We need not further state that the conception of karma in its general aspect is scientifically verified. In our moral and material life, where the law of relativity rules supreme, the doctrine of karma must be considered thoroughly valid. And as long as its validity is admitted in this field, we can live our phenomenal life without resorting to the hypothesis of a personal God, as declared by Lamarck when his significant work on evolution was presented to Emperor Napoleon.
But it will do injustice to Buddhism if we designate it agnosticism or naturalism, denying or ignoring the existence of the ultimate, unifying principle, in which all contradictions are obliterated. Dharmakâya is the name given by Buddhists to this highest principle, viewed not only from the philosophical but also from the religious standpoint. In the Dharmakâya, Buddhists find the ultimate significance of life, which, when seen from its phenomenal aspect, cannot escape the bondage of karma and its irrefragable laws.
Avidyâ.
What claims our attention next, is the problem of nescience, which is one of the most essential features of Buddhism. Buddhists think, nescience (in Sanskrit avidyâ) is the subjective aspect of karma, involving us in a series of rebirths. Rebirth, considered by itself, is no moral evil, but rather a necessary condition of progress toward perfection, if perfection ever be attainable here. It is an evil only when it is the outcome of ignorance,—ignorance as to the true meaning of our earthly existence.
Ignorant are they who do not recognise the evanescence of worldly things and who tenaciously cleave to them as final realities; who madly struggle to shun the misery brought about by their own folly; who savagely cling to the self against the will of God, as Christians would say; who take particulars as final existences and ignore One pervading reality which underlies them all; who build up an adamantine wall between the mine and thine: in a word, ignorant are those who do not understand that there is no such thing as an ego-soul, and that all individual existences are unified in the system of Dharmakâya. Buddhism, therefore, most emphatically maintains that to attain the bliss of Nirvana we must radically dispel this illusion, this ignorance, this root of all evil and suffering in this life.
The doctrine of nescience or ignorance is technically expressed in the following formula, which is commonly called the Twelve Nidânas or Pratyayasamutpada, that is to say Chains of Dependence:
(1) There is Ignorance (avidyâ) in the beginning; (2) from Ignorance Action (sanskâra) comes forth; (3) from Action Consciousness (vijñâna) comes forth; (4) from Consciousness Name-and-Form (nâmarûpa) comes forth; (5) from Name-and-Form the Six Organs (ṣadâyâtana) come forth; (6) from the Six Organs Touch (sparça) comes forth; (7) from Touch Sensation (vedanâ) comes forth; (8) from Sensation Desire (tṛṣnâ) comes forth; (9) from Desire Clinging (upâdâna) comes forth; (10) from Clinging Being (bhâva) comes forth; (11) from Being Birth (jati) comes forth; and (12) from Birth Pain (duḥkha) comes forth.
According to Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakoça, the formula is explained as follows: Being ignorant in our previous life as to the significance of our existence, we let loose our desires and act wantonly. Owing to this karma, we are destined in the present life to be endowed with consciousness (vijñâna), name-and-form (nâmarûpa), the six organs of sense (ṣadâyâtana), and sensation (vedanâ). By the exercise of these faculties, we now desire for, hanker after, cling to, these illusive existences which have no ultimate reality whatever. In consequence of this “Will to Live” we potentially accumulate or make up the karma that will lead us to further metempsychosis of birth and death.
The formula is by no means logical, nor is it exhaustive, but the fundamental notion that life started in ignorance or blind will remains veritable.
Non-Atman.