Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (MMK17) Examination of Action and Fruit (Karma–phala Parīkṣā)
Part II

By Paramartha

Imperishable Karma

Nāgārjuna affirms that  a debt and karma are compared to an imperishable note . A debt that remains unpaid still  persists as a debt until it is finally paid off. Likewise,  the consequence or fruit (phala)  of a karma will be experienced by the doer of karma when there is a harmony of association of cause and conditions  at an appropriate time. The harmony of association of cause and conditions is Unity of Existence. Unity of Existence is essence of God according to Sufi God concept.

Cankers

Before the destruction of cankers (ā’rsava) or  before liberation (mokṣa), karmas do not perish  even after hundreds of millions of aeons. After the destruction of cankers leading to liberation, the enlightened one or gnostic transcends the karmic consequence. This evidences that liberation puts a complete end to suffering due to debts of karmas accumulated from the present and countless previous lives. Hence, the passport of liberation should be obtained as soon as possible so that one escapes from suffering forever due to the karmic  bondage. That one dies before one dies connotes that one has fruitfully obtained the passport. The death of self-centric ego must precede the biological death in the present life.

Before the destruction of cankers or liberation, the force of karmas propels a sentient being into three spheres of existence in which one transmigrates incessantly. The three spheres of existence are sphere of desire or sensuality (kāmāvacara), sphere of materiality (rūpāvacara) and sphere of the formless (arūpāvacara). Briefly put, the three spheres of existence comprise six realms of sentient beings, namely the world of devas, the world of human beings,  the world of asuras , the world of hungry ghosts, the world of animals and the world of hell beings (jantus). Fundamentally, human beings, who have committed more wholesome karmas than unwholesome karmas, are reborn into one of the first three realms of favourable existence according to the weightages of their good karmas.

Rebirth

Conversely, those who have committed more unwholesome karmas than wholesome ones are born into the last three realms of  woeful existence according to the weightages of their bad karmas. The wise ones who have destroyed their cankers and have obtained emancipation from karmic bondage gain deathlessness or eternity in the state of freedom (Nirvāṇa). They merge eternally with all the past and present Tathāgatas in the realm of  cosmic Unity . They are in the state of neither existence nor non-existence transcending the three spheres of existence of desire, form and formless. Mahāyāna Buddhism depicts the state of eternity as the Pure Land. Theravādins prefer to conceive the eternal state of freedom as Parinibbāṇa.

Heretical View

As the MMK is aimed at purifying the Buddha’s teaching contaminated by the heretical views by many early schools of Buddhist Thought. As usual, Nāgārjuna refuted the Seed Theory (Bījāvāda) of Sautrāntikas. In fact, the Seed Theory is an excellent metaphor to explicate the Process Reality of dynamic becoming expounded by ‘Sākayamuni Buddha. Unfortunately, the Sautrāntikas have superimposed their Buddhist doctrine of Seed Theory with the flavour of substantial ontology.  Consequently, Nāgārjuna pinpoints its philosophical flaw because the Seed  Theory was expounded by Sautrāntikas  from the perspective of  substantial ontology. The philosophical error is that the seed series, sprout series, the  growing series, the flowering series and the fruiting series are perceived to be a series of separate substantial entities. The view of dualism is implied. Dualism contradicts the Non-dualism of Dependent Co-arising (Pratītyasamutpāda). There is, in reality, only one continuous series of process becoming without division into different series. Different series acknowledge the duality between identity and difference or coming and going. Any pair of dualistic view  does not resonate with the formless Process Reality of Emptiness or Dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality.

Seed Theory

Nāgā̄rjuna admitted that it will be acceptable if the Seed Theory is expounded in terms a single series (saṃtāna) of moments in which the preceding event and subsequent event are dependently co-arisen from unity of contigent conditions. In other words, if the Seed Theory is expounded in terms of Process Reality of dynamic process becoming (Sanātana dharma), it concurs perfectly with the Word of ‘Sākyamuni Buddha – the fundamental doctrine of Dependent Co-arising.  The Vedas, Vedānta or Upaniṣads, Process Monotheism and Sufism all accept Process Reality (Sanātana Dharma) as the communal Truth of perennial wisdom to be discovered by all major world’s religions.

Process Thought

Nāgārjuna unveils his process wisdom of Process Thought of Emptiness when he affirms thus :

Whatever thought-series  there is , that proceeds from a thought and from that fruit. That thought series  would not proceed without a thought.

MMK17.9

Since a continuous  series arises from thought and from the continuous series the uprising of a fruit, the fruit that is preceded by action is neither interrupted nor eternal .

MMK.17.10

Nāgārjuna’s process wisdom of Emptiness concurs with the  process or perennial philosophy  of the Process Thought of dynamic process becoming of early Buddhism . The core of Buddhism is the  process or perennial philosophy. The Process Thought states that every conditioned phenomenon is dependently co-arisen  from the unity of a cause and conditions in the dynamic process becoming. Every conditioned phenomenon is  an actual entity of a series of occasions of human sense experience. A series of occasions of human experience constitutes a thought. Human experience is mind-made.

Conclusion

When all phenomena  are integrated into a  whole, the perceiver perceives the conceptualized picture of the world according to his or her mental constructions. The world is actually  mind-made only. As all conditioned phenomena correspond with the series of human thoughts. The series of perceived events are all mind-made only or consciousness (vijñāna-mātra) only. The Process Thought or process philosophy is synonymous with Buddhist School of Yogācāra philosophy of Citta-mātra expounded by Vasubandhu and Buddhist School of Madhyamaka philosophy of ‘Sūnyatā. Vedānta of Hinduism  and Sufism of Islam corroborate the process or perennial philosophy of the Unity of Existence. Unity of Existence is Emptiness.