The Buddha's surprising knowledge of rebirth and kamma prior to enlightenment

A common skepticism of the Buddha’s teachings on rebirth and kamma is that he merely adapted these beliefs because they were culturally widespread. The response to this is that a) many in his day did not believe in rebirth and kamma and b) his views regarding rebirth and kamma differed significantly from those of his contemporaries (See eg DN 2). Thus, it seems plausible that these beliefs entered his teaching because of his insight into them on the night of his enlightenment and not because of cultural absorption.

However, the Buddha’s views on rebirth and kamma prior to his awakening seem to mirror his views after his awakening. This seemingly complicates the matter. Consider his remarks in e.g. the Ariyapariyesanasutta (MN 26) regarding his first two teachers, Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta:

Then it occurred to me,
Tassa mayhaṁ, bhikkhave, etadahosi:
‘This teaching doesn’t lead to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment. It only leads as far as rebirth in the dimension of nothingness.’
‘nāyaṁ dhammo nibbidāya na virāgāya na nirodhāya na upasamāya na abhiññāya na sambodhāya na nibbānāya saṁvattati, yāvadeva ākiñcaññāyatanūpapattiyā’ti.
Realizing that this teaching was inadequate, I left disappointed.
So kho ahaṁ, bhikkhave, taṁ dhammaṁ analaṅkaritvā tasmā dhammā nibbijja apakkamiṁ.

Then it occurred to me,
Tassa mayhaṁ, bhikkhave, etadahosi:
‘This teaching doesn’t lead to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment. It only leads as far as rebirth in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.’
‘nāyaṁ dhammo nibbidāya na virāgāya na nirodhāya na upasamāya na abhiññāya na sambodhāya na nibbānāya saṁvattati, yāvadeva nevasaññānāsaññāyatanūpapattiyā’ti.
Realizing that this teaching was inadequate, I left disappointed.
So kho ahaṁ, bhikkhave, taṁ dhammaṁ analaṅkaritvā tasmā dhammā nibbijja apakkamiṁ.

From these comments, the following seem to be true:

  1. Prior to awakening, the Buddha believed strongly in rebirth

  2. Prior to awakening, the Buddha had a unique view of kamma in which one’s rebirth depended highly on the mental states one cultivated during life.

  3. Prior to awakening, the Buddha believed even the highest possible destinations after death were impermanent.

These beliefs seem uncannily similar to the Buddha’s unique conception of kamma and rebirth after his awakening. The obvious question follows: why is this? It would appear to reduce the significance and uniqueness of the Buddha’s direct insight into these matters under the Bodhi tree if he already held quite strong confidence in these beliefs. And consequently, the skepticism I began with seem unfortunately strengthened. It is also surprising that the Buddha already recognizes nibbana as the supreme goal in these texts.

A few possibilities:

  • The Early Buddhist understanding of kamma and rebirth was simply a belief the Buddha absorbed from his society and then altered somewhat and thus not born of any special insight. This would make taking on these beliefs less justified.

  • The Buddha somehow arrived at a correct understanding of kamma and rebirth without insight, but in some other means that is still reliable (e.g. past life knowledge).

  • Through an unlikely coincidence, the Buddha happened to hold the correct view prior to awakening and then had those views confirmed through direct insight.

  • The biographical sections of the Sutta Pitaka are not reliable in this case. This raises major difficulties for the accuracy of the Suttas as a whole in describing the Buddha’s life and beliefs.

All of these possibilities seem to carry varying drawbacks vis-a-vis belief in the Buddha’s teaching as found in the EBTs.

What do you think?

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Let’s look at this scenario:
You are alone in the pitch dark night, struggling to float upon the ocean. Suppose that you are a man with common sense, what do you seek for? A safe place, right? So, when you grab just a broken plank, will you be satisfied yet? Then, when will you be satisfied completely? For a man with common sense, an island is good enough, right?

Well, now let’s look at the story in the sutta. The Buddha of course didn’t know about the nibbana before his enlightenment. However, in the beginning, he started his quest to look for the Deathless. That’s his guideline, if it’s perishable then it does not satisfy the Buddha-to-be. This explains why he is unsatisfied with the sphere of nothingness and the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception. He mastered those spheres so of course he could know very well that those spheres are perishable. Unsatisfied, he moved on to continue to search for the Deathless.

Knowledge of rebirth came from the mastery of those spheres. This has been demonstrated with the ascetic Asita could know for himself his rebirth when he came to congratulate the new-born Buddha-to-be.

So, to summary, the Buddha-to-be’s view on rebirth and non-satisfaction to move on for his search of the Deathless before his enlightenment is not a surprise because of his mastery of the formless spheres. Note that, there is difference in the knowledge of rebirth after his enlightenment, it’s much deeper, he knows both the cause of rebirth, the way to end rebirth too and he can look back extremely far.

If we use again the scenario at the beginning, it’s like he knows why everyone is struggling upon the ocean, he also knows why the island is the safest place, he also knows how to reach the island and he knows too how to teach others to reach the island.

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Why didn’t his teachers realize this then?

How can you come to that conclusion?

Did those teachers ever declare that those spheres are not perishable?

Those teachers grabbed on a broken plank, they stay on the broken plank, of course they should know that the broken plank is unstable and not the safest place. Just like the ascetic Asita was unsatisfied with his rebirth and feel sorrow to miss the opportunity to hear the Dhamma. However they are not equipped with the abilities like the Buddha-to-be so they can’t go further.

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Including people in ancient India?

Yes, there are discussions of materialists in the suttas

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In MN26 the buddha tells, that as bodhisattva he did not know the one or the other way is correct. But after he has tried the meditation-path the one way (“I looked for the birth-stricken things because I was myself birth-stricken”) he took the hypothese that there might be something else, “unstricken-of-birth” and tried to find the access to it. Then he said, that he had finally found.
So it is wrong to say he would have known it before awakening. He was following a hypothese which he constructed after he failed the way along the given contemporary religiosity - concerning rebirth for instance (or in general brahmanical or ascetics concepts).

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It is possible that his teachers taught him that their respective meditations would result in being able to have that experience forever. If the Buddha had reason to believe the experience was insufficient (I.e. If he surmised that there was a measure of suffering there) he may have rejected the experience on that account.

Simplistically, the Buddha didn’t have to believe in rebirth as we believe. He just had to believe that his present actions of meditation would lead to birth in the relevant spheres. Kind of like how Christians believe they will go to heaven when they die if they do various things.

Imagine the Buddha studying under a Christian and saying I saw that this path only leads to heaven, so I abandoned it. Same kind of flavour.

As can be seen, the Buddha’s description as quoted need not imply that he had a knowledge of a continuous cycle of birth and death.

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• The Buddha somehow arrived at a correct understanding of kamma and rebirth without insight, but in some other means that is still reliable (e.g. past life knowledge).

In the Gayāsīsasutta (AN 8.64) and it’s Sarvâstivāda Sūtra parallel (MA 73), the Buddha describes his meditation at Gayā prior to awakening. He was able to perceive light and see forms/visions, converse with deities, and understand the deeds that caused them to be reborn as deities after passing away from the human realm.

The Buddha-to-be “found out” (jānāti) about the deities by conversing with them, thereby “purifying” his knowledge and vision (ñāṇadassanaṃ parisuddhataraṃ) from eight perspectives:

Then it occurred to me, ‘What if I were to perceive light and see visions; and associate with those deities, converse, and engage in discussion; and find out which orders of gods those deities come from; and what deeds caused those deities to be reborn there after passing away from here; and what deeds caused those deities to have such food and such an experience of pleasure and pain; and that these deities have a life-span of such a length; and whether or not I have previously lived together with those deities? Then my knowledge and vision would become even more purified.’

In order that my knowledge and vision would become supremely bright and pure, I went to stay in a remote and solitary place, where I practiced diligently with a mind free of indolence. Through staying in a remote and solitary place and practicing diligently with a mind free of indolence, I attained bright light and saw forms; I met those devas … and I knew whether or not I had previously taken birth in those heavens.

As long as my knowledge and vision about the deities was not fully purified from these eight perspectives, I didn’t announce my supreme perfect awakening in this world with its gods, Māras, and Brahmās, this population with its ascetics and brahmins, its gods and humans.

But when my knowledge and vision about the deities was fully purified from these eight perspectives, I announced my supreme perfect awakening in this world with its gods, Māras, and Brahmās, this population with its ascetics and brahmins, its gods and humans. Knowledge and vision arose in me: ‘My freedom is unshakable; this is my last rebirth; now there are no more future lives.’

So the Buddha “found out” about “what deeds caused those deities to be reborn there after passing away from here” at Gaya Head prior to his awakening at Bodh Gaya. Subsequently, in the middle watch of the night of his awakening, he described the second of the three knowledges in MN 36 Mahāsaccakasutta:

With clairvoyance (dibbena cakkhunā) that is purified and superhuman, I saw sentient beings passing away and being reborn—inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place. I understood how sentient beings are reborn according to their deeds.

Subsequent to purifying his knowledge and vision about these deities in 8 perspectives, it appears that he attained psychic powers to see his own past abodes and those of other sentient beings on the night of awakening, thereby confirming what he “found out” from the deities.

In DN 14 Mahāpadāna Sutta and its’ parallel DA 1, deities told the Buddha the details of the Buddhas of the past:

It’s incredible, reverends, it’s amazing, the power and might of a Realized One!
For he is able to recollect the caste, names, clans, life-span, chief disciples, and gatherings of disciples of the Buddhas of the past who have become completely extinguished, cut off proliferation, cut off the track, finished off the cycle, and transcended suffering.

(The Buddha replies:)

“It is because the Realized One has clearly comprehended the principle of the teachings that he can recollect all these things. And the deities also told me.

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