..續本文上一頁 others” merit (Pattanumodana), hearing the doctrine (Dhammasavana), expounding the doctrine (Dhammadesana), and forming correct views (Ditthijukamma).

　　Generosity yields wealth. Morality causes one to be born in noble families in states of happiness. Meditation gives birth in form and formless planes and helps to gain Higher Knowledge and Emancipation.

　　Reverence is the cause of noble parentage. Service is the cause of large retinue. Transference of merit causes one to be able to give in abundance in future birth. Rejoicing in others” merit is productive of joy wherever one is born. Both hearing and expounding the Doctrine are conducive to wisdom.

　　3. Good Kamma, which produces its effect in the planes of form. It is of five types which are purely mental, and done in the process of meditation, viz:

　　i. The first stage of Jhana or absorption, which has five constituents: initial application, sustained application, rapture, happiness and one-pointed-ness of mind.

　　ii. The second stage of Jhana, which occurs together with sustained application, rapture, happiness and one-pointed-ness of mind.

　　iii. The third stage of Jhana, which occurs together with rapture, happiness and one-pointed-ness of mind.

　　iv. The fourth stage of Jhana, which occurs together with happiness and one-pointed-ness of mind.

　　v. The fifth stage of Jhana, which occurs together with equanimity and one-pointed-ness of mind.

　　4. Good Kamma, which produces its effect in the formless planes. It is of four types, which are also purely mental and done in the process of meditation, viz:

　　i. Moral consciousness dwelling in the infinity of space.

　　ii. Moral consciousness dwelling in the infinity of consciousness.

　　iii. Moral consciousness dwelling on nothingness.

　　iv. Moral consciousness wherein perception is so extremely subtle that it cannot be said whether it is or is not.

　　Free Will

　　Kamma, as has been stated above, is not fate, is not irrevocable destiny. Nor is one bound to reap all that one has sown in just proportion. The actions (Kamma) of men are generally not absolutely irrevocable; and only a few of them are so. If, for example, one fires off a bullet out of a rifle, one cannot call it back or turn it aside from its mark. But, if instead of a lead or iron ball through the air, it is an ivory ball on a smooth green board that one sets moving with a billiard cue, one can send after it and at it, another ball in the same way, and change its course.

　　Not only that, if one is quick enough, and one has not given it too great an impetus, one might even get round to the other side of the billiard table, and send against it a ball which would meet it straight in the line of its course and bring it to a stop on the spot. With one”s later action with the cue, one modifies, or even in favorable circumstances, entirely neutralizes one”s earlier action.

　　It is much the same way that Kamma operates in the broad stream of general life. There too one”s action (Kamma) of a later day may modify the effects of one”s action (Kamma) of a former day. If this were not so, what possibility would there ever be of a man”s getting free from all Kamma for ever. It would be perpetually self-continuing energy that could never come to an end.

　　Man has, therefore, a certain amount of free will and there is almost every possibility to mould his life or to modify his actions. Even a most vicious person can by his own free will and effort become the most virtuous person. One may at any moment change for the better or for the worse. But everything in the world including man himself is dependent on conditions and without conditions nothing whatsoever can arise or enter into existence.

　　Man therefore has only a certain amount of free will and not absolute free will. According to Buddhist philosophy,…

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