| Sutta Name | Nikaya | Vagga | Academic | PTS | PSA Plae | Keywords | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mahaakammavibha"nga | Majjhima | Uparipa.n.naasa, Vibha"nga Vagga | MN.136 | M.iii.207-15 | 23/263 | Answering questions simplistically, karma, retribution | Potaliputta comes to Samiddhi in his forest hut near Veluvana and tells him that the Buddha has declared that all one saysor does is in vain; the only thing of importance is that which passes through the mind. Samiddhi protests against this. When Potaliputta asks ‘What does a man experience who acts of set purpose’, Samiddhi gives his own explanation. Potaliputta goes away without further discussion and seeks out Ananda to whom he reports the incident. Ananda takes him to the Buddha, remarking that Samiddhi should not have given such a simplistic answer. Laludayi interupts and is rebuked by the Buddha who explains that the question was essentially a triple one and should have been so answered. If a man’s purposeful act is calculated to produce a pleasant feeling, his experience is pleasant: if an unpleasant feeling, unpleasant: if neither pleasant nor unpleasant, it is neither. Ananda asks hims to explain further, and this he does. A man may be 1. wicked in this world and yet, at death pass into heaven; 2. wicked in this world and at death pass into hell; 3. good in this world and pass into heaven; 4. good in this world and yet pass into heaven. However, one should not rush to jump to conclusions from this truth, because the consequences of man’s action, good or bad, may be felt either this life, the next or the hereafter. Kamma can be divided into four classes: 1. that which has an outcome which is operant and manifestly so; 2. that which has an outcome which is operant but not manifest; 3. that which has an outcome which is non-operant and manifestly so; 4. that which has an outcome which is non-operant but not manifest. Whether immediately manifest or not in the end all karma has retribution. |
Last modified on: Sunday, 9 January 2000.