Is allowing or seeking detachment a bad karmic influence vis a vis rebirth?

score:1

Accepted answer

If you let go mentally then there will be more positive karmic efforts in the future.

If you let go by being attached to an ideal or view or practice or embracing this as a view, ideal or practice then this might cause negative karma for the future depending on how much you get attached to the ideal, view or practice. E.g. if you see many charities which seem to do good but many of the volunteers seem overly attached to the cause. This will have an element of unwholesomeness in it.

So you have to get detached by training your mind than through other means. Also without going overboard with being detached if you practice this to some extent then this also might help towards letting go through your mind but keeping in mind this is a double edge sword. If this is leading to some form of craving or attachment then this is not the right way it should be done, and also will have some negative karmic effect.

For rebirth not to happen you should not get attached at the dying moment. If there is any effective (not dormant or not ahosi) kamma rebirth will happen. Attachment to view, ideals and practices, even to that of detachment, also may have potent for a next birth. If you have mentally let go then there will be not potent karma and there will be no rebirth.

More technically according to dependent arising, rebirth is generated in two sequences:

(1) ignorance (avijjā) + karma -> the stream of consciousness beginning at rebirth (vinnāna).

(2) craving (tanhā) + clinging/fuel (upādāna) -> existence (bhava) + rebirth into that existence (jāti).

Source: Dependent Arising by Piya Tan

Upvote:0

If I let relationships and other things go as a way of embracing detachment then will there be karmic "retribution" or will it leave some hole that will force me into rebirth?

As long as Ignorance (avijja) is present, there will be rebirth, with reference to the doctrine of Dependent Origination.

The only way to "let things go" is by way of understanding.

In Buddhism one overcomes Samsaric phenomena by understanding them through the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path, namely the insight portion of the Buddha's path to liberation. Only insight meditation can shed away the veil of delusion permanently.

Upvote:0

The exact answer for your question was in the Dhamma deshana I listened to yesterday. It is true that Lord Buddha has asked you to detatch from materialised substances, but in case of living as a lay person practicing this 100% is not practical. To practice in this detaching, you should go & live a life as a monk.

The example taken to explain this was:

There is a person who lived a normal family life & after coming into contact with dhamma this person started to practice extreme detachment while living in his house with his family (He was not in a position to leave the family). Now having to live with the family members was also a distraction in his detachment practicing. This led him to be angry with his family. As well as Lord Buddha has asked us to detach from materialised components, we are told that anger is bad. So, now this person has come into contact with anger as well as he is not able to detach 100%. This is worsening of the situation.

And also if a person tries to refrain from performing the duties towards the society by practicing detachment & by seeing them as a collection of elements, that will lead to some unpleasant situations as that person throwing a stone at another person & thinking of it as a set of elements stucking another set of elements. These kinds of situations arise by not understanding what the dhamma is truly about. If a person tries to practice the extremes of these while not having a clear vision & a stable mind, that will lead to unpleasant situations which is not what Buddhism is about.

I'm not trying to tell that you can't practice detachment while living as a lay person, we need to have the correct vision about dhamma as well as we have to have the right conditions from the surrounding to do so.

Upvote:2

The Buddha did not teach 'kammic-retribution' & 'non-attachment' together.

'Kammic-retribution' is a moral yet defiled & mundane teaching; based in the ordinary view of 'self'.

'Non-attachment' is a supramundane/transcendent (lokuttara) teaching; based in not-self (anatta).

Please refer to MN 117, which distinguishes these matters.

This being said, any important & essential relationship in life must be looked after, for example, the relationship an enlightened monk must have with laypeople.

The Buddha taught 'non-attachment' rather than 'detachment'. The advanced Buddhist practitioner learns to have metta without attachment. Having metta will look after/safeguard any relationship.

More post

Search Posts

Related post