At another time, when Shakyamuni was teaching in a town named Devadaha, the issue of karma was being discussed. In those times, in India, there were five explanations for the causes of present happiness and unhappiness:

1. Everything, happiness and unhappiness, is determined by karma from previous existences.
2. All fate is determined by the will of an all-powerful deity who created and controls the world.
3. Human fate is determined by the good or bad ways in which the elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—constituting the fleshly body are combined.
4. The fate of the entire life of an individual is determined by the social class and family into which he was born.
5. Human fate does not depend on any of these definite causes but is determined, from minute to minute, by completely accidental occurrences.

From the Buddhist standpoint, all of these explanations either are deterministic and fatalistic or rely purely on chance and therefore deny the significance and value of education and training and fail to take into account the importance of free will in efforts to determine and develop fate. For the sake of a correct interpretation of cosmic workings, Buddhism proposed doing away with these explanations and offered in their place the Law of Causation and the Four Noble Truths as accurate explanations of the world and of human life. (Page 127)

Shakyamuni said he was willing to engage in debate if Upali was truly serious. Upali said that he was. Shakyamuni then proceeded to prove by means of many actual examples that good or bad mental motivation is more important than actual actions and words. Moreover, he proved this from the Jainist standpoint, calling upon examples taken from Jainist teachings.

In one instance, Shakyamuni countered Upali’s insistence that the physical act takes precedence in importance over the mental motivation in the following way. He asked what would happen to a Jainist who, out of respect for the minute living creatures in cool water, refused to drink it, even when suffering from a high fever, and consequently died. Upali said that attachment to the mind at the time of death would result in the man’s being born again in a heaven for those who remain attached to mind. In other words, mental attachment and not the actual act of drinking or not drinking cool water produced the effect.

Jainism strictly forbids the taking of life, even that of the small creatures living in water. But, should a person unwittingly step in a puddle of water on the road and kill some of these creatures, according to Jainism his sin is not grave, since he was unaware of what he was doing. In adopting this standpoint, Jainism tacitly puts greater emphasis on mental motivation than on physical result and thus contradicts itself.

Upali found it impossible to reply to these demonstrations of Jainist inconsistencies and at once became a believer in Buddhism. (Page 125-126)

Then for Pukkusati’s sake Shakyamuni preached a sophisticated sermon, probably because he perceived that this man was of intellectual capacity sufficient for him to understand difficult Buddhist theories. The sermon was a detailed, logical presentation showing that human beings have six senses–sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and thought–for perceiving six objects: earth, water, fire, wind, air, and knowledge. From this operation of perception are born the sixteen kinds of emotions and sensations, including pain and pleasure and joy and sorrow. Knowledge of the nature and sources of these emotions lead to understanding of the truth that there is no permanent self and that there should be no attachments to conditioned phenomena. This in turn leads to paramount wisdom and the realization that nirvana is the ultimate Noble Truth. The person realizing this can attain the highest realm of tranquility by abandoning all things that cause delusions and by breaking with the three poisons of covetousness, anger, and delusion.

The chief of the Buddha’s followers, Ananda, attained the Eye of the Law at the first sermon he heard. Though for the next twenty-five years of active missionary life he heard Shakyamuni preach daily and was familiar with all major and minor points of his teachings, Ananda did not attain ultimate arhat enlightenment until three months after Shakyamuni’s death. In the collection of moral teachings known as the Dhammapada it is said, “Though a fool attend on a wise man all his life, he will no more comprehend the Law than a spoon understands the taste of the soup. An intelligent man who spends only a short time with a wise man will at once comprehend the Law, as the tongue understands the taste of the soup.” In spite of the importance of causes from previous existences, however, the suitability—or lack of it—of the person’s guide and the method of training and eagerness of the person himself affect the speed with which enlightenment is attained. (Page 118)