Buddhism and Inequalities

Sumanapal Bhikkhu

Difference is sine qua non with creation. The hills are different from the plains. The seas are different from land. The desert is so different from the fertile land. There are numerous kinds of birds and beasts and insects and microorganisms. The plants and the trees are of countless kinds. The aquatic world teems with varied and variegated lives and things. The skies are loaded with stars and innumerable other ethereal objects. The same difference is perceived between man and, man between races and nations. Difference implies inequality. In Maths a could be greater than B or B could be greater than A. Or else A could be greater or equal to B and B could be greater than or equal to A and so on, But Maths is not our focus. The proper study of mankind is man. We are focused on man in our present paper. Humanity is plagued with myriads of inequalities. There are health disparities and healthcare inequality. There might be a population who are genetically programmed to die early, that is whose life expectancy is genetically less, and another population who are genetically programmed to live longer. Besides same health care is not provided to every member of a population. Health inequity is widespread. In India; the rural people are deprived of the health care that an urban guy is wont to get. Health care inequality is often due to economic inequality. Those who are rich could afford clean environment enjoy good health commonly. But in the same city where the rich reside the residents of the ghettoes live in a very unhygienic environment. Modern cities especially are a horrid spectra of plethora of poverty living side by side with plenty. The rich can afford very good medical treatment But Alas! The poor die of lack of medical treatment in a city where opportunities for getting medical treatment are ample. Economic inequality implies a state of affairs where assets wealth and income are distributed in equally. In a population or among countries. It affects intimately the notions of equity such as equality of outcome equality of opportunity and life expectancy. There should be equal opportunity for everyone. But since every ones birth and grooming is never the same there should be equality of outcome. And of course it is surmised that where the people are more or less affluent their age expectancy is high. The first economists like Adam Smith and Ricardo deliberated on the distribution of wealth among the factors of production. Now a day’s economists are more concerned with distribution of wealth among the people so that disparity in income is never great. At least everyone should have the bare necessities of life.  Besides there are rich countries and poor countries. This leads us to international inequality. United States France, Japan, Germany, U.K, Australia and Canada have only 13 percent of world population. But ironically enough they have 45 percent of worlds PPP or purchasing power parity. Then there is the educational inequality or difference of efficacy experienced by students coming from different community’s income group families with different backgrounds and so on. There is gender inequality. It is due to biological difference between male female and third gender. Besides roles assigned to each gender are also responsible for gender inequality. There is participation inequality. Everyone cannot get the opportunity to participate in an organization or in a festival. There is inequality in levels of participation in any community activity. Apart from economic inequality everywhere there is social inequality. There are socially defined categories and some of those categories may have greater access to power. Then there is social stratification In modern societies there are upper class middle class and lower class Earlier in ancient Rome there were the patricians and plebeians. We will not for the moment deliberate on whether inequality is good or bad. Our question is why such inequalities do exist.  Surely on the surface much of it is man made. One wonders what man has made of man. Imagine a utopia where economic inequalities and social inequalities are   eradicated. Even then mathematical inequalities or sex inequalities will persist, besides there will be child prodigies and morons Heredity and environment nature and nurture cannot satisfactorily explain them. The advent of a superman like Buddha cannot be explained in terms of heredity and environment. Buddhism however does not pin its faith on anything uncaused whatever. Buddhism as such does not discard the many causes of inequality that we are commonly wont to put forward. Buddhism asserts that there are always multiple causes behind any phenomenon. And one of such causes of inequality among men is karmaphala. Once Lord Buddha was accused of begetting a child by a woman. It was a downright lie. The lie was found out. But the Lord said that nothing should be done against that false woman. Because in one of his earlier births he had doubted the honesty of a saint. He had to reap the fruits of that action of his earlier birth during the present birth.[Chichamanavika]. Besides a Jataka tale narrates how a saint is punished on false allegation. An iron rod was thrust into his head. This was because when he was a child he had sportingly thrust a pin into the head of an ant. Now Avatamsaka sutra states that cause is result and result is cause. That is a paradox But a fruit tree is the result of the fruit seeds. Thus the fruit seeds are the cause of the fruit tree. But at the same time the fruit tree bears fruits and causes the fruit seed. The egg is the cause of a hen and again the hen is the cause of an egg. But Buddhism does not pin its faith on one cause only of a phenomenon. Sowing seed into the soil is essential for growing. But simply sowing the seed is not all, The soil should be O Kay. The climate should be suitable for the plant to grow. Thus there is a cause and subsidiary causes   of a phenomenon. The subsidiary causes could be called conditions required for a phenomenon to take place. Buddhism posits that nothing is discrete in this existence. Everything whatever in this existence is linked with everything whatever there is in the existence. In other words if an atom could be annihilated on earth there could be a tremor in Andromeda and the whole multiversity would be affected. Thus behind every phenomenon as such the whole existence is involved. This is because the existence of anything in the world is possible only through its relation with other things in the world. If there were no readers the writers would not exist. Hence the law of dependent origination in Buddhism. When we apply the law of dependent origination to the life of a sentient being viz., man there is the chain of twelve links. It is apparently a vicious circle or the wheel of life .We could begin with ignorance, Ignorance implies ignorance of the four noble truths especially of the first one that tells us that life is suffering and it also implies  ignorance of the fact that there is no substance in anything whatever in this existence. Ignorance4 is as it were a blind man or woman. Ignorance conditions the next step viz., Samskara or volitional formation Samskara implies impulse to act. This impulse to act is caused in the darkness of ignorance. Samskara is depicted as a potter working at a pot. Samskara conditions the next step in consciousness. It is the consciousness of the world of eye and ear. It is represented by a monkey that leaps from one place to another impelled by thoughtless energy. Monkey energy pulls us away from ourselves and from dharma Consciousness leads to the next link in name and form. Form implies corporeality and name implies mentality. The name and form join the five aggregates and create an individual existence. It is a boarder on a boat that sails in the Samsara or worldly life. Consciousness conditions the next link where the individual is pent up in six faculties viz sight hearing smell taste and touch and mind. This Sadayatan is a house as it were with six casements. Sadayatana relates to the next link contact Contact implies contact of the faculties and objects. This contact conditions the sensations which is the next link Sensation of pleasure and pain leads to the next link which is craving Craving, the second noble truth asserts, is the cause of suffering Craving is represented by the portrait of a man drinking from empty beer bottles Ha Ha! Craving conditions the next link clinging. We cling to the notions of self and substance. We cling to wombs those results in rebirth. This is a monkey trying to reach a fruit. Clinging leads to the next condition Bhava or new becoming which is represented by the picture of a woman making love during an advanced stage of pregnancy. Becoming conditions the next link birth Birth necessarily brings about the next link viz., old age and death or dissolution of what came to be. The momentum of life however continues to carry these constituent on beyond the zero point to open out a fresh life where consciousness will be associated with feeling sensation and so on. Then the other stages in the chain follow one after another. The twelve Nidanas however do not advocate transmigration of soul. Because Buddhism does not believe in substance everything in the phenomenal world exists through its relation to other things and nothing under the sun has any intrinsic meaning. Here the post moderns like Derrida see eye to eye with Lord Buddha If there is no soul how does rebirth take place? With Lord Buddha the energy or conditioning created by one life is reborn into another. These twelve Nidanas could give us the impression that our life is determined by our past karmas But can we subscribe to that belief? Suppose a car driver who is drunk runs over a person? Should we say that the person who is run over deserves his death because of his actions in earlier life? If this is granted one must say that those who die in the war also deserve their deaths those who have been swept away by earthquakes and tsunamis deserve their deaths Nope. Women it is said are spiritually backward. Hence they do not deserve honor that is due to man, Women are the second sex because of their past karma. The rich are rich because of their karma in their earlier birth and the poor are poor because of their earlier birth. So the poor have nothing to complain against exploitation. In case of political oppression should we remain passive? Because the oppressors are oppressing us preordained by their earlier karma and those who are being oppressed are reaping their karma of earlier birth. No. To put up with any kind of oppression and any kind of man made inequality does not see eye to eye with the tenets of Buddhism. And Buddhist theory of karma is only one of the universal laws that catalyze change or Niyamas. The five Niyamas impel everything in the world as Buddhaghosa posits. They are Utu Niyama or the laws of physics chemistry geology and the like that govern the world of matter, Bija Niyama or the laws of biology, Kamma Niyama or the energy that is generated by our thoughts words and action, Dhamma Niyama that implies the notions of non self and void and finally Chitta Niyama or laws of the mind. The Buddhists look upon mind as a sense like other senses of sight and hearing and so on. Besides Gati Upadhi Kala and Poyoga are equally important in shaping amans fortune. Gati means birth Upadhi implies physical   condition Kala means time and Poyoga means ones endeavors in life. Lord Buddha himself says that truth cannot be the subject matter of discussion. And language cannot give us the truth. It is at bottom ambiguous. Besides a reader reads his mind in any text. In other words one understands a notion or thought according to his capability. With us Buddhist theory karma does not speak of fatalism. No everything is not determined by past Karma. Right now I look at the condition of my laptop on my lap. This condition is the doing of the past. .But it does not necessarily mean that it will remain in this condition ever more. At present the condition of the laptop is related with the state of the battery and the condition of the electric supply the condition of the bed in which I sit and the condition of me or mind which operates the laptop. And each of these relations do operate to determine the present state of the laptop. Suppose the battery runs out. The position of the computer has to be changed, the adaptor and the cord must be connected where the plug point. Similarly true that my past karma has determined my present social state economic state May be in a subtle way they have been carried forward from the earlier birth. But at any time any person has many options to choose whereby one could change the course that was probable due to the fruits of his earlier actions The more I give myself exposure to Lord Buddha’s teaching I will be enlightened with the notions of Metta Upekkha and the like. And since with mental physical actions and words we can navigate, we have no constraint in being socially engaged. Engaged Buddhism implies seeking ways to apply the findings in meditation and the teachings of Lord Buddha to social political environmental and economic suffering and injustice. It is the essence of Buddhism indeed. Lord Buddha himself left his hearth and home to seek relief for the suffering man. Compassion for the suffering humanity is the essential requirement for a man to become a Buddhist. Buddhism posits that each element of the multiverse is inalienably related to the other elements of the multiverse. And this one must perceive to become a Bodhisattva. A Buddhist, therefore, cannot but respond to mayhems anywhere in the world be it the killing of Jews in Natzi Germany or the killing of the Japanese people at Hiroshima. What Venerable Thich Nhat Hahn of Vietnam calls engaged Buddhism seems to this author as the core of Buddhism? In the light of engaged Buddhism we must fight to eradicate human suffering and inequality among men everywhere in the globe. In modern India Mahatma Gandhis experiments with truth has been the pathfinder. We must fight with compassion. We must fight with the weapons of non violence. We must have the eagerness for truth. We must not harbor any hatred for our enemies’ viz., false views.