From Ignorance, Mental Formations Arise ENSUAL PLEASURE is the source of happiness for most people. Nibbāna as the extinction of mind and matter is undesirable and the way to it appears arduous and painful. So people seek to
gratify their desire through bodily, verbal, and mental action. Some of these actions may be ethical and others may be dishonest. Good people practise charity, morality, and meditation for their well-being after death, while others resort to deceit or robbery to become rich.
A synonym for kamma is sankhārā (mental formations). Mental formations are of three types: physical,
vocal, and mental. Mental formations presuppose volition (cetanā). The function of volition is to conceive, to urge or to incite. As such it is the basis of all wholesome and unwholesome actions such as almsgiving or killing. The meditator knows its nature empirically through contemplation. There is another threefold classification of mental formations: meritorious kammas with favourable
results (puññābhisankhārā), demeritirious kammas with unfavourable results (apuññābhisankhārā), and imperturbable kamma (āneñjābhisankhārā) that leads to arūpa-jhāna (lit. immobile jhāna). Rūpa-jhāna and all the wholesome actions having kammic results in the sensual realm are classified as puññābhisankhārā. Puñña literally means something that cleanses or purifies. Just as one washes the
dirt off the body with soap, so we have to rid ourselves of kammic impurities through charity, morality, and meditation. These meritorious deeds are conducive to well-being and prosperity in the present life and after death. Another meaning of puñña is the ability to fulfil the desire of the doer. Meritorious deeds help to fulfil
various human desires, e.g. the desire for health, longevity, wealth, and so forth. If a meritorious deed is motivated by the hope for nibbāna, it leads to a life that is conducive to one’s goal. Otherwise, it may ensure happiness and well-being until the end of one’s last existence. Abhisankhāra is the effort to do something for one’s own well-being. It has wholesome or unwholesome kammic results. So puññābhisankhāra is a meritorious deed with a beneficial kammic result. In the sensual sphere
(kāmāvacara) there are eight types of meritorious deeds and five types in the fine-material sphere (rūpāvacara). All these may be summarised as of three kinds: charity, morality, and meditation. Giving charity gladly is done with a wholesome consciousness, which is kammically very fruitful. So the
donor should rejoice before, during, and after the act of giving. This kind of charity is said to be very effective. The donor may also give charity with indifference, but if the mind is clear the act has high kammic potential. Any charitable act that is based on the belief in kamma is rational. It bears fruit as rebirth with no predisposition to greed, ill-will, and delusion. An act of charity without recognition of its
moral value is wholesome but unintelligent. Thus it will lead to a rebirth with no great intelligence. It may bear good kammic fruit in everyday life but it does not make the donor intelligent enough to attain the Path in the next life. One person may do a meritorious deed without being prompted by others (asankhārika-kusala). Another may do so only when prompted (sasankhārika-kusala). Of these two kinds of meritorious deeds, the
former is more fruitful than the latter. When we multiply the four kinds of meritorious deeds by these two attributes, we have a total of eight types of wholesome consciousness in the sensual sphere. Whenever we do a meritorious deed, we are urged to do so by one of these wholesome states. When we practise meditation, we have to begin with these eight types of wholesome consciousness. If it is samatha meditation, one can attain rūpāvacara-jhāna when concentration is well-developed.
Jhāna means total concentration of the mind on an object of mental training. Samatha jhāna is concentration for bare tranquillity. Jhānic concentration is like a flame burning in still air. According to the Sutta Pitaka, the rūpāvacara jhāna has four levels; according to the Abhidhamma it has five levels. The five fine-material wholesome types of consciousness (rūpakusala-citta) are associated with the
five jhānas. They are accessible only through the practice of samatha that leads to jhāna. Meritorious kamma includes the eight wholesome types of sense-sphere consciousness and the five jhānas. Unwholesome KammasOpposed to wholesome kamma is unwholesome kamma. These immoral deeds lead to lower realms and
misfortunes in human life such as ugliness, infirmities, and so forth. The immoral types of consciousness are of twelve kinds: eight rooted in greed (lobha), two rooted in ill-will (dosa), and two rooted in delusion (moha). Those rooted in greed may be accompanied by wrong view or not. They may be joyful or indifferent, and they may be prompted (sasankhārika) or unprompted (asankhārika). The combination of these
three factors gives a total of eight different types of unwholesome consciousness rooted in greed. Every greed-based kamma is motivated by one of these eight types of consciousness. The types of consciousness rooted in ill-will are of two kinds: unprompted and prompted. Consciousness rooted in ill-will is the source of anger, dejection, fear, and disgust. Doubt (vicikicchā) and restlessness (uddhacca) are the two types of consciousness rooted in delusion. Doubt means doubt about the Buddha, his teaching, his disciples, morality, concentration, a future life, and so forth. Restlessness refers to the wandering mind that is distracted. Unless restrained by meditation, the mind is seldom calm and usually wanders. However, unlike the other eleven
unwholesome types of consciousness, restlessness does not lead to the lower realms. Even with a favourable rebirth, the unwholesome kammas usually have bad effects such as ill-health. These twelve unwholesome kammas are called ‘apuññābhisankhārā’. Everywhere, people wish to be happy, so they strive to gain prosperity in the present life and after
death. However, it is usually greed and ill-will that motivate their activities. Wholesome consciousness is confined to those who have wise friends, who have heard their teaching and who think rationally. Some go morally astray, being misled by their selfish teacher. In the lifetime of the Buddha, a lay Buddhist abused virtuous monks. On his death he became a hungry ghost (peta) in the latrine of the
very same monastery he had donated to the Sangha. He told Venerable Moggallāna about his misdeed when the latter saw him with his divine eye. What a terrible fate for a man who had materially supported the Sangha for his w ell-being in the afterlife, but was misguided to the lower realm by his teacher. This shows that the person whose company we seek should possess not only deep knowledge but also an honest character. The mark of a virtuous person is abstinence from any act, speech or thought that is harmful to others. Those who keep company with wise friends or virtuous bhikkhus have the opportunity to hear the genuine Dhamma. If they think wisely, their reasoning will lead to moral actions, speech, and thoughts. On the other hand, corrupt teachers or friends, false teachings, and improper thoughts may lead to
moral disaster. Some who at first had an unblemished character were later ruined by corrupt thoughts. They were convicted of theft, robbery or misappropriation and their former good reputation was irreparably damaged. All their suffering had its origin in the illusion of happiness. Contrary to their expectations, they found themselves in trouble when it was too late. Some misdeeds do not produce
immediate kammic results but they ripen in due course and lead to suffering. If retribution does not follow the evildoer in this life, it overtakes him in the afterlife. Such was the fate of the donor who became a hungry ghost for his malicious words. His teacher who had misguided him fared worse after his death. He occupied a place below his former pupil and had to live on his excreta. The kammic result
of his misdeed was frightful. He had committed it for his own ends but it backfired and he had to suffer terribly for it. Some native people make animal sacrifices to gods for abundant harvest, health or safety. These primitive beliefs still prevail among some townspeople. Some people worship the Chief Nat as if he were
the Buddha. Others kill animals to feed guests for religious almsgiving. Even some ignorant Buddhists have doubts about this practice. Whatever the aim of the donor, killing has bad kammic results and it is not a skilful deed despite the belief of the killer to the contrary. A skilful deed bears the hallmark of moral purity. Killing or hurting living beings cannot be morally pure in
any sense. The victims face death or endure ill-treatment only because they cannot avoid it, and will surely retaliate if they can. Victims often pray for vengeance and so the killer is killed in the next existence or has to suffer some other retribution for his or her misdeed. Many instances of the consequences of killing are found in the Buddhist scriptures. Some long for human or celestial life and devote themselves to charity, morality, and meditation. Their
meritorious deeds lead to well-being in future lives and so fulfil their wishes. However, every life is subject to aging and death, and human life is accompanied by ill-health and mental suffering. Some crave for the brahmā realm and practise jhāna. They may live happily for aeons as brahmās, but when life has run its course they will be reborn as human beings or devas. Any demeritorious deed that they
then do may lead to the lower realms. So even the glory of the brahmā-life is an illusion. The illusion of happiness is not confined to ordinary people. The illusion (vipallāsa) and ignorance (avijjā) that make suffering seem like happiness linger at the first two stages of the Noble Path, and
even the non-returner still mistakenly regards the fine-material and immaterial realms as blissful. So meritorious deeds are the aim of the Noble Ones at the first three stages of the Path. However, ordinary people are beguiled by all four illusions, and thus they regard the impermanent as permanent, suffering as happiness, the impersonal as personal, and the unpleasant as pleasant. Because of this misconception and ignorance, every bodily, verbal or mental action leads to wholesome or
unwholesome kamma. Wholesome kamma only arises from intention coupled with faith, energy, mindfulness, etc. Left to itself, the mind is liable to produce unwholesome kamma. Rejection of Good Kamma Means Bad KammaSome people misinterpret the arahant’s transcendence of kamma and say that we should avoid doing
meritorious deeds. For an ordinary person, the rejection of wholesome kamma means the upsurge of unwholesome kamma, just as the exodus of virtuous people from a city leaves only fools and rogues, or the removal of useful trees is followed by the growth of useless grass and weeds. One who rejects meritorious deeds is bound to do demeritorious deeds that will lead to rebirths in the lower realms, from
where it is hard to return to the human world. The arahant’s lack of wholesome kamma means only that his or her actions are kammically unproductive due to the extinction of ignorance. The arahants do revere the elders, teach the Dhamma, give alms, help others who are in difficulty and so forth. However, due to their full comprehension of the Four Noble Truths and the eradication of ignorance their actions do not have any kammic effect. So the arahants do not generate wholesome kamma, but
they do not avoid meritorious deeds. An ordinary person who does not care for meritorious deeds because of ignorance and wrong views, will accumulate only unwholesome kammas. In fact, the lack of any desire to do good is a sign of abysmal ignorance that makes the Noble Path and nibbāna very remote. One only becomes inclined towards
meritorious deeds as ignorance loses its hold on the mind. A stream-winner is more interested in doing good than an ordinary person. Those at the higher stages of the Path have an increasing desire to give up doing things irrelevant to the Path and devote more time to meditation. So, meritorious deeds should not be confused with demeritorious deeds and purposely avoided. Every action rooted in ignorance means either wholesome or unwholesome kamma. Without wholesome kamma all one’s deeds
will be unwholesome kamma. Ignorance and IllusionTruth and falsehood are mutually exclusive. If one does not know the truth, one accepts falsehood, and vice-versa. Those who do not know the Four Noble Truths have misconceptions about suffering
which, posing as happiness, deceives and oppresses them. Apart from craving, which gives some pleasure when gratified, everything in the sensual realm is suffering. Though all sense-objects are subject to ceaseless change and are unreliable, to the ignorant person they seem desirable and pleasant. People are nostalgic about what they regard as happy days in the past, and optimistic about their future. Because of their misconception, they long for what they consider to be enjoyable and
satisfying. This is the cause of their suffering but they do not realise it. On the contrary, they think that their happiness depends on the fulfilment of their desires, so they see nothing wrong with their desire for pleasure. Unfortunately, the truths about the end of suffering and the way to it are alien to most people. Some who learn these truths from others or accept them intellectually do not appreciate
them. They do not care for nibbāna or the way to it, thinking that the way is beset with many hardships and privations. The hope for happiness is the motive for human action. Actions in deed, speech or thought are called kamma or sankhārā. We have referred above to the three kinds of sankhārā. The two kinds of
wholesome kamma comprise the first kind: i.e. the eight wholesome kammas of the sensual sphere and the five wholesome kammas in the fine-material sphere. We have also mentioned two kinds of wholesome kamma or consciousness: one associated with intelligence and the other divorced from it. In the practice of insight the meditator’s mind is intelligent if one becomes aware of the true nature of mind and matter through contemplation. It is not intelligent if one just recites Pāli words while
contemplating superficially. As for morality, a sense of moral values is intelligent if it is associated with the belief in the law of kamma; otherwise it is unintelligent. Some people say that an intelligent act of charity must involve the contemplation of the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and impersonality of the donor, the recipient, and the offering. This
view is based on the Atthasālinī (an Abhidhamma commentary), which mentions the contemplation on impermanence after giving alms. However, the reference is to contemplation after the act of charity, not before, nor while doing it. Moreover, the reason is not to make the act intelligent but to create wholesome kamma in insight practice. If by intelligent almsgiving is meant only the charity that
presupposes such contemplation, all the other charity of non-Buddhists would have to be classified as unintelligent, which would be absurd. The accounts of almsgiving by bodhisattas do not mention contemplation nor did the Buddha insist on it as a prerequisite to charity. The scriptures say only that the kammic potential of charity depends on the spiritual maturity of the recipient and this is the only
teaching that we should consider in almsgiving. If the donor and the recipient are regarded as mere mind and matter subject to impermanence, they will be on an equal footing. The act of charity would then lack inspiration and much kammic potential. In fact, the object of almsgiving is not insight contemplation but the benefits accruing to the donor. So the Buddha pointed out which recipients can
make almsgiving immensely beneficial and he stressed the importance of right reflection (i.e. belief in kamma). Visākhā, a well-known female disciple, once asked the Buddha for permission to make eight kinds of lifelong offering to the Sangha: 1) bathing robes for the monks, 2) food for guest-monks, 3) food for
travelling monks, 4) food for sick monks, 5) food for monks attending sick monks, 6) medicine for sick monks, 7) rice-gruel for the Sangha, and 8) bathing robes for the nuns. The Buddha asked Visākhā what benefits she hoped to obtain in offering such things. The substance of Visākhā’s reply was as follows: “At the end of the Rains, monks from all parts of the country will come to see the Lord. They
will tell him about the death of certain monks and ask him about their rebirth and stages on the Noble Path that the deceased monks had attained. The Lord will reveal their spiritual attainments. I will then approach the visiting monks and ask them whether their late fellow-monks had ever visited Sāvatthi. If they say yes, I will conclude that the Noble One must have used one of my offerings. This recollection
of my wholesome kamma will fill me with joy. It will be conducive to peace, tranquillity, and self-development.” It is noteworthy that the reference is not to the contemplation on the impermanence of the deceased monks but to their spiritual attainments. Importance is attached to the contemplation that leads to
ecstasy and training in self-development. So, the most appropriate object of contemplation in offering alms is the noble quality of the recipient. For example, when laying flowers at a shrine one might reflect on the noble character of the Buddha; when offering food to a monk one might think of his pure mode of life, and so forth. Teaching or listening to the Dhamma is a wholesome kamma and it is intelligent if the Dhamma is
understood. Every meritorious deed based on the belief in kamma is an intelligent kamma. Without it, a meritorious act is wholesome but unintelligent, e.g. when children worship the Buddha image, in imitation their parents, or when people who reject the belief in kamma are helpful, polite, and charitable. Few people are free from personality-belief. The belief dominates those who do not know that life is a
psychophysical process lacking a soul or person. Among those who have some knowledge of Buddhist scriptures, the belief is weak, but their academic knowledge does not help them to overcome it completely. Meditators who have had a clear insight into the true nature of mind and matter through contemplation are usually free from personality-belief. Yet they may revert to it if they stop contemplating before they attain the Path. As for ordinary people, the personality-belief is deeply
rooted. This makes them think that it is the self or the personality that is the agent of whatever they do or feel or think. Again, those who believe in total extinction after death, rejecting a future life and kammic results, have unwholesome consciousness rooted in annihilationist beliefs. Consciousness rooted in ill-will is of two kinds: prompted and unprompted. Anger, envy, anxiety, grief,
fear, and hatred are a few of the many kinds of ill-will. Consciousness rooted in delusion comprises doubt and restlessness. Doubts about the Buddha, nibbāna, the doctrine of not-self, and so forth are termed ‘vicikicchā’. The mind is subject to ‘uddhacca’ whenever it wanders here and there restlessly. Thus unwholesome kamma comprises eight types of greed-based consciousness, two types of hatred-based consciousness, and two types based on delusion. It is opposed to wholesome kamma, which serves to purify the mind and leads to favourable rebirths with fortunate kammic results. Unwholesome kamma defiles the mind and leads to unfavourable rebirths with unpleasant kammic results. People do unskilful deeds wishing for happiness. They kill, steal, rob or give false evidence for their own advantage. Even those who kill their parents do so to achieve their own aims. For example, Prince Ajātasattu killed his father to become king. Misguided by his teacher, Devadatta, he concluded that he would rule longer if he killed his father and usurped the throne. For his great crime of parricide (and the
murder of a stream-winner at that), he was seized with remorse that caused him physical suffering as well. Later, he was killed by his own son and was reborn in hell, where he is now suffering terribly for his misdeed. In the time of Kakusandha Buddha the Māra called Dūsī did his utmost to harm the Buddha and the
Sangha. Failing to achieve his aim, he took possession of a man and stoned the chief disciple of the Buddha. For this horrible crime he instantly landed in Avīci, the lowest of the thirty-one realms. As a Māra he had lorded it over others but in Avīci he lay prostrate under the heels of the guardians of hell. He had hoped to rejoice over the fulfilment of his scheme, but now he had to suffer for his unwholesome kamma. This is true of evildoers all over the world. It is also the hope for happiness that motivates the other two types of action: meritorious kamma and imperturbable kamma. Imperturbable kamma (āneñjābhisankhārā) means the four wholesome types of consciousness of the immaterial sphere. ‘Āneñjā’ means equanimity or self-possession. A loud noise nearby may disturb a meditator who is absorbed in rūpa-jhāna, but arūpa-jhāna is invulnerable to such
distractions. Arūpa-jhāna is of four kinds according to its object: The realm of infinite space (ākāsānañcāyatana), The realm of infinite consciousness (viññānañcāyatana), The realm of nothingness (ākiñcaññāyatana), and The realm of neither perception nor non-perception (nevasaññānāsaññāyatana).
These four jhānas are the kammas that lead to the four immaterial realms. Demeritorious kamma leads
to the four lower realms; meritorious kamma leads to human, celestial, and rūpa-brahmā realms. People do these three kinds of kammas for their well-being and, as a result, consciousness arises. With consciousness as condition, mind and matter, the six senses, contact, feeling, and so forth arise. |
