Friday, September 24, 2010

Can we modify or even extinguish our Kamma?



We do not inherit bad kamma, just because we are born as human beings. We make our kamma and we own it. We are simply responsible for it. We cannot blame it on someone else. If you do bad kamma it is you who will reap its negative results. In the same way If you do good kamma it is you who will reap its positive results.

If we look into this further Ven.
Nyanaponika Thera says,
"Most writings on the doctrine of kamma emphasize the strict lawfulness governing kammic action, ensuring a close correspondence between our deeds and their fruits. While this emphasis is perfectly in place, there is another side to the working of kamma — a side rarely noted, but highly important. This is the modifiability of kamma, the fact that the lawfulness which governs kamma does not operate with mechanical rigidity but allows for a considerably wide range of modifications in the ripening of the fruit.

If kammic action were always to bear fruits of invariably the same magnitude, and if modification or annulment of kamma-result were excluded, liberation from the samsaric cycle of suffering would be impossible; for an inexhaustible past would ever throw up new obstructive results of unwholesome kamma.

That means kamma can be modified or diluted and even extinguished.
First we will look at how we
can modify or dilute kamma.


If all conditioned things are subject to change(impermanence), kamma too has to be impermanent. This is because kamma is basically our intention and this is subject to change. Kamma can therefore be changed (with few exceptions) or diluted/modified and the sutta below explains it. All we have to do is to by collect a whole lot of good kamma by mind, body and speech, just like a "flowing river". Please s

ee the post below:

We can take this a step further. Kamma can also be extinguished completely. This needs a lot of work and can be done by the practice of insight meditation and by ending all taints. This following sutta is good evidence for this.

"... there are four kinds of kamma proclaimed by me after realization myself with direct knowledge.

What are the four?

1.There is dark kamma with dark ripening,
2. There is bright kamma with bright ripening,
3. There is dark-and-bright kamma with dark-and-bright ripening,
4. There is kamma that is not dark and not bright with neither-dark-nor-bright ripening that conduces to the exhaustion of kamma.
Kukkuravatika Sutta: The Dog-duty Ascetic
translated from the Pali by Ñanamoli Thera
So what is the path that will lead to the kamma that is not dark and not bright that conduces to the exhaustion of kamma?
In Budhhas words:
"...what is the path of practice leading to the cessation of kamma? Just this noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is called the path of practice leading to the cessation of kamma.
Kamma Sutta: Action
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Just as mushrooms that pop up from nowhere...


Defilements of the mind can be seen as mushrooms that pop up from nowhere, when the right conditions are present. There are three levels of defilements.* The defilements that are behave like mushrooms are the ones that stay dormant till the right conditions are present. They can be only uprooted completely with wisdom gained through insight, with mindfulness meditation.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

How is a donation endowed with six factors?


There is the case where there are the three factors of the donor, the three factors of the recipients.

Three factors of the donor:

1. There is the case where the donor, before giving, is glad.

2. While giving, his/her mind is bright & clear.

3. After giving is gratified.

The three factors of the recipients:

1. Free of passion or are practicing for the subduing of passion.

2. Free of aversion or practicing for the subduing of aversion.

3. Free of delusion or practicing for the subduing of delusion.

"Just as it is not easy to take the measure of the great ocean as 'just this many buckets of water, just this many hundreds of buckets of water, just this many thousands of buckets of water, or just this many hundreds of thousands of buckets of water.' It is simply reckoned as a great mass of water, incalculable, immeasurable. In the same way, it is not easy to take the measure of the merit of a donation thus endowed with six factors as 'just this much a bonanza of merit, a bonanza of what is skillful — a nutriment of bliss, heavenly, resulting in bliss, leading to heaven — that leads to what is desirable, pleasing, charming, beneficial, pleasant.' It is simply reckoned as a great mass of merit, incalculable, immeasurable."

Dana Sutta: Giving
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu



Monday, September 20, 2010

The origin of the world


Buddha said:
"There are these four unconjecturables that are not to be conjectured*
about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured
about them.

One of them is:
"Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an
unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring
madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.

Acintita Sutta: Unconjecturable
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
(*conjectured- Inference or judgment based on inconclusive or incomplete evidence; guesswork.)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.077.than.html

And why is that:
".... Because they are not connected with the goal, do not relate to
the rudiments of the holy life, and do not lead to disenchantment, to
dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-
awakening, to Unbinding
. That is why I have not taught them.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.031.than.html


If not it will be like (a simile):
"It's just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with
poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide
him with a surgeon, and the man would say, 'I won't have this arrow
removed until I know
whether the man who wounded me was a noble
warrior, a priest, a merchant, or a worker.' He would say, 'I won't
have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the
man who wounded me... until I know whether he was tall, medium, or
short... until I know whether he was dark, ruddy-brown, or golden-
colored... until I know his home village, town, or city... until I
know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a long bow or a
crossbow... until I know whether the bowstring with which I was
wounded was fiber, bamboo threads, sinew, hemp, or bark... until I
know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was wild or
cultivated... until I know whether the feathers of the shaft with
which I was wounded were those of a vulture, a stork, a hawk, a
peacock, or another bird... until I know whether the shaft with which
I was wounded was bound with the sinew of an ox, a water buffalo, a
langur, or a monkey.' He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed
until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was that of a
common arrow, a curved arrow, a barbed, a calf-toothed, or an oleander
arrow.' The man would die and those things would still remain unknown
to him.


http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.063.than.html

If that is the case why did Buddha discuss origin of the world and end of the world in some suttas?
Agganna sutta* (origin of the world) was discussed mainly to teach the origin of the cast system in India at the time. The Spatha Suriyagamana sutta** (end of the world or the disclose of the seven suns) was discussed to show the impermanent nature of all conditioned things. In both these suttas Buddha the key message is that the Dhamma is the refuge for us all.

*http://tipitaka.wikia.com/wiki/Agganna_Sutta
Related subjects for further reading:

Origin of the Belief in a Creator God