Of the scant chanting I do, my go-to is Subjects for Regular Reviewing.
I use AN 5.57 but the formula is presented in a handful of other AN suttas, plus here Mil3.4.4 (thanks, John Kelly!).
Earlier this week, I took a longer look at the fifth reflection in pāli:
I am the owner of my deeds and heir to my deeds. Deeds are my womb, my relative, and my refuge.
Kammassakomhi, kammadāyādo kammayoni kammabandhu kammapaṭisaraṇo.
Everything seems clear-cut except for – you guessed it – kammayoni.
@Dheerayupa took this up last year in a Q&A; however, it was quickly solved in what is, for me, an unsatisfying conclusion. I don’t see relevant discussion in any other D&D threads.
We have two tantalizing threads which we may consider related:
From the Q&A we learn that kammayoni or, more precisely, yoni means “womb”. @stephen points out that Bhikkhu Bodhi translates it a tad differently:
I am the owner of my kamma, the heir of my kamma; I have kamma as my origin, kamma as my relative, kamma as my resort; I will be the heir of whatever kamma, good or bad, that I do.
This translation choice points away from “womb” (aka “uterus”) to something different. The challenge is that:
- we don’t really see yoni in the suttas so we derive the meaning from the Sanskrit.
- the pāli word for “embryo (or womb)” is gabbha as found here:
But do you know
‘Jānanti pana bhonto—
how an embryo is conceived?’
yathā gabbhassa avakkanti hotī’ti?
This term is barely used in the suttas – whether we’re talking about the English term “womb” or the pāli equivalent gabbha. By contrast, the term features prominently in the
ancient brahmanical theories of rebirth
as Bhante Sujato explains at length in the D&D thread I cited above. From what I can tell, he uses the essay in part to establish the novelty of “re-birth consciousness” as a Chinese-language concept that does not neatly derive from the Vedic and Brahmanic literature. @cdpatton explains the Chinese language translation in the other D&D thread I cited above.
Bhante concludes:
OK, that settles gandhabba.
Still, I’m not seeing yoni as the neat equivalent of “womb” in AN 5.57. Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation “origin” seems more plausible. I mean, “womb” and “origin” aren’t necessarily the same thing.
I discovered this intriguing analysis in Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions, edited by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty. In the first chapter-essay (which she wrote), she draws on David M. Knipe’s research on the origin of the theory of karma.
If one can stomach reading a free preview on Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, the entire essay is available – Karma and Rebirth in the Vedas and Purāṇas. The short of it:
- Originally karma may have explained repeated death, not re-birth so much.
- There may have been later conflation with liberation from saṃsāra or endless rounds of re-birth.
- The former interpretation inspires a death ritual where the son transfers merit to the deceased parent in the form of food – so that they don’t die. (See piṇḍa or ball of rice.) O’Flaherty contends that piṇḍa may also be associated with male testicles, not just the female embryo (where fertilization has already taken place).
- The death rituals foreshadow the model later set forth for the creation of the embryo.
- There is a Viṣṇu myth where Viṣṇu and several women take the form of yonis, called piṇḍas.
All of which is to say that Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation of yoni as “origin” makes more sense to me – as a less literal choice:
I have kamma as my origin
Still, the word history in Sanskrit seems to imply something like this:
“Deeds result from transferring merit to my deceased parents” (using Bhante Sujato’s translation choice “deeds” for kamma).
That said, it’s not very poetic and doesn’t lend itself to chanting.
So,
Deeds are my womb
where I don’t literally consider yoni to mean womb so much as “meritorious acts bestowed on my relatives.” This precedes the next part of the formula “Deeds are my relative” which perhaps is emphasizing the same concept through some word play.
Taken all together – not focusing so much on the exact sequence – this formula teaches that kamma does not operate independently from who gave birth to us. Given it apppears a very old concept pre-dating the Buddha, potentially it’s original meaning supported ancestor worship.
I am the owner of my deeds and heir to my deeds. Deeds are my womb, my relative, and my refuge.
Kammassakomhi, kammadāyādo kammayoni kammabandhu kammapaṭisaraṇo.
… I have no doubt that the English term womb (or, biologically speaking, uterus) can be a poetic way of referring to one’s origin.
. The grammar doesn’t seem like the issue here – for me, anyway. It’s the origins of kamma the concept.
At the very least, you’re on the path (magga), perhaps not yet the ‘fruit’ phala.