SCIENCE AND BUDDHISM 
107
survives death, what does it m
atter to us?  
Why are we to be so altruistic as to avoid 
the reincarnation of a being in all points 
different from ourselves?  As the small boy  
said, “What has posterity
 done for 
me?”  
But som ethin does persist; 
something 
changing, though less slowly .  What evi-
dence have we after all that an anim al does 
not remember his man-incarnation?   Or, as 
Levi says, “In the suns they
 remember,  
and in the planets they  forget.”  I think it 
unlikely (may be), but in the total absence of 
all evidence for or agains
t—at leas t with 
regard to the latter hy pothesis !—I suspend 
my judgement, leave the question alone, and 
proceed to m ore practical points  that are 
offered by these interesting but not over-
useful metaphysical speculations. 
V. 
KARMA. 
The Law of Causation is formally identical 
with this.  Karm
a m eans “ that which is 
made,” and I think it should be considered 
with strict etymological accuracy.  If I place 
a stone on the roof of a house, 
it is sure to 
fall sooner or later; i.e., as soon as the con-
ditions perm it.  Also, in its ultim
ation, the 
doctrine of Karm a is identical with 
deter-
minism.  On this subject much wisdom, with 
an infinite amount of rubbish, has been 
written.  I therefore dismiss it in these few 
words, confident that the established identity 
can never be shaken. 
VI. 
THE TEN FETTERS OR SANYOGANAS. 
 1. Sakkay a-ditthi. Belief in a “soul.” 
 2. V ikikikkha.  
Doubt. 
 3. Silabbata-parâ- Reliance on the effi- 
 mâsa              
cacy of rites and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
and ceremonies. 
 4. Kama.    Bodily
 Desires. 
 5. Patigha. 
  H
atred. 
 6. Ruparaga.   Desire 
for bodily 
         im
mortality. 
 7. Aruparaga. 
 
Desire for spiritual 
 
       i
mmortality. 
 8. Mano.    Pride. 
 9. Udha kka.   Self-righteousness. 
10. Avigga.   Ignorance. 
 
(1) For this is a petitio principii. 
(2) This, to a 
scientist, is apparently 
anathema.  But it only means, I think, that if 
we are not settled in our m
inds we cannot 
work.  And this is unquestionable.  Suppose 
a chemist to set to work to determ
ine the 
boiling-point of a new organic substance. 
 
Does he stop in the midst, struck by
 the  
fear that his therm ometer is  inaccurate ?  
No ! he has, unless he is a fool, tested it 
previously.  We must have 
our principia 
fixed before we can do research work. 
(3) A scientist hardly  requires conviction 
on this point! 
(4) Do you think to combine Newton and 
Caligula?  The passions, 
allowed to 
dominate, interfere with the concentration of 
the mind. 
(5) Does brooding on y our dislikes help 
you to accurate obs ervation?  I admit that  
a controversy may stir y ou up to perform 
prodigies of work, but while y ou are actually 
working you do not suffer the concentration 
of your mind to be interfered with. 
(6 & 7) This Fetter and the next are con-
tingent on your having perceived the suffer-
ing of all forms of conscious existence. 
(8) Needs  no com
ment.  
Pride, like 
humility, is a form of delusion. 
(9) Is like unto it, but on the moral plane. 
(10) The great enemy.  Theists alone have 
found the infamous audacity  to extol the 
merits of this badge of servitude. 
We s ee, then, that in this
 classification  
a scientist will concur.  W e need not d iscuss 
the question whether or no he would 
find 
others to add.  Buddhism may not be com-
plete, but, as far as it goes, it is accurate.