April 18, 2023 at 6:24 am
#44419
Keymaster
The meanings of that can be grasped by start reading the previous verse:
The English translation is there is good until it gets to the verse you quoted, “anatthaṁ me acari, taṁ kutettha labbhā’ti āghātaṁ paṭivineti;.”
It is translated there as, “Thinking: ‘They did wrong to me, but what can I possibly do?’ you get rid of resentment.”
The bolded part of the translation is wrong.
- One must realize that any wrong one is subjected to comes from previous causes. Those who brought such abuses on you were only the “agents” bringing such abuses/suffering.
- It is a hetu/phala process described by Paticca Samuppada. As long as there are past causes (and present conditions) to bring their fruits, they will come.
- Ven. Moggalana was beaten to death. That was not because of what he did. It is a vipaka coming from previous deeds.
- Once one understands that, one will bear any unavoidable vipaka with equanimity (upekkha.) Thus, one must also NOT take kamma vipaka to be deterministic. Ven. Moggalana escaped from those people twice. The third time they came for him, he looked back at the cause and saw that it was an unavoidable vipaka from a trace of anantariya kamma left from long ago.
The correct translation is, “Thinking: ‘They did wrong to me, but that is only a result of a previous (unavoidable) kamma, you get rid of resentment.”
- We can avoid many kamma vipaka by taking precautions NOT TO create suitable conditions for (numerous) previous kamma from previous lives to bring their vipaka. As long as they are not traces of anantariya kamma, we can avoid most of them by living a moral life, avoiding confrontations, exercising, eating well, etc.
- See “What is Kamma? – Is Everything Determined by Kamma?”
Many suttas explain that “this body is not yours; not someone else’s either.” It is a “hetu/phala.”
- See, for example, “Natumha Sutta (SN 12.37).”