The Concept Of Karma In Karmasiddhiprakarana

Karma is a key concept in Buddhist philosophy. Accompanying with the theory of causation and transmigration, it offers a special explanation about the world. The basic indication of Karma is that:Whatever happens to us in this life is due to previous cause and conditions, due to actions we ourselves have performed. Whenever we perform certain actions, we create karma, which means our actions have some effects on the rest of the world.In traditional Indian philosophy Karma was a common idea, originating from Brahmanism and being explained in Rgveda and Upanishad for the first time. It became a significant idea when it comes to Buddha, who took Karma as the controller of the whole world. However, there are some difficult between the theory of Karma and the theory of Dependent Origination. The theory of karma in Buddhism has to face several questions:1) what is the nature of karma?2) how does cause and effect happen?3) what is the entity of transmigration? The reasonableness of karma may be doubted without the solution of those questions. During the development of sectarian Buddhism, scholars explored the concept of karma adequately and raised many various theories to solve the problems mentioned above. But they tend to consider karma as physical existence (色法)or a combination of existence and mind(色心二元),which go far away from the original theoretical position of Buddhism. No agreement has been achieved until the theorization of Alaya(阿赖耶识)in Mahayana Buddhism, which connect the theory of Karma and Dependent Origination reasonably. Karmasiddhiprakarana is a significant work which indicates the transformation of Buddhist karma theory from Hinayana to Mahayana Buddhism.Karmasiddhiprakarana is produced by Vasubandhu in around5th century. In this work, Vasubandhu introduced and criticized the theories of karma by Abhidharma scholars, especially the theories of Sarvastivadin School(说一切有部),vatsi-putriya School (犊子部),sammatiya School(正量部)and Sautrantika School((?)经量部)Also, the author reinterpreted Buddha's theory of karma in the position of Vijnanavada-Yogacara School, using the theory of Alaya to respond to those questions mentioned above. This work responded to the conflict between karma and selflessness in a new perspective, concluded and ended the debate on the concept of karma by Abhidarma scholars.Chapterl is an introduction to the whole research, which includes the motivation and purpose, literature review of related area, methodology, limits and so on.Chapter2and3introduce the theoretical background of this work. Chapter2summarizes the history of karma theory from Indian traditional philosophy to Hinayana Buddhism, points out the conflicts between the theory of karma and dependent origination, and tries to analyze the reason of the conflicts. Chapter3investigates the ideological origin of this work in the perspective of Vasubandhu's academic experience, pointing out that Abhidharmakosa and Mahayanasamgraha are two main resources from where the author shaped his opinion about karma.Chapter4and5explore the text of Karmasiddhiprakarana following the logic of the text itself. Chapter4introduces Vasubandhu's critique toward Abhidhama karma theory and concludes the traits of karma theory during sectarian Buddhism. Chapter5introduces the response Vasubandhu did to the problem of the mechanism and entity of retribution in the view of Alaya theory, and investigate the traits and contents of karma theory in the position of Yogacara School.Chapter6analyzes Karmasiddhiprakarana through a historical perspective by putting it in the development process of Buddhist karma theory. It supplements the discussion of retribution entity which was ignored in Karmasiddhiprakarana but mentioned in Vasubandhu' another work. Also, this chapter concludes the development trend of karma theory and tries to investigate the position of Karmasiddhiprakarana in the history of Buddhism.