Fate (Buddhism)

In Buddhism, the concept of destiny or fate is called niyati. Niyati refers to predetermined, inevitable, and unalterable events. In some religious traditions of India, such as the Vedanta school of Hinduism, an external or divine power or outside agency is seen to be able to influence one’s fate. However, in Buddhism, which is doctrinally an atheistic religion, there is no supreme being or force which is seen to control or influence the course of an individual’s life, and essentially, the concept of niyati plays only a minor role compared to the concept of karma (Sanskrit; Pali: kāmma). The Buddha did make a distinction between karma and niyati, in the sense that some events are not karmically determined but are rather the result of niyati. For the most part, however, individuals are viewed to possess the capacity to manipulate future events through interventions to karma.

The law of karma is seen to determine the conditions of rebirth as well as the course of events in present and future lives. There are strong overlaps and indeed, sometimes, a seemingly synonymous relationship between fate and karma. This is especially the case if fate and karma are seen as one and the same concept. However, the word karma literally translates as “deed” or “action,” while there is a separate word for karmic fruit or outcome, referred to as vipāka in both Pali and Sanskrit. While it may appear that an individual’s karma subjects him or her to an inevitable course in life, unlike fate, the fruits of karma are modifiable through individual action. In this sense, karmic law in Buddhistic thought functions in a deterministic but not fatalistic fashion, while simultaneously emphasizing the capacity for free will and change in every individual.

In order to illustrate the contrast between karma and fate further, it is helpful to briefly examine the doctrinal beliefs of the ancient Ājivika ascetic sect, who were strictly fatalistic in their worldview. The Ājīvikas (literally, “following an ascetic way of life”) were an order of wandering ascetics who were contemporaries of the early Buddhists and historical Jains around the fifth to sixth century B.C. The founder of the Ājīvika faith is generally regarded to be Goshala Maskariputra (c. 484 B.C.). The group is thought to have existed up until around the fourteenth century. The original doctrinal texts of the Ājīvika have not survived, although fragments of the Ājīvika doctrine are preserved in Buddhist and Jain sources and some inscriptions from the Mauryan Empire (322–185 B.C.E). It should be noted that because they were rival groups, the extent to which Buddhist and Jain sources reflect the actual doctrine of the Ājīvikas is debatable. The basic principle underlying the doctrines is that of reincarnation, determined by the cosmic principle of niyati, which was seen to be absolutely independent of a person’s actions. Within this view, karma was false and free will was an illusion. Consequently, the Ājīvikas were strict fatalists or determinists. Individual destinies were predetermined and the universe was organized in an unchangeable order. Nirvana was reached only after the soul had been reincarnated 84 by 100,000 times in samsara, and no amount of individual effort could change this path. Eventually, in the last life before liberation, a soul is reborn as an Ājīvika ascetic. The absence of free will in Ājīvika worldview also means that there is no such thing as moral responsibility or right or wrong actions [1].

The Ājīvika view on karma, fate, and morality represents a stark contrast to that of the Buddhist tradition. For Buddhists, every phenomenon has causes and conditions which are the consequences of good or bad moral actions. This karmic law is inescapable and, therefore, may seem to manifest as fate, yet karma can also be transformed by producing good conditions. The doctrine of karma in Buddhism hence places great emphasis on individual agency and moral responsibility, as opposed to the passivity encouraged by a fatalistic worldview. Indeed, the Buddha told his disciples to “work out your own salvation with diligence” [2]. In essence, the individual creates his or her own destiny, and this is ever changeable.

In Buddhism, particular emphasis is placed on the intention (Sanskrit: cetanā; Pali: cetana) behind an action as playing a strong role in the karmic effect. A deed is not the sole determinant of karmic effects, the latter of which also depend on intention or the moral nature of the individual and also the specific circumstances of the action [3]. Thus, for instance, in the Nibbedhika Sutta the Buddha said: “Intention, monks, is karma, I say. Having willed, one acts through body, speech and mind” [4]. The emphasis on intention in the creation of karma provides the foundation for Buddhist ethics. Furthermore, the notion that karma and hence one’s future destiny can be altered is a necessary condition for enlightenment and escape from samsara (the wheel of rebirth) and suffering, meaning that a fatalistic worldview is untenable in Buddhist doctrine.

In fact, the Buddha criticized several beliefs that were seen to contradict the law of karma and which were considered to be wrong views. These were: pubbekatahetuvada, or the belief that all happiness and suffering arise from previous karma; issaranimmanahetuvada, or the belief that all happiness and suffering are controlled by a supreme being; and ahetu-apaccayavada, or the belief that all happiness and suffering are random and without cause [5]. These beliefs were held to be false because they undermined the role of agency, effort, and motivation in shaping one’s future path and subsequent release from samsara which is the ultimate soteriological goal of Buddhism