it is to attempt to imagine how you will solve the major moral crises when
they arrive. They seem to have realized that it is only through disciplined
practices of daily self-cultivation that you would be in a mental position to
handle the big issues when they do come up. They also claimed, insightfully,
that the self is malleable and open to this kind of ethical transformation,
and here we see the impact of the concept of no-self as it was developed in
various dimensions of the tradition.
Moreover, the Buddhist doctrine of no-self is one of the best among several
places in the teachings where we can begin to see beyond the individual
interpretation of karma that has dominated the tradition so far. If karma is
to be a truly comprehensive teaching about human actions and their effects,
extensive development of all of the ways in which the effects of our acts radiate
into other selves and into social structures will need to be grafted onto
the doctrine of karma as it currently stands. This extension of the doctrine
has already begun, however, and will not be difficult to pursue because it
can be grounded on the extraordinary Mahayana teaching of emptiness, the
Buddhist vision of the interpenetration of all beings. Following this vision,
we can imagine a collective understanding of karma that overcomes limitations
deriving from the concept’s original foundation in the individualized
spirituality of early Buddhist monasticism.
A naturalized philosophical account of the Buddhist idea of karma can, it
seems to me, insightfully reflect these and other dimensions of our human situation.
Separated from elements of supernatural thinking that have been associated
with karma since its inception, its basic tenets of freedom, decision,
and accountability are impressive, and clearly show us something important
about the human situation, including the project of self-construction, both
individually and collectively conceived. I conclude, therefore, imagining elements
in the doctrine of karma having the potential to be truly effective in
the effort to design concepts of ethical education that are both honest to the
requirements of thinking in our time, and profoundly enabling in the quest
for human excellence.