THE BUDDHA'S AWAKENING 19ing of experience. The third cognition, like the first two, is presented as a di-
rect perception, but it goes beyond the realm of shamanic powers into a direct
understanding of the causal nature of the processes of experience in and of
themselves. Modern philosophy calls this approach phenomenology (a type of
analysis in which experience is a given, and one tries to understand it from
within). The description of this insight appears rather abstract, but it was
clearly intended to be experiential and concrete. The universals that Gautama
saw were simply the patterns of events discernible by anyone who develops
the mind to the same pitch of uncomplacency, ardency, and resolution. The
content of Awakening is thus two-thirds shamanism, ethically transformed,
and one-third phenomenology, a feature found in civilizations but not in ar-
chaic or primal cultures.
The archaic elements here are in service to the higher ones. The first and
second cognitions constitute an empirical verification of the doctrines of re-
peated rebirth and the consequences of intentional actions. In Gautama's view,
the materialists-who say that there is no afterlife and no fruition of past
deeds-were clearly wrong. What determines one's rebirth, however, is not
sacrifice, as the Briihmat;tas maintained, nor mere knowledge, as is claimed in
the Upani~ads, but rather the quality of one's entire life. Those who intention-
ally do good in thought, word, and deed, who speak well of the saints and hold
right views, are reborn in a happy state, in heaven or on Earth. Those who in-
tentionally do harm are reborn in a wretched state, in the lower destinies.
The idea of moral causality seems only in the sixth century B.C.E. to have
become dissociated from notions of the efficacy of ritual and ascetic acts.
There is no assurance that Upani~adic passages expressing the idea are pre-
Buddhist. If, as is probable, Gautama discovered this comprehensive moral
worldview, it is no wonder that the vision burst upon him with revelatory
force as he saw the principle enacted in a cosmic panorama of doing, dying,
and being reborn again and again.
One novel feature of early Buddhist ethics is the primacy they give to the
mind, and to intention in particular. Gautama's achievement in freeing ethics
from ritual and orthoprax rule was a momentous event in the history of world
religion. Good and bad are not qualities of an action, as they are in Vedic rit-
ual and Jainism, but of the intention motivating the act. Unintentional deeds
have merely commonsense consequences,.not karmic ones. In contrast to later
Hinduism, the physical act in itself is neither pure nor impure, although cer-
tain acts-such as killing, stealing, and illicit sex-are inherently unskillful
because they invariably involve at least subtle levels of wrong motivation in
the mind.
Realizing that the mind is the prime mover of the cycle of death and re-
birth, Gautama applied his newly found understanding of the principle of
karma to the intentional processes of cognition taking place at that moment in
his mind. This enabled him to see how the preconditions for suffering inter-
acted and how they could be brought to cessation. This was the knowledge
that brought about his release; while the totality of his experience of release,
transcending all limitations of cosmos and self, was what guaranteed the valid-
ity of what he had come to know.