What do we believe about Destiny or Fate in Theravada Buddhism?
I think Destiny/Fate is real and that past kamma creates Destiny/Fate in this life.
The Bodhisatta, for example, was destined to become the Buddha. There was no other paths.
those who hold wrong views and stump in the round.
Fruits of Recluseship Bodhi
CY. When people accept these theories and then recite and
investigate them while sitting in their day-quarters or night-quarters,
wrong mindfulness becomes established, taking as object (one of the
three views): “No evil is done,” or “There is no cause or condition,”
or “The dead are annihilated.” The mind becomes one-pointed. The
impulsions run their course.28 At the first impulsion these people are
curable; and so too at the second, etc. But at the seventh they cannot
be cured even by the Buddhas; they cannot be turned back.
Someone might espouse one view among these three, another
two, another three. But whether one espouses one, two, or three
views, one adopts a wrong view with fixed consequences. One has
met an obstruction to the path to heaven and an obstruction to the
path to liberation. It is impossible for him to reach heaven
immediately following this present existence, much less to reach
liberation. This being has become a stump in the round of existence,
28. The javana or impulsion phase in the Abhidhammic account of the
process of consciousness is the phase at which the mind originates its
kammically determinate actions. This phase, according to the
Abhidhamma, consists of seven occasions of javana consciousness.
Part Two—Commentarial Exegesis 79
a watchman of the earth.29 Generally, one like this does not emerge
from existence.
Therefore a person with discernment
Desirous of his spiritual growth
Should keep far away from such harmful people
As one would avoid a venomous snake.
SUB. CY. “Wrong mindfulness becomes established” (micchásati
santiþþhati): wrong mindfulness is the craving associated with the
theory, and it is this which becomes established. For through
oral tradition one first apprehends the general meaning of the
view “by doing so there is no evil,” etc. One then ponders that
meaning with various reasons until it appears as cogent to the
mind as if it possessed concrete form. By becoming accustomed
to such a view over a long period of time, one arrives at a reflective
acquiescence in it, thinking “It is true.” When, again and again,
one habitually indulges in and cultivates the view that has been
accepted as true through reflective acquiescence, wrong thought
directs craving to that view, with wrong effort reinforcing the
craving; thus one apprehends things as having a nature which they
do not really have. Thus it is the craving associated with the theory
that is called wrong mindfulness.
“The mind becomes one-pointed”: by gaining such particular
conditions as applied thought, etc., the mind becomes steadied on
its object; it abandons diffuseness and becomes one-pointed, as if
absorbed. “Wrong concentration” (micchá-samádhi) is spoken of
under the heading of “mind.” For that concentration, gaining the
power of the development through special conditions, performs
the function of pervertedly concentrating the mind on its object,
as in the case of sharpshooting archers, etc.
“The impulsions run their course” (javanáni javanti): after the
preliminary series of impulsions have occurred in that mode a number
of times, in the last series of impulsions [which forms the conviction
in the truth of the view] seven impulsions run their course. “At the
first impulsion they are curable,” etc.: this simply shows the intrinsic
29. The phrases “a stump in the round” (vaþþakháóu) and “watchman of the
earth” (paþhavigopaka) are probably intended to suggest that such a
person remains stuck in saísára, hindered by his wrong view even from
finding the path to liberation.
80 The Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship
nature of things. For at that moment no one is capable of curing
them.
N. SUB. CY. (They cannot be cured) because, while they are
standing in those states of impulsion, it is impossible to prevent
the arising of the seventh impulsion. Thus the process of
consciousness occurs so quickly that it is impossible to cure them
(at that moment) by means of exhortation and instruction. Thus
the commentator says: “They cannot be cured even by the
Buddhas.”30
SUB. CY. “Someone might espouse one view,” etc.: someone
who adheres to and habitually indulges in only one view espouses
only one view. Those who adhere to and habitually indulge in two
or three views espouse two or three views. By this statement the
commentator shows that the entire preceding discussion of these
views, which defined and explained them in terms of their common
denial of both (kamma and result), was only a preliminary. But when
(the adoption of a particular view) leads one into the fixed course of
wrongness,31 that view is not combined with other views; since it is
established through its own colligation of conditions, it does not
arise together with (other views) just as the distinguished achievements
(the jhánas, etc.) do not arise simultaneously with different objects.
“But whether one espouses one, two, or three views”: by this
the commentator shows that the three views have the same
strength and yield the same fruit [that is, they obstruct the
attainment of heaven (and the noble path). Therefore, though the
three views arise in a single person uncombined, when one yields
its results the other two lend their strength to it.
30. These remarks refer to the fixity in the sequence of javanas within their
series and do not mean that the person cannot be led away from his
wrong views at a later time.
31. The “fixed course of wrongness” (micchattaniyáma) is a course of
unwholesome kamma strong enough to determine an unfortunate
rebirth in the immediately following existence. The point of this
discussion is that although a theorist may at different times adopt all
three of the wrong views being expounded, when he adopts any view
firmly enough to constitute a descent into the course of wrongness, the
object of his adherence can only be a single one among the three views
and not two or three together.
Part Two—Commentarial Exegesis 81
“A stump in the round”: this statement is one whose meaning
requires interpretation (neyyattha), not one whose meaning is
explicit (nìtattha). Thus in the Papañcasúdanì (the commentary to
the Majjhima Nikáya) it is said: “Is his future (as a result of his
wrong view) fixed only with regard to a single existence (the next
one) or also with regard to subsequent existences? It is fixed only
with regard to a single existence (the next one). But because he
repeatedly indulges in that view, he will approve of the same view
in subsequent existences too” (M-a 3:85). Since the unwholesome
is feeble and powerless, not strong and powerful like the
wholesome, the wrong view is said to be fixed only with regard
to a single existence (the next one). Otherwise, the fixed course of
wrongness would be absolutely final like the fixed course of
rightness,32 but it is not absolutely final.
Query: If so, then how can the expression “a stump in the
round” be applied (to the one who adopts such views)?
Reply: Because he habitually indulges (in that view). As in the
Aòguttara Nikáya it is said: “The fool who has sunk down even
once is sunken indeed” (AN 7:15/IV 11), so here the expression
“a stump in the round” is used in the same way. For he espouses
such a view because of certain conditions; thence it cannot be
denied that sometimes, because of the opposite conditions, he
may manage to emerge from that view. Therefore, in the
commentary it is said: “Generally one like this does not emerge
from existence.”
N. SUB. CY. The statement (“This being has become a stump
in the round of existence”) is one whose meaning requires
interpretation, and not one whose meaning is explicit, because
the meaning has to be indicated by explaining: “He becomes ‘a
stump in the round’ because generally one like this does not emerge
from existence, since by habitually indulging in this or that view
he approves of the same view in a subsequent existence too.” But
it must be added that he does not become “a stump in the round”
in the sense that the fixed course of wrongness is absolutely final.
So not fixed as in absolutely final.