EVIL

A word that closely approximates the English word evil is the Sanskrit and P?li term p?pa, which can be used to describe anything bad, wicked, troublesome, harmful, inauspicious, vile, or wretched. Although Buddhists have formulated various interpretations of the evils and misfortunes that befall human beings, from an ethical perspective they regard evil as the consequence of previous harmful actions that, by the cause-and-effect laws of karma (action), return to beleaguer the perpetrator. In its chapter on p?pa, the Dhamma-pada (Words of the Doctrine) articulates the moral dimensions of the notion of evil as wrongdoing that brings about further harm and unfortunate consequences in this life and the next: Evil conduct should be avoided just as poison is avoided, for it results only in sorrow.

The mainstream Buddhist schools do not face the problem of theodicy in its classic form, which arises in monotheistic traditions that accept an all powerful, all knowing, and fully benevolent creator deity who still apparently allows suffering and misfortune to strike the innocent. For one thing, Buddhists do not accept the notion of a creator god who could be held accountable for evil. Instead, evil is simply an inevitable feature of sa?s?ra, or the cycle of rebirth; those who acknowledge the first noble truth recognize that life in sa?s?ra entails du?kha (suffering). That which humans may be inclined to call evil (i.e., suffering) has been from eternity a necessary condition of life in impermanence, which ceases completely only upon the attainment of nirv??a.

Buddhism also offers a thorough explanatory account for what prompts immoral deeds: The condition of sentient beings in sa?s?ra is to be beset by ignorance and craving. Sentient beings are deeply mired in greed, hatred, and delusion, which are the roots of harmful acts. Harmful acts bear consequences for oneself and others, implicating the wicked further into a cycle of evil and suffering.

Yet as Buddhist doctrine developed philosophically, a distinctive form of theodicy emerged in some traditions within the Mah?y?na. As Peter Gregory argues, the Chinese Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) poses questions about the presence of ignorance in light of the tath?gatagarbha doctrine, which holds that all beings contain the germ of enlightenment and are, in their true nature, intrinsically enlightened. If the mind is by nature enlightened, how did it come to be defiled by ignorance and suffering? For Gregory this philosophical problem exposes a fundamental issue that Buddhist karma theory does not satisfactorily resolve. Although karma theory accounts for the apparent injustices in the world, it does not ultimately explain the metaphysical fact of why human beings find themselves in such a world to begin with. Although early Buddhists chose to avoid metaphysical vexations of this sort, later Buddhist philosophers did attempt to tackle such questions.

Moreover, from the soteriological point of view, there is a long tradition in Buddhism of identifying the religious life as poised beyond the dualism of good and evil. The Dhammapada asserts: "But one who is above good and evil and follows the religious life, who moves in the world with deliberation, that one is called a mendicant" (267). Indeed the quest for nirvana is the aspiration to transcend the world of karma and morality, and thus good and evil, altogether.

Karma theory notwithstanding, Buddhists have throughout their long history accommodated theistic and animistic accounts of evil in more pedestrian ways, and they have developed technologies (e.g., spells, deity propitiation, astrological advice) to ward off evil. Some scholars, such as Gananath Obeyeskere and Melford Spiro, have suggested that karma theory provides little sense of comfort or control over the dayto-day depredations that are regarded as evil. In this view, while the notion of karma provides an exhaustive and failsafe account of the causes of evil, it is not always psychologically or experientially satisfying. Past immoral deeds that result in present suffering are both remote and unknown since few have memory of previous lives. Moreover, it is the nature of evil to victimize those upon whom it falls, and to exert itself in an immediate way as an imposition from the outside. Such cruelties as accidents, sudden illnesses, and premature death arrive unannounced and unforeseen, often visiting the apparently innocent and striking with powerful and unyielding vengeance. Viewing evil as the result of malevolent influences from meddle-some deities or inauspicious arrangements of celestial bodies, while not entirely consistent with karma theory, provides an immediate recourse for warding off, or at least containing, misfortune by ritual and apotropaic means.

Finally, Buddhists have also found meaning in evil through mythology. The cosmogonic myth recounted in the Aggañña-sutta (Knowing the Beginning) provides an account of the origins of evil in the gradual descent

of originally divine beings. These beings are at first celestial, incorporeal, and entirely happy, but they devolve into earth-dwelling, corporeal, and ultimately thieving, deceitful, and violent creatures. As the celestial beings come to crave food and begin to taste the savory crust of the earth, they introduce scarcity to the world, followed by competition, thieving, and the taking up of sticks against one another. In this myth, a world without evil can be imagined, and the "fall" of the world into evil is attributed ultimately to sensual desire. The chain of events that leads to the presence of evil in the world is driven by desire and greed.

Another mythic complex, widely depicted in Buddhist art and legend, centers on M?ra, a Satan-like deity of lust and death. M?ra, accompanied by his legions of demonic forces and his temptress daughters, arrives to menace Gautama as he sits under a pipal tree on the night of his enlightenment. M?ra is able to assume shapes and disguises and to harness all manner of demonic forces to oppose the Buddha's enlightenment. Once recognized, however, M?ra is powerless, suggesting perhaps that evils are illusory and defeated when exposed. M?ra symbolizes all that the Buddha conquers: ignorance, darkness, craving, lust, and destruction. With the conquest of M?ra, the round of rebirth ceases, and death is vanquished.

See also:Death

Bibliography

Gregory, Peter. "The Problem of Theodicy in the Awakening of Faith." Religious Studies 22, no. 1 (1986): 63–78.

Harvey, Peter. An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values, and Issues. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Ling, Trevor Oswald. Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil: A Study in Therav?da Buddhism. London: Allen and Unwin, 1962.

Norman, K. R., trans. The Word of the Doctrine (Dhammapada). Oxford: P?li Text Society, 1997.

Obeyesekere, Gananath. "Theodicy, Sin, and Salvation in a Sociology of Buddhism." In Dialectic in Practical Religion, ed. E. R. Leach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1968.

Spiro, Melford E. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and Its Burmese Vicissitudes, 2nd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.

Maria Heim