Sir - As a Buddhist monk, I wish to distinguish Mr Glen Hoddle's recent controversial comments from Buddhism, to which his statement was linked in these pages (The Irish Times, February 6th).
The suggestion that one's lot is due to past actions of one's own doing is a fatalistic doctrine which the Buddha repeatedly condemned. Instead he taught that every willed action has an effect, but not all effects are results of willed action. Briefly, if one finds oneself in advantaged or disadvantaged circumstances, it might be due to actions on the part of others, to war, to an accident, to a Lotto win or to a natural disaster.
Of course, it might well be due to one's own actions or a combination of some of the above (which most of us will find familiar when we examine our own lives thus far).
It is often not possible to state with any certainty that a given outcome is the result of a single conditioned cause (such as one's own fault for example) or of a set of multiple causes in which one played no part whatsoever.
Compassion is the central teaching of Buddhism and is especially applicable to those in disadvantaged circumstances irrespective of their origin. - Yours, etc.,
Sanghapala, Chairman, Dublin Meditation Centre East Essex Street, Dublin 2.