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Conditionality of Human Life

by Brother Kim

God alone is without a cause. For a god, who really exists, could not be a product of human imagination. If God is conditioned by the thoughts of man, all hope of salvation would immediately be lost. Even Buddha confirmed the existence of something unconditioned. He said:

There is, O monks, an Unborn, a Not-become, a Not-made, a Not-compounded. If there were not, O monks, this Unborn, Not-become, Not-made, Not-compounded, there would not be any escape from what is born, become, made and compounded. But since, O monks, there is this Unborn, Not-become, a Not-made, a Not-compounded, therefore is there made known an escape from what is born, become, made and compounded (Udana 80-81).

It is often insisted that Buddha denied the existence of God. But in this old reliable text, he not only confirms the existence of a creator and a creation, he even distinguishes correctly between them. In a threefold affirmative statement he declared that without the uncreated the created would be without any hope of salvation. The logic is that salvation is undefined, if is perceived as mere flight without a goal. When it is realized that the unborn mentioned by Buddha is the preincarnate Christ, the Buddhist text says the same as what is taught by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Colossians:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15-17).

There is an unborn, not-aspiring, not-created – namely the Christ, who as the Father is eternal God and co-creator of all things. The Christ is the beginning and completion of all things. Here there is no progressive, evolutionary process towards higher existences and consciousness levels. The Christ is by birthright the appointed heir to all things without deeds.

Is God the cause of suffering?

Buddha felt some anger against the Creator because of the suffering creation. Now in Thailand a famous Buddhist member of the Sangha even spoke out that the almighty God must be ignorant (Avijja), since he created the world. Had God known what chaos of suffering of worldly existences he thus caused, he ought not to have created it. We simply have to generously excuse such ignorant attack on the honorable Christian faith, particularly the mocking of our omniscient God as ignorant. For even such sins against God Jesus Christ promised to forgive (Matthew 12:31-32). Many others have throughout the times doubted the goodness and power of God in the light of the suffering creation. For this issue is not unknown to Christians, who throughout history have addressed it in more respectful ways under the name of Theodicy. For many have truly doubted God's goodness and power in view of the suffering creation. God the Creator is not the author of sin or the cause of suffering. The prevailing circumstances are not ordained by God's good will. On the contrary much suffering is caused by man's deliberate opposition against God the Creator, who made all things well (Genesis 1:31).

God's creation was good from the beginning. However, when God planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he took a risk. He created man and woman for fellowship with himself and to live forever with him. But if mankind broke the only rule not to eat from that particular tree, it would cause suffering and death, not just for mankind, but for all creation (Romans 8:22). Even before the first man broke the commandment of God, God already knew the consequences of the risk, which he had taken. God never tries to escape his universal responsibility. Everything in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones or powers or rulers or authorities has its origin in Him (Colossians 1:16). Nothing has originated outside his domain and area of responsibility (John 1:2). Therefore, the origin of the creation, the unborn Christ had to be born into the creation as the man Jesus Christ of Israel to feel its suffering upon his own body. This happened to redeem it from all the eternal consequences of evil and to reconcile whoever believes in Him. It took only the disobedience of one man for all things to be subjugated under the law of impermanence. Therefore, it only takes the obedience of this one until death on a cross to reconcile all (Romans 5:12-16).

On this background it is easy to understand why the human soul not should be looked upon as immortal. Life is conditioned upon access to the source of life. But since our first human ancestors were disobedient against God's simple command, all mankind got separated from knowing God their Creator and from maintaining their life from Him (Genesis 3:22-24). For us God exists in an unapproachable light, which no intellectual process or religious technique ever could bring us back into touch with (1. Timothy 6:16). Without knowing this immortal God old age, disease and death, and eternal separation from the source of life becomes our only true expectation about the future (Romans 5:14). On the contrary, to know God's Son is the condition for inheriting eternal life (1. John 5:12). Since the unconditional love of God in Christ, therefore, is our only hope, it is irrelevant to speculate about, who created God. It is more meaningful to meditate upon God's loving kindness. It is not conditioned upon who or what I am as a man or woman. The love of man is mostly conditioned, but the love of God flows directly from his character.

The cause of impermanence

Suffering (Dukkha) is therefore not the essential problem of the existence. That is impermanence (Anicca), which is caused by the separation from the source of life, which is God. There are no original mistakes in God's creation (Genesis 1:31). Man is created with the possibility to sense pain with a purpose. How else could life find a meaning without the reality of pain. It is pain, which sets the limits for the opportunities of mankind. On the other hand we are not created to harm each other and inflict sufferings upon others. Therefore, both the cause of sufferings and impermanence lie in the separation from God. Since only God is unconditioned immortal (1. Timothy 6:16), it follows logically that human life is temporary. Since our first human ancestors to maintain life had to eat from the tree of life, which is not inside man but outside of man, it follows that eternal life not is innate in man as he is (Genesis 2:8). The life, which God blew into man at creation lasts for a while, but when it is extinct, there is no hope of new life anymore. For that reason the exclusion from eating from the tree of life is a parallel to the separation from God, the only possessor of immortal life. Sufferings begin by man's separation from the source of life in God. This is the beginning of the new causal chain ((Paticcasamuppada): Separated from the source of life in God ….

Man is created with needs

Now man is made with needs from God's hand, not only the need to eat from the tree of life, but with a variety of needs: In short man needs food and shelter, to work and to rest, and human fellowship (Genesis 2:9, 15 & 18). God made man with various needs, but he also provided for the needs of man through his creation. This is in fact what makes human life meaningful. Man cannot back off into himself. In stead he is naturally encouraged to reach out into his environment to find fulfillment for his needs in the form of God's provisions. In full fellowship with God the Creator, this necessary harvest of provisions might never have caused any problems. But separated from God and his true caring Teaching mankind fell into imbalance between the satisfaction of the desires of men/women and God's abundant provisions through the creation. This discrepancy cost suffering because of sins towards each other and neglect of responsible solidarity.

From this explanation we realize that there is a relationship between needs and desires. Selfish desires are distorted needs. All experience the fear of unmet needs and grasps for more than is necessary. And if overfilling is attempted and reached in one area of life, such might simply be sought in compensation for unmet needs in other areas. The original human person made in the image of a personal God has through alienation become distorted into a false self characterized by selfish desires. It is such an irreversible condition of the sinful nature of separated man, which makes it impossible for him to return to his original condition, even if all his needs one way or another should be met. The Apostle Paul experienced that it was even hard for him to do the good deeds, he truly desired to do (Romans 7:14-18). It is the exact same human experience that made Buddha reject the individual self (Anatta), which in Sanskrit is Atman, as identical with God (Brahma). For how can a self, which is bound by fetters and unable to do what it wants, be God? This is the continuation of the new causal chain: Separated from the source of life in God, who alone is unconditioned immortal, unmet human needs changed into selfish desires.

Evil thoughts and evil Deeds

When desire and excessive expectations are not met, it gives birth to evil thoughts in the heart, which often turn into anger and aggression. It is logical. However, it is also the clear Teaching of Jesus Christ, who only at very rare occasion spoke about the issue of sin. According to Him out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander (Matthew 15:18-19). As demonstrated by the Word of Jesus, bad deeds follow from evil thoughts in the heart. Now not all deeds are as drastic as breaking the Ten Commandments, but there are various evil deeds, which follow from hatred, lust, material desire and manipulative lies in the heart. The causal explanation is that following unmet human needs, selfish desire gives birth to evil thoughts in the heart of all men, thus to destructive bad deeds of the body and the tongue. Such ideas should be fairly familiar to Buddhists, who in the term of the three fetters (or the three poisons) - ignorance, desire, anger, by such terms simplify the casual explanation of suffering. And this particular Buddhist notion of the three fetters should also not be unfamiliar to Biblical Christians. Particularly, the Apostle Paul expresses himself in full parallel terms in Titus 3:3.

Reincarnate Sin

When evil deeds are repeated they turn into habitual sin. Jesus said: "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin" (John 8:34). Such might even be termed reincarnate sin. For example if a person has become dependent upon smoking, he becomes enslaved by it. It begins with the awakening of the craving; when the smoker next obeys the craving, the craving dies for a while; but soon the craving gets born again. The circle of birth, death and rebirth does somehow have a natural place within the human experience of bondage to sin, but the issue of transcendent incarnation beyond death has nothing to do with experience. It is a matter of a Hindu belief system developed from certain human facts, but by false deduction brought beyond its area of natural validity. The new causal chain continues: From one bad deed to habitual bad deeds and enslavement to sin.

Sin, Suffering and Death

The Christ might differ slightly from Buddhists in diagnosing the severe problem of mankind as impermanence above suffering. But the fact is that it is bad deeds (sin) that lead to both suffering and death. Therefore, the issues of both the sins and suffering of mankind are important matters to Christ and his people. Sin, suffering and death are linked together in causal structures. Sin leads to suffering and death for oneself and/or for others. If nobody suffered from sin, there would be no reason to bother about it. However, sin also violates the righteous nature of God the Creator. Therefore, the severe issue of death is particularly pressuring. For as it has already been described above, the process of death already started with separation from God in solidarity with our common human ancestors. Without access to refilling from God, who is the ultimate source of life, the temporary nature of human life in man will soon be exposed. In this aspect life is not fair. For even the one, who strives for holiness and good deeds cannot overcome the problem of death (Romans 5:12a & 14).

Sin is, therefore, not the ultimate cause of death, but sin is the practical cause through distortion of needs into selfish desires etc. So when man sins, the limited pool of life is being spoiled and used up at an even higher speed. The sure death of all is fast approaching because of the fallen nature of the world. The apostle Paul writes, that sin results in death (Romans 6:26). Therefore, the new casual chain states, that habitual (reincarnate) bad deeds and enslavement to sin result in both suffering and final death. In addition, those, who truly live lawless, will certainly not avoid God's judgment and embarrassment. The Apostle Paul writes that as you sow you shall also reap (Galatians 6:8). Therefore, it is at this point necessary to qualify the kind of death, we are talking about from the perspective of Christ. Death is a universal reality, which concerns all men. For life does not prevail through birth and rebirth in an ever-lasting circle. Life cannot follow from death. Life follows from life. Without access to the source of life in God, the death of man is unconditioning and final. It results in eternal separation from the life with God.

Summary of the new Causal Chain

What is then the cause of impermanence? The answer lies in the new causal chain according to the enlightenment from Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures of the Bible: Separated from the source of life in God, who alone is unconditioned immortal, unmet human needs changed into selfish desires, giving birth to evil thoughts in the heart of all men, thus to destructive bad deeds of the body and the tongue, from one bad deed to habitual bad deeds and enslavement to sin, resulting in both suffering and final death - ultimately, eternal separation from the life with God.