Philosophy

Steve Lopez
The Buddha
Alexander Izrailevsky

Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha in his later years, was and still is one of
the greatest philosophers of our time. Siddhartha was born a prince in 6
th
century B.C. his father
a king had him raised secluded from most outside influences, his mother sadly died 7 days after
she gave birth to him. Siddhartha lived a very secluded life until he was 29 years old.
One day when Siddhartha was 29 years old he decided to venture outside of his palace
walls to see the outside world, there he would see and feel things that would completely change
his life. On these trips he saw many things, but what these things taught him was that the world
had too much suffering in it. This in turn changed the way he looked at the world, and with that
he left his wife and son determined to find a way to relieve universal suffering.
The following 6 years Siddhartha spend his life as a monk; he did this practice with 5
other monks who eventually became his followers. During his time as a monk his questions were
not answered and he eventually took drastic measures to attempt to find out the answers to his
questions. His drastic measures eventually came to a grinding halt when one day a young girl
came to him and offered him a bowl of rice, from that point forward he believed that extremism
was not the way to continue on, and he chose a life of balance instead. He called this the Middle
Way.
The night that Siddhartha became the Buddha was the night that he vowed to not get up
from under the Bodhi tree until his truths came to him. He stayed under the tree for many days
until finally he had a dispute with a demon named Mara who attempted to take away his title of
enlightened, but in the end lost and allowed Siddhartha to finally become the Buddha, also
known as the enlightened one. At first when he realized who he had become, he was hesitant to
start teaching what he had found out, simply because it could not be put into words, but
eventually he came to the conclusion that he would, and that is exactly what he set out to do. The
monks that had first been with him and left him were the first to receive his teachings, he found
them and taught them of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path in a teaching called
Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma. These things would become the foundation of
Buddhism. For the remainder of his life, 80 years of it, he continued to preach the Dharma and
when he eventually died he told his followers that they should follow no leader. This is how one
of the greatest philosophers of our time came to learn what he knew, and share his vast
knowledge with anyone that needed it.
What I will be going in depth on is the Karma aspect of the teachings of Dharma, I
believe that Karma is extremely complex, but can teach us many things about life, and how
people should think of life and how they should treat it. Karma is the result of our own past
actions and our own present doings. Karma also states that we are the architects of our own fate.
When the Buddha was asked why people are born poor or why people are born rich, and why
things are how they are, the Buddha simply replied to him, "All living beings have actions
(Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is
Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states." To put karma simply it is cause and
effect in the ethical realm.
Karma means action, and Vipaka is its reaction, in other words Karma can be like a seed,
and Vipaka is the reaction of how you treat the seed, or what you do with it, such as the amount
you water it, and the environment you put it in. Karma, as many know it can be good or bad, that
being said, Vipaka can also be good or bad. This means that if in any of your past lives you did
terrible things, you would be repaid with equally as bad Vipaka.
Now what causes Karma? Karma cannot be caused and does not happen to people,
ignorance is the main case of Karma, and everyone has it. Generosity, Goodwill and Knowledge
are the good roots of Karma, but since Ignorance and Craving, which are the two bad roots are
always dormant in a man, the good roots dont produce it. Three questions that the Buddha
answered about Karma are:
Who is the doer of Karma?
Who reaps the fruit of Karma?
Does Karma mould a soul?
The Buddha answered with,
"No doer is there who does the deed;
Nor is there one who feels the fruit;
Constituent parts alone roll on;
This indeed! Is right discernment."
Karma has many different classifications that all have different functions. First there is
Reproductive Karma, which is birth Karma that babies have from their past good or bad Karma.
Second there is Supportive Karma which supports the Reproductive Karma so that the persons
Karma does not change from that starting point. If a person has good Reproductive Karma, the
Supportive Karma helps show that Karma, whereas if a person is born with bad Reproductive
Karma, the Supportive Karma helps to bring that person sorrow. The third kind of Karma is
Obstructive Karma, these attempts to counter the Reproductive Karma, for instance, if a person
is born with good Reproductive Karma, the Obstructive Karma will attempt to stop them from
receiving that happiness, such as giving them ailments or weaken them. On the other hand, if
someone is born with bad Reproductive Karma, the Obstructive Karma attempts to give that
person a good life with plenty of food and health. The last kind of Karma is Destructive Karma,
this Karma is the result of a powerful opposing force that could have happened in the persons
past lives; it can completely nullify all good Reproductive Karma and turn it into bad Karma.
Destructive Karma can bring a persons life to a terrible end. Karma serves as a deterrent to an
ordinary Buddhist, but to more intellectual beings, Karma serves as an incentive to do good
things. By doing good things the person becomes good himself, when one wants good things to
happen to them, they will do good unto others.













Works Cited
"Buddha." 2014. The Biography.com website. May 05 2014
Sayadaw, Ven M. "Basic Buddhism: The Theory of Karma." Basic Buddhism: The Theory of
Karma. Buddhanet, 05 May 2005. Web. 05 May 2014.