In her book This Worldly Nibbana, Hsiao-Lin Hu remarks, "in the interconnected web, there is no center to be found, nor is there any clearly defined path that can guarantee one's rightness/or righteousness." More so, she maintains that "the right and the wrong of an action are determined only when all dimensions of an action are put into consideration, including one's mentality at the time of taking the action, the concrete results produced by the action, and the impacts on the well-being of both self and others." (p.145) This seems to be a very daunting task, and I wonder, are Buddhists in particular ever nostalgic for some day when good and bad were clearly defined?
The loss of clear-cut notions of good and bad can seem scary, because the result is to place total responsibility on one's own thoughts, reflections and behaviors in guiding them to make wholesome actions that are not attached to preconceived ideas. I am reminded, somehow, of the term 'moral holiday', which was coined by William James to describe how the belief in a divine power can sometimes give people a much-needed rest from having to make complex decisions from moment to moment. Hu's remarks should in a sense be qualified: although Buddhist practitioners carry the responsibility of their own karma, they wouldn't necessarily need to treat this a burden. First of all, it's simply not possible for people to take care of every single factor in their environment or life that leads to suffering or vexation. I have heard that it can be good enough to acknowledge that the present moment is the result of previous conditions. When I fully accept the present as the result of previous actions (wholesome or not), I can truly rest and not struggle with necessarily trying to make it different or looking for some reason 'why' it happened.
During the talk I had attended today, Venerable ChangXing had mentioned four specific ways of responding to situations from a Chan perspective. They are :
a) Acceptance of retribution/enmity: that is, realizing that what you encountered is the result of previous karma, and there is no use complaining about it or somehow forcing it to be different
b) Acting in accord with conditions: knowing that there is no stable self to speak of, one resolves to be fully with the situation and flow with circumstances without clinging to a fixed notion of the self and its place
c) "Seek nothing". This refers to renunciation, the ability to let go of the three poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance and cultivating an attitude of letting go of attachment
d) Acting in accordance with Dharma (including cultivating right views).
These are very well known in Buddhism, but I found them to be elegant and very clear principles which can help a person to navigate a world where there are no binary opposites of good/bad. Rather than trying to assign blame for present situations by referring to fixed rules, these principles point to a more accepting philosophy which sees the present as the result of intertwining causes and conditions.
But I would argue that these principles also challenge the notion that Buddhists have to arrive at any fixed conclusions of right and wrong, based on a complete assessment of the situation. First of all, as Hu mentions in her book, it's pretty much impossible to assess all the causes that go into a situation. Even if this could be done, it doesn't mean that new causes could not arise to affect the present situation or even change its meaning over time. How often have you heard the idea that an illness can change a person's life in ways that they could never have imagined just by diagnosing the illness itself? I think this experience of 'reappraisal' suggests that even the way we look at causality itself is influenced by the narrative framework we choose to place on something. Sometimes, looking for the reasons for something also blinds or masks the fact that the situation contains hidden potentials and opportunities. Rather than looking to the past, the situation might hint at beneficial things arising in the future.
Hu, Hsiao-Lan (2011). This-Worldly Nibbana: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community. Albany NY: SUNY
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