Kamma & ITs Fruits

There were cases which non-Buddhists who wished to show that their religions were superior to Buddhism, deliberately questioned the monks regarding how Buddhism, that was introduced 2600 years ago could be still valid today. They pointed the examples of Buddhists today who have to cull animals. In these cases, the culling is acceptable because we have to save the lives of millions of other lives. For example, if you come across a man who is going to shoot another person, and you kill the attacker on the spot, you do not commit the bad Kamma of killing because you are saving another person. This example was given by the Buddha. However, if a country attacks another country for selfish reason, and a citizen joins the armed forces, in the process he kills some of the so-called enemies, he creates the personal Kamma of killing. Fixed Kamma is committed with speech, mind and body. The example would be a premeditated crime. Every thought, utterance, and deed is a seed that ripens over time. Everyone has the potential at every moment to alter the course of the future Kamma, by doing good deeds. The Buddha personally said “If there is no way out, I will not be teaching you today”. Collective Kamma is created when a group of people, for example, go and set fires to destroy properties and living beings. The resulting Kamma will be about the same for the future of this group. They will be burned to death in their future live and their properties will be destroyed by others. Kamma means the retribution or reward, in current or future life. How do we account for the unevenness in this ill-balanced world? Why should identical twins, inheriting like genes, enjoying the same privileges, be intellectually and morally totally different? Poverty and want are the results of miserly thoughts and actions in past lives. Deformity is due to past evil Kamma. Human birth is due to a past good Kamma. Cunda, a butcher, who was living in the vicinity of the Buddha’s monastery, died squealing like a pig because he slaughtered pigs to earn a living. There are common Kamma, fixed Kamma and Collective Kamma. It is the law of nature. Every good action will result in good Kamma and every bad action will result in bad Kamma. No one can escape it except the Buddhas and the Arahants, whose actions will create no further Kamma. However, Arahants and Buddhas are not exempt from the effects of indefinitely effective kamma, for example, Arahant Moggalana was slaughtered and cut to pieces by thugs. Kamma is not stored anywhere. Just as mangoes are not stored in the mango tree. But when the conditions are right the fruits spring up during the season. The kammic energy created by sentient beings does not dissipate until it has given its effects, or until it becomes defunct. For example when the doers become Arahants or Buddhas, and they have attained Parinibbana, whatever kammic energy which has been left will automatically become defunct. Wholesome actions produce good results, which will lead to happiness here and hereafter. The ten Kammically wholesome deeds are: generosity, morality, meditation, reverence, service, dedication of merits, rejoicing in the merits of others, hearing the doctrine with respect, teaching the doctrine, and correcting the wrong views of others. Unwholesome actions have evil consequences which can result in this life or hereafter, sooner or later, when suitable conditions are present for maturation to take place. Thus whatever actions you have performed, good or evil, they will inevitably reward you with either happiness or suffering. The retributory kamma may be strengthened or weakened by current efforts, e.g. the good or bad deeds you are doing now. The ten unwholesome actions are: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, slander, harsh speech, gossip, covetousness, ill will, and wrong view. There are three types of kammic energy, one is that which will produce immediate effects. The next is the one that will produce subsequent effects. The last one is one that has indefinite effects. The five kinds of weighty kamma are: The creation of a schism in the Sangha. The wounding of a Buddha. The wounding of an Arahant. Matricide Parricide The above five acts will definitely produce their effects in the subsequent life. One example was King Ajatasattu who would have attained the first stage of Sainthood if he had not committed parricide. The other example was Moggalana, who killed his own father and mother during a previous life. Moggalana was killed by thugs even though he was an Arahant and possessed psychic powers. Moggalana tried to use his psychic power to avoid the thugs who were coming to kill him, not because he was afraid of death. He did not want the thugs to suffer the bad Kamma of killing an Arahant. King Ajatasattu will become a Pacceka Buddha in future, when he has paid off his bad kamma. Pacceka Buddhas do not need teachers to assist them on enlightenment. They only exist outside a Buddha Sasana and though they comprehend the doctrines, they are not capable of enlightening others. The Buddha who is capable of enlightening others is called a Samma Sambuddha. Sakyamuni is a Samma Sambuddha. The weighty kamma gets foremost priority in producing rebirth, followed by near-death kamma, habitual kamma and reserve kamma. All of us came according to our kamma and have to go according to our kamma, unless we perform lots of good merits in this life to nullify the bad deeds of the past lives. If an illness cannot be cured even when modern facilities, medicines and medical doctors are available, then we may say the person suffers because of his or her previous bad kamma. Some sick people who have no means to receive medical treatment do get well. For such cases, we can say their previous good kamma come to assist them. Life is the energy, mental, kammic and cosmic, all joined together. It is a process, a life-flux, or life-continuum, consisting Kammic potentials. When one life ends, the mental energy will build another house. This body is not life. It is a house built by life-supporting energy, with four cosmic elements, earth, fire, water and air. We are here because of causes and effects. Our past has given us the present, but the future is in our hand. Each of the atom in our body consists of 90% empty space. Therefore 90% of a person’s physical body is made up of empty space. Volition or desire, which is extremely strong during life time becomes predominant at the moment of death and conditions the subsequent birth. This last thought-moment presents a special potentiality. The stream of consciousness within this house flows on from birth till death and from death to new birth, in conformity with the natural law, until that person attains Nibbana. These natural laws operate unerringly and inexorably. The rebirth-consciousness of a dying man flows into another body according to his Kamma, because this life-stream is not annihilated. The vital kammic force that propels it still exists and it is this force which controls the material qualities produced by our kamma. A thought-process that conditions the future existence occurs during the dying moment.This last thought is called reproductive kamma. Death is merely the temporary end of a phenomenon. As the dying person assumes another form, called the refined form, (kaya sambhavesi in Pali) which is neither the same nor absolutely different, rebirth takes place according to the potential thought-vibration generated at the death moment. This kammic force propels the life-flux, as the dying person reaches bhavanga, a subconsciousness level. From this level the life-flux, which conserves the past kamma, enters the new cell, first via the right nostril of the father, and then via the left nostril of the mother descending to the worm to take fusion forming the beginning of another life, which is the moment when a sperm cell meets with an ovum. It develops and grows and divides into five parts, two legs, two hands and a head. This foetus develops every day through four principle causes: kamma, consciousness, temperature and nutrition. The past evil kamma will result deformity. So if we don’t want to be born with deformity, we must stop doing evils now. How does energy go from one body to the next body? Now we need to think of the radio waves, which are not words or music, but energy at different frequencies, which when transmitted, move through space and will be attracted or picked up by the receiver from where they are broadcasted as words or music. At death, mental energy moves through space, and is attracted to and picked up by the fertilized egg. As the embryo grows, it broadcasts itself as the new person, which is neither the same nor different from that person who died before. The radio waves only become a message when they come in contact with a new, material structure: the receiver. So does it matter if you fail to attain Nibbana during this life? You will have the chance to trying again during the next life. A dying person may see a Kamma action which he had performed in the course of his past life. He may recollect the deed as if it has been renewed, being done at that very moment. This is a recurring of the consciousness which one has experienced while performing the action. He may see characteristic symbol of the place in which he is bound to be reborn. This gati-nimitta (a sign or symbol), e.g. fire, lighted lamps, weapons, flesh, blood, celestial mansions etc will appear as clearly as any object you see in broad daylight. This consciousness is not the unchanging soul. It is Tanha (attachment) which leads the life-process to go on. During a being’s conception in its mother’s womb, the first consciousness that arises at that moment is called re-linking consciousness. This links the preceding life to the present life. Obviously, the unique character of an individual is stamped on the cell structure at conception. The transferred qualities and talents from the previous life, can lie dormant or hidden to varied degrees, and are not evident. With each new body, we begin anew, which means our past abilities don’t simply drop down from the sky. However, when appropriate condition appears, these qualities and talents will take effect. We will readily and easily learn them in this life. Some good examples are musical prodigies like Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, and Richard Strauss. Other prodigies are: Handel, Schubert, Chopin, Samuel Wesley and Christian Heinrich Heineken. Heineken, at aged three, was able to speak French and Latin, and at aged four, started to study religion and church history. Four kinds of Birth: Egg-born beings (andaya) Worm-born beings (jalabuja) Moisture-born beings (samsedaya) Spontaneous births (opapatika) Birds and oviparous snakes belong to the first group. The next group belongs to all human beings, some devas inhabiting the earth, and animals that take conception in a mother’s worm. The third group belong to embryos that take moisture as nidus for their growth. The last group belongs to Petas, Devas and Brahmas. Spontaneously born beings are not visible to the physical eye, and when they die there is no residue left. A person’s life span on this planet may be compared to an oil lamp which can be extinguished owing to any one of the following: Exhaustion of the wick (expiration of age limit) Exhaustion of the oil (expiration of Kammic force) Exhaustion of both wick and oil (expiration of both age limit and Kammic force) External cause like a gust of wind. (gust of wind: accident) Let us assume the wick is the life span of the human beings now, and that 80 years is the limit. By age 80, a person should be dead. However, if he had very good and powerful Kammic force from previous lives, he will not die at age 80, since a very powerful good Kammic force is capable of nullifying the energy of the last thought-process and can change the course of an event. For a person with very bad and powerful Kammic force from previous lives, death is definite. The accidental deaths are comparable to the light being blown out by a gust of strong wind, and therefore is untimely death. If we do not wish to die prematurely, we must not create the kamma which causes that to happen, e.g. we must not support and rejoice in any kind of killing as it will create the kamma to have short life in future. Vengeful feelings or action in response to harm we receive now sets up the experience of suffering in future lives. According to Buddhism, the sphere of light inside the human body is located at two finger-breadths above the navel. It is the seat of life which we call consciousness, spirit or soul. It leaves the body after death, and continues life after life, reborn at various levels according to the Kammic destiny, in the 31 planes of existence, until release is obtained by following the Noble-Eight-fold Path of the Buddha’s teaching. This consciousness (Citta in Pali, consisting of mind, heart and consciousness) being nonentity, faceless, and formless, will continue to search for its true identity which will only be attainable when all qualities of perfection are developed in his character, to mature into a perfect being called Arahant or Buddha. When Buddhism talks about the heart, it does not refer to the physical organ that pumps blood around your body. All the six senses, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind operate mechanically without any agent like a permanent soul as the operator. These six consciousness made up the mind which is always being pulled in various directions. The mind follows whichever one is the strongest at that moment. By concentrating on your breath, your mind is able to remain there and not pulled in the six directions. When this happens you have control over the mind. This gives you the chance to destroy the sense desires, false views and ignorance to a certain extent. The mind which has been purified is like the lamp-body. The sense doors are like the lamp wick, soaked in oil. With the above conditions the lamp can be lighted. For the Arahants and the Buddhas, those conditions no longer exist, as the oil and wick which signify defilements have completely run out. If one is convinced that one is entangled in a Kammic web that can nevertheless be unraveled, one will naturally try to learn from the example of the Buddha or His disciples. We must admit that our drawbacks and under-development prevent us from realizing the Truth. When you experience disappointment, frustrations, miseries and other suffering in various forms, please admit that it is you who creates the destiny by your own thoughts, words, and deeds. You are the builder of your own life because sooner or later, what you have given to life you will receive. The effects of Kamma will not be unchanging forever, like eternal suffering which is foreign to Buddhism. Our past actions, from time immemorial for countless lives, coupled by other factors, cause the good and bad we experience now. We should therefore overcome our unfavourable destiny by greater efforts in doing good deeds today. Our environment is related to our past actions, but it is also affected by what we are thinking and doing now. If we don’t start to question our values and what we are contemplating now, past kamma will have a chance to ripen. If we react to violence with violence, we are revengeful. We allow the violence to continue. There are three methods of making merits: charity, morality and meditation. During meditation, merit arises automatically because of the clear mind, as you radiate loving kindness and your mind does not think of bad thoughts or bad intentions. Loving kindness is a miraculous ointment. The merit arising from practice of meditation could be transferred or shared by beings in other realms, both those who are still alive and those who had passed away. The merits arising from making material offerings can only be dedicated to beings who have been reborn as petas or hungry ghosts. If they are reborn as humans, animals, hell beings, or celestial beings, they cannot receive those merits. We are lucky that not every bad deed we committed must be repaid. If each bad deed must be repaid, the entire cosmos would be totally deterministic and there is nothing we can do to free ourselves. The Buddha was one example of a person who did not have to wait for all his previous bad deeds or bad Kamma to work itself out. The same principle applies to all those Arahants. All of us possess the mental qualities needed for the task of awakening, if we want to develop them. When we succeed, we become Arahants or Buddhas. Whatever bad Kamma we have not yet repaid would be there to haunt us unless we attain Parinibbana. That was why Sakyamuni Buddha and many Arahants were physically hurt as long as they still possess the human bodies.