Going into the next existence

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. Every one 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 Mogallana, who killed his own father and mother during a previous life. Mogallana was killed by thugs even though he was an Arahant and possessed psychic powers.  Mogallana 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, unless that person has a weighty kamma. This is the reason why Buddhists tell the dying person to recollect all his good deeds done in the past. 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 sub-consciousness 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.