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Six Great Offences vs Five Anantarika Karma: relevant quotes from the Tatiya Abhabbaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Ratana Sutta, and Vinaya
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=== Five precepts infringements ===
=== Five precepts infringements ===
Hell usually is the result of repeated infringements of the five precepts. Therefore such infringements are not Anantarika Karma (A iv 248).
Hell usually is the result of repeated infringements of the five precepts. Therefore such infringements are not Anantarika Karma (A iv 248).

===Six Great Offences===
The Tatiya Abhabbaṭṭhāna Sutta (A iii 439) links the five Anantarika Karma to the action of adopting a non-Buddhist teacher (''aññaṃ satthāraṃ uddisituṃ''), as if to suggest that there are now six Anantarika Karma, not five.<ref>https://suttacentral.net/an6.94/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin</ref> In the Buddha's era, adopting a non-Buddhist teacher inevitably meant giving up the Eightfold Path (D2 150).<ref>https://suttacentral.net/dn16/en/anandajoti?reference=none&highlight=false</ref>

The association of the six offences is confirmed in the [[Ratana Sutta]] verse 231, which now calls them the six great offences, and links them in the same sentence to lower rebirths, including hell (''Catūhapāyehi ca vippamutto cha cābhiṭhānāni'').<ref>https://suttacentral.net/kp6/en/anandajoti?reference=none&highlight=false</ref> <ref>https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.2.01.than.html#fn-5</ref><ref>https://suttacentral.net/kp6/en/piyadassi?reference=none&highlight=false</ref>

This raises the question as to whether adopting a non-Buddhist teacher is Anantarika Karma.

But the question is decided in [[Vinaya]], which says that adopting a teacher who rejects the Eightfold Path is consequential only under two conditions, according to which one would be unable to re-ordain as a Buddhist monastic. This puts these two modes, and these two modes only, into the [[Pāṭimokkha|Parajika]] category:

1) If a monastic joins another religious tradition having refuted their preceptor in an argument (Vin i 060).<ref>https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-kd1/en/brahmali?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin</ref>

2) If a monastic joins another sects still wearing their Buddhist robes (Vin ii 279).<ref>https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-kd20/en/brahmali?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin</ref>


=== Citations to Pali text===
=== Citations to Pali text===

Revision as of 08:14, 16 March 2023

Lord Buddha
The Buddha

Ānantarya Karma (Sanskrit) or Ānantarika Kamma (Pāli) [1] are the most serious offences in Buddhism that, at death, through the overwhelming karmic strength of any single one of them, bring immediate disaster.[2][3] Both Buddhists and non-Buddhists must avoid them at all costs. Such offenses prevent perpetrators from attaining any of the stages of enlightenment[4] and from ordaining into the Sangha. The offences are:[5][6][7]

  1. Killing one's mother
  2. Killing one's father
  3. Killing an Arahant
  4. Wounding a Tathagata
  5. Creating schism in the Sangha (Anguttara iii 440)

Ānantarika Kamma is so serious that even Amitabha Buddha abandoned all hope. His Vow 18 reads:[8]

"If I attain Buddhahood and a sentient being aspires with faith and joy to be reborn in my Sukhavati Pure Land: if they recite my name just ten times and, in spite of this, are not reborn there, then may I myself not attain enlightenment [in the first place]. Two exceptions to this solemn promise are in respect of, firstly, those who have committed the five terrible offences and, secondly, of those who have vilified the Sublime Dharma [because such people cannot be reborn in Sukhavati]."

There are another five unlisted Ānantarika Kamma offences found in the scriptures:

  1. Physically obstructing the Lord Buddha's path
  2. Rejecting the Lord Buddha's claim to supernatural insight
  3. Accusing the Lord Buddha or an Arhat of sexual misconduct
  4. Wounding an Arhat
  5. Raping ordained monastics

Physically obstructing the Lord Buddha's path

When Suppabuddha blocked the Lord Buddha's path, forcing him to turn back, he was reborn in hell. [9]

Rejecting the Lord Buddha's claim to supernormal insight

Some people rejected the Buddha's claim to supernormal insight, saying:

"The recluse Gotama does not have any outstanding knowledge and vision. He teaches Dhamma that has been merely hammered out in his head, following his own line of inquiry."

The Buddha said that unless such people abandon these assertions and relinquish such views, they would be cast into hell. (Majjhima i 71)

Accusing the Lord Buddha or an Arahant of sexual misconduct

1) The Bodhisatta accused Paccekabuddhas Surabhi and Sabbābhibhu of sexual misconduct and was consigned to hell.[10]

2) The bhikkhu Kokālika accused Sāriputta and Moggallāna of having unvirtuous desires and was consigned to hell. (Suttanipata p. 123).[11]

3) Ciñcā Māṇavikā accused the Buddha of sleeping with her and was consigned to hell.[12]

Wounding an Arahant

When MahaMoggallana was Mara Dusi, he made a young boy attack the chief disciple of a previous Buddha and split his head. For this, Dusi was cast into hell.[11]

Usually it is the killing of the Arahant that counts.

Raping ordained monastics

Raping nuns: Ānantarika Kamma

A group of nuns on the road to Savatthi were raped (ekaccā bhikkhuṇiyo dusesuṃ). The Buddha said those who rape nuns should not be ordained (bhikkhuṇidusako na upasampādetabbo) (Vinaya i 089[1]). The danger of raping nuns is this: the man who raped (dusesi) the nun Uppalavanna was cast into hell. The rule against ordaining, and the descent into hell, are both signs of Ānantarika Kamma.

Raping monks: Ānantarika Kamma

The rape of monks and novices is likely Ānantarika Kamma, too. just as ordination confers special protection on women, it likely confers the same protection on men.[citation needed]

Other considerations

The different meanings of Dussati: rape, fondle, molest, make love

  • A group of nuns on the road to Savatthi were raped (ekaccā bhikkhuṇiyo dusesuṃ).
  • In the course of showing her round his new hut, Udayin fondled a visitor's wife 'limb by limb' and was accused of molesting her (duseyyu ti, Vinaya iii 119[2]).
  • A doctor treating a nun, lanced a boil 'in the area between her navel and knees,' then started to molest her (dūsetuṃ upakkami) (Vinaya iv 316[3]).
  • Then the layman Sāḷha asked the nun Sundarīnandā : “What is wrong with you? Why are you lying down?” “Surely, it is this, sir: you do not want me.” “How could I not want you? But I never had a chance to make love with you” (okāsaṃ na labhāmi taṃ dūsetun ti). Then, filled with lust, Sāḷha touched the nun Sundarīnandā, who was also filled with lust (avassuto avassutāya sundarīnandāya bhikkhuniyā kāyasaṃsaggaṃ samapajji).

Relations with consenting monastics

Ānantarika Kamma involves actions undertaken without consent. Acts that are consensual are not Ānantarika Kamma, however unskilful they may be.

For example:

  • two nuns sexually abuse each other: Pacittiya offence (Vinaya iv 261).
  • a monk invites a novice to sexually abuse him: Sanghadisesa offence (Sd 1, case 29; Vinaya iii 118).
  • a monk or nun consents to sex: Parajika offence (Vinaya iii 040).

If a woman rapes a monk it is Ānantarika Kamma: if she seduces him, it is not.

Sexually abusing laywomen: Sanghadisesa offence

Sexually abusing laywomen is a Sanghadisesa Offence. For example, a monk sexually abusing a baby girl (Vinaya iii 35).

Five precepts infringements

Hell usually is the result of repeated infringements of the five precepts. Therefore such infringements are not Anantarika Karma (A iv 248).

Six Great Offences

The Tatiya Abhabbaṭṭhāna Sutta (A iii 439) links the five Anantarika Karma to the action of adopting a non-Buddhist teacher (aññaṃ satthāraṃ uddisituṃ), as if to suggest that there are now six Anantarika Karma, not five.[13] In the Buddha's era, adopting a non-Buddhist teacher inevitably meant giving up the Eightfold Path (D2 150).[14]

The association of the six offences is confirmed in the Ratana Sutta verse 231, which now calls them the six great offences, and links them in the same sentence to lower rebirths, including hell (Catūhapāyehi ca vippamutto cha cābhiṭhānāni).[15] [16][17]

This raises the question as to whether adopting a non-Buddhist teacher is Anantarika Karma.

But the question is decided in Vinaya, which says that adopting a teacher who rejects the Eightfold Path is consequential only under two conditions, according to which one would be unable to re-ordain as a Buddhist monastic. This puts these two modes, and these two modes only, into the Parajika category:

1) If a monastic joins another religious tradition having refuted their preceptor in an argument (Vin i 060).[18]

2) If a monastic joins another sects still wearing their Buddhist robes (Vin ii 279).[19]

Citations to Pali text

All citations in this article are to the Pali Text Society Pali page numbers. For example, (Majjhima ii 156), means PTS Majjhima Nikaya, Volume 2, page 156.

See also

References

  1. ^ "SuttaCentral". SuttaCentral. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  2. ^ Gananath Obeyesekere (1990), The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology, University of Chicago, ISBN 978-0-226-61599-8
  3. ^ Walters, Jonathan S. (1990). "The Buddha's Bad Karma: A Problem in the History of Theravâda Buddhism". Numen. 37 (1): 70–95. doi:10.2307/3269825. JSTOR 3269825.
  4. ^ Nakamura, Hajime (1991). Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples: India, China, Tibet, Japan. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 285. ISBN 978-8120807648.
  5. ^ "The Sutra Preached by the Buddha on the Total Extinction of the Dharma". buddhism.org. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
  6. ^ Nyanatiloka (1980), Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, Buddhist Publication Society, ISBN 978-955-24-0019-3
  7. ^ Triplegem glossary Archived 2006-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ https://www.fgsitc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Amitabha-Sutra_ChiEng.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  9. ^ "King Suppabuddha blocks the Buddha's path". suttanta.tripod.com.
  10. ^ "The Twelve Saṃsāric Debts of the Buddha [Part 32]". www.wisdomlib.org. September 13, 2019.
  11. ^ a b "SuttaCentral". SuttaCentral.
  12. ^ "Buddhist Legends, XIII. 9. Ciñcā falsely accuses the Buddha". www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net.
  13. ^ https://suttacentral.net/an6.94/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin
  14. ^ https://suttacentral.net/dn16/en/anandajoti?reference=none&highlight=false
  15. ^ https://suttacentral.net/kp6/en/anandajoti?reference=none&highlight=false
  16. ^ https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.2.01.than.html#fn-5
  17. ^ https://suttacentral.net/kp6/en/piyadassi?reference=none&highlight=false
  18. ^ https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-kd1/en/brahmali?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin
  19. ^ https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-kd20/en/brahmali?layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

Further reading

  • Silk, Jonathan A. (2007). Good and Evil in Indian Buddhism: The Five Sins of Immediate Retribution, Journal of Indian Philosophy 35 (3), 253-286
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