                      THE BUDDHA'S WORDS ON KAMMA
                                           
                                           
                   Four Discourses of the Buddha from
                          the Majjhima Nikaya
                                           
                             Translated by
                            Bhikkhu Nanamoli
                                           
                                           
                                           
                Edited with Preface and Introductions by
                           Bhikkhu Khantipalo

                   The Wheel Publication No. 248/249
                                           
                      BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
                      KANDY              SRI LANKA
                                           
                          First Edition  1977
                     Second Edition (revised) 1993
                                           
          Copyright 1977, 1993 by Buddhist Publication Society
                                           
                           ISBN 955-24-0073-2
                                           
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                         DharmaNet Edition 1994
                                           
        This electronic edition is offered for free distribution
            via DharmaNet by arrangement with the publisher.
                                           
                        DharmaNet International
                 P.O. Box 4951, Berkeley CA 94704-4951
                                           
                                           
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                                CONTENTS
                                           
            Preface                             PREFACE.TXT
            The Dog-Duty Ascetic                DOG_DUTY.TXT
            The Shorter Exposition of Kamma     SHORTER.TXT
            The Great Exposition of Kamma       GREAT.TXT
            The Brahmins of Sala                BRAHMINS.TXT

            Changes made in this edition        ERRATA.TXT
            About the BPS                       BPS.TXT
   
   
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                                PREFACE
   
   
   Kamma concerns everyone. We make it, a great deal of it, every day 
   while we are awake. We decide whether or not to get up -- kamma. 
   (Good kamma if one gets up vigorously, bad kamma if slothfully or 
   grudgingly.) Let's have a cup of tea, breakfast -- maybe some greed 
   is involved, so bad kamma. We sympathize with someone's sickness and 
   give help -- good kamma. We get flustered because the bus is late to 
   take us to work -- bad kamma. Once we're there perhaps we get 
   impatient with someone, or angry with them, or threaten them -- 
   worse and worse kamma. But perhaps we are generous and kindly to 
   someone there -- excellent kamma. Work brings on dull mental states, 
   then we shake ourselves out of that listlessness and resentment (bad 
   kamma) and vigorously try to get back to mindfulness (good kamma).
   
     In the crowded bus returning home someone stamps on one's foot, 
   one curses -- bad kamma -- but after quick reflection one realizes 
   "Ah, no mindfulness" and this is good kamma. At home at last, one 
   comforts the sick, then plays with the children and tells them some 
   Jataka stories -- all good kamma. But then, tired and dull, one 
   switches the radio (and/or television) on and, not listening to it, 
   leaves it going as a sound to drown silence, then one eats too much 
   and feels lethargic -- bad kamma. But perhaps instead one pays 
   respect to the Buddha-image, does some chanting and then meditates 
   -- all kinds of good kamma. When the body is tired one goes to sleep 
   holding some meditation subject in mind -- good kamma.
     
     All these decisions, choices and desires are kammas made in the 
   mind. More kamma is made when one talks after having decided. Still 
   more kamma is added if after this one acts as well.
     
     "Good" and "bad" kamma are distinguished by //the roots// of the 
   actions. What is one's motivating force when one helps the sick? 
   This is a case where there are various possibilities. Is it just 
   because one wants rich Aunty's money when she dies, or out of 
   genuine compassion? Obviously, in the latter case much better kamma 
   is made. But there are examples where there is no doubt. One's toes 
   are stamped on and one curses: this can never be good kamma simply 
   because it is //rooted in hatred//. Or one gobbles down too much 
   food -- just //greed-rooted// kamma in this case. Again those dull 
   or day-dream periods at work, not looking at things as they are at 
   all, this is //rooted in delusion//. When any of the mentally 
   defiled states of mind has arisen, when these three "roots of evil" 
   are in control, then bad kamma is sure to be made.
     
     Once it is made there is no way of erasing it or changing it and 
   some day or other it will begin to fruit. The fruit of bad kamma is 
   never happiness, as we can read in these discourses. It always comes 
   up as pain, anguish, frustration, or the limitation of 
   opportunities. Who wants them? Then make no more bad kamma! Everyone 
   has laid in a stock already quite capable of giving rise to 
   sufferings for lifetimes to come. There is no need to increase it.
     
     Everyone wants happiness! But it too arises conditionally. Now a 
   great producer of happiness is the making of good kamma. What is 
   good about it? It is //rooted in non-greed// (generosity, 
   renunciation), or in //non-hate// (loving-kindness, compassion) or 
   finally in //non-delusion// (wisdom, understanding). The sure way to 
   gain happiness, then, is to make good kamma, as much as possible 
   every day.
     
     It is only people who make a real effort to grow in Dhamma (that 
   is, to make good kamma), who have any chance to succeed in 
   meditation on the path to final liberation. Whatever one's goal in 
   this life -- happiness here and now, a good rebirth in the future, 
   or to end the whole birth and death process by attainment of 
   Nibbana, one cannot go wrong by making good kamma.
   
     And what about those who do not believe in kamma and its fruits? 
   They still make it whether they believe or not! And they get the 
   fruits of the kamma they make, too. But the doing, not the 
   believing, is the important thing.
   
                          "Do good, get good,
                          do evil, get evil."
                                           
                                           
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