[Buddha-l] Website of the Arya Sanghata Sutra

[Dan Lusthaus]

Shen Shi'an wrote:

> On ' the sutra has the power to wash that all away. Not in Pāli texts 
> where one simply cannot escape one's karma.' Well, here's a sutta on not 
> so much of washing away negative karma, but diluting its effects:
> http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an03/an03.099.than.html

This is something else entirely. In the case Jayarava was indicating, grace, 
other-power, forgiveness of one's sins by someone else is at play, 
eliminating the need for self-correction.

In this Pali Sutta (the online translation has some problems), the issue is 
not "diluting" karma, but explaining how -- contrary to a lot of later 
Buddhist literature -- there is no one-to-one calculus between a act and its 
calculus. Put another way, the impact of a "trivial" act -- and this sutta 
is about the impact of *trivial* actions, not all and any type of action --  
will vary according to who does it, i.e., the full configuration of causes 
and effects contextualizing the action.

To update the analogies (and to take it out of the monastic setting): For a 
healthy person to have an occasional drink with friends will NOT have the 
same consequential impact as an alchoholic trying to have an occasional 
drink. Why? Because the non-alchoholic's habits in this regard are healthy, 
while the alchoholic's habits make even a single drink precarious and more 
consequential. The non-alchoholic may have a termporary buzz, while the 
alchoholic, if he was trying to stay sober, will have a major setback, and 
even if still engaged in active drinking, is on a downward spiral that this 
drink will contribute to; i.e., the consequences, which will be unpleasant, 
are long term and promise something hellish in the future. The 
non-alchoholic's "effects" from his single drink are short-term and quickly 
forgotten (as long as he's not dumb enough to drink and drive, etc.).

In such cases, it is still one who is responsible for one's own karma --  
one's own habits and their consequences. Can Buddha do an intervention? 
Maybe, but he can't make you stop drinking.

Dan