the killer was now a monk,
The pious king came with his troops to pay respect to the Buddha,
Before heading into the forest to find Angulimala.
The Buddha asked the king what his reaction would be if he learned that the infamous killer was now a monk in this very monastery.
The king,
Unable to imagine such a vile,
Murderous beast as a monk and follower of the Buddha,
Answered that if it was indeed true,
He would pardon him of his crimes and pay him the respect due a monk.
The Buddha then pointed and said,
There sits Angulimala.
Once the king overcame his shock and fear,
He kept his word,
Paid respect to the new monk and said to the Buddha,
What we had tried to do by force and with weapons,
You have done with neither.
Shortly thereafter,
Following the Buddha's teaching,
The former mass murderer Angulimala became an arahant.
That is to say,
He attained enlightenment.
Then for some time,
When the enlightened Angulimala would walk near the local people,
Stray rocks and sticks thrown by the villagers would strike him in the head,
Injuring him and causing him to bleed.
It is said that these accidental injuries were from his karma coming back to him from his past actions as a mass murderer.
So what do you think?
Did Angulimala get away with murder?
Is it fair for his victims that he walks free?
Is it right that after killing a thousand people,
His only payback is a few head wounds because he had become enlightened?
Do his minor injuries balance the scales of justice against a thousand murders and grieving relatives?
Years ago,
I could not imagine how an outcome could be considered fair.
Yet now,
I can see the fairness.
Let's bring it a little closer to home.
Going back to some horrible,
Cruel murder that made the headlines in recent years.
If the guilty person were suddenly to announce,
I am now enlightened,
I should not be punished or imprisoned any longer to repay my past bad deeds.
Would we agree to let the killer go scot-free?
Even if we suppose it was actually true,
That the killer had indeed become enlightened,
Would that change our minds?
Or would we think something along the lines of,
Congratulations for your spiritual progress,
But your victims are still dead,
So you must continue to sit in prison.
Imagine further,
That the victims were our friends or relatives.
Surely we would not tolerate to have the killer walk free,
Enlightened or not.
So how to reconcile the story of Angulimala?
If bad begets bad,
What happened to all of that bad karma?
When I was a young layman,
The story of Angulimala perplexed me.
The big question in my mind was basically this.
How do our personal actions and intentions come back to affect us?
To me,
It seems like a key question.
As a young layman,
I felt that until I understood how my own actions and intentions would impact my own life,
There was no rational way to organize my efforts or set my goals.
So I set out to find some answers.
Being ordained as a Buddhist monk offered me the time and resources necessary to research the Buddhist teachings.
This little book is my attempt to share with you some of what I found.
It is a book about cause and effect.
A book about karma.
The first part will deal with our external world,
While the second,
More important part,
Will deal with our internal world.
And the final chapter contains my own thoughts on the evolution of mind.
