# A Buddhist argument against the paralysis of inevitability

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH08.P021](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH08.P021/#char=721,830): "To the Buddhist or the eastern fatalist existence is a science or a plan, which must end up in a certain way."

The grouping suppresses an important counterexample within Buddhist teaching itself. In the *Tittha Sutta*, the Buddha criticizes three explanations that remove the basis of moral effort: everything experienced comes from past actions, from a creator's activity, or from no cause at all. Each, when treated as a complete explanation, undermines the distinction between what one should and should not do. The positive teaching culminates in a path that expressly includes right action and right effort. This is a canonical Buddhist argument against ethical paralysis, rather than an assurance that events will arrange themselves satisfactorily.

It therefore partly shares Chesterton's concern while resisting his allocation of that concern exclusively to Christianity. It does not prove that Buddhist and Christian accounts of freedom agree, or answer every claim about eventual liberation; it does show why 'Buddhist' cannot simply substitute for 'fatalist' here. The inspected witness is Thanissaro Bhikkhu's English translation, first copyrighted 1997 in the Access to Insight version, where it is numbered *Anguttara Nikaya* 3.61 (PTS A i 173). The translator's updated Dhammatalks edition numbers it 3:62. These identify the same discourse; 1997 dates the translation, not the ancient Pali text, whose first composition cannot be dated precisely from these witnesses.

## Sources

- [Tittha Sutta: Sectarians](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an03/an03.061.than.html), AN 3.61, PTS A i 173; Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation (1997); opening three refutations and concluding eightfold path
- [Sectarians: Tittha Sutta](https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN3_62.html), AN 3:62, updated Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation; opening three refutations

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