[Buddha-l] Re: Problems with karma

[Christopher Fynn]

Dan Lusthaus wrote:

>> Interestingly this corresponds to lists of the causes of illness in
> Tibetan
>> medicine - probably in some other traditional medical systems to.
> 
>> - Chris
> 
> Yes, indeed. These are traditional Indian medical terms, reiterated (in
> various rearrangements and sharpened differentiations) in such contexts as
> the Yogacarabhumi's explanation for various conditions, such as insanity,
> intoxication, dying, etc. The oldest extant Indian medical text, the
> Caraka-samhita, offers similar lists (which it treats in a Samkhyan way,
> equating bile, phlegm, wind, etc., with the three gunas, and so on).

> So at the very least, "illness" in the formula, "illness, old age and
> death" -- which are the common metonymies for duhkha -- were not attributed
> by Buddha exclusively to karma.

> I discuss this passage from the Samyutta Nikaya that offers these other
> causes, in refutation of the claim by Siivaka Moliya that ALL misfortune is
> caused by karma, in _Buddhist Phenomenology_ pp. 175ff.


> Dan Lusthaus

Hi Dan

I'll try to get the library where I'm currently working to order a copy of your 
book :-) so I can read the argument.

My guess is that many Tibetans would respond that while these are proximate
causes, they arise due to previous karma.

- Chris

Thimphu, Bhutan