2
The Dhamma: The Basic
Teachings of Buddhism
The Ethicisation of Kamma
It was in the background of these samana and Brahmanic religious–
philosophical trends that Gotama became the Buddha and formulated
his Dhamma. As noted in the introductory chapter, there is a debate
about whether there is a significant difference between the actual teach-
ings or ‘original Buddhism’ and the classical Theravada Buddhism of
the Pali texts. The argument for a difference ranges from Caroline
Augusta Foley (C.A.F. Rhys Davids) who wants to reject the ‘atheis-
tic or anti-theistic presentation [of the Founder’s teaching]...of
degenerate Hinayana’ (Introduction to Digha NikayaII 1941: xii) to
contemporary scholars like Burford and leaders like Ambedkar who
interpreted Buddhism in psychological and this-worldly terms. The
earliest texts indeed have no references to the karma/rebirth frame-
work, that is to jatimarana; while the term bhava(which is sometimes
translated in the same way and often is used to refer to ‘future life’)
simply meant ‘good fortune’ (ibid.: x–xi).
In the Conclusion we shall return to this issue. However, it was
the classical formulation of Theravada, embodied in the major Pali
texts (Pali canon), that survived and was socially influential in
India for over a millennium. This chapter therefore shall deal with
the Theravada Buddhism of the discourses (or suttas)^1 and in this
the karma/rebirth framework is a central aspect.
(^1) The Pali canon is traditionally divided into three sets (the Tipitika), the discourses
or Suttas, the rules for the Sangha or Vinaya, and the philosophical elaboration or
Abhidhamma. The Suttas by and large are considered to be older.