Introduction
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammāsambuddhassa
Introduction to 3.5.11 Mahākammavibhaṅgasuttaṃ
Kamma and Its Significance for Future Existence
… tassa diṭṭheva dhamme vipākaṃ paṭisaṃvedeti upapajja vā apare vā pariyāye.
… one will experience the result of that (deed) either in this very existence, or in one’s next, or in some subsequent existence.
The Buddha made this ambiguous statement toward the end of the Mahākammavibhaṅgasutta, the "Greater Exposition on Kamma," which concludes his explanation to Ānanda about the fruits of beings' actions.
The Buddha repudiates the claims of various spiritual teachers who have used their divine eye (dibbacakkhu) to draw conclusions about kamma. He describes in detail that someone may be ‘reborn’ in hell, either as the fruit of an evil deed, like killing performed in his directly preceding life, but it can also be the result of some similar unmeritorious action in some other previous existence.
Similarly someone who may have lived a meritorious, good life by having performed various wholesome deeds may still experience an existence in the lower realms due to evil actions done in some previous existence. The same holds true for someone who may be in the heavenly fields though has performed unwholesome actions in the directly preceding existence. According to the Buddha, fruits may manifest later on, and the current existence in the heavenly planes is the result of some good actions performed much earlier.
For the reader it may be a thought-provoking challenge to deduce the consecutive, unique logic of the Buddha oneself based on the first four paragraphs.
The Buddha's ambiguous statement clarifies that there isn't a direct or logical connection between an action and the previous existence only. Instead, the effects of a person's kamma can ripen in any future existence.
In this way he refutes the declarations made by those recluses and brahmins, who only perceive a direct connection and thus draw false conclusions.1 To them it seems that what they envision – that someone who kills living beings is reborn in hell – is true for everyone. While others, who envision someone performing the same act of killing and are seen reborn in heaven, claim that as proof that bad deeds don’t matter.2
But there can be no escape from the inexorable law of kamma:
Na vijjatī so jagatippadeso,3
yatthaṭṭhito mucceyya pāpakammā.4
1. It may be an interesting allegory to consider that the described fallacy – believing what one thinks is true must be likewise true for everyone else – is a common misconception and thus often a cause for arguments, quarrels and conflict even on a personal level. Keeping the Buddha’s exposition in mind may be helpful.
2. About the workings of kamma, the influence of kamma at the moment of death and the flow of the determining life-continuity see 3.10.8.5 Abhidhamma – Vīthimutta – The Function of Bhavaṅga and Kamma in the Process of Becoming.
3. jagatippadeso: jagati + p + padeso: earth, world + region, spot.
4. The commentary explains: Puratthimādīsu jagatipadesesu pathavībhāgesu na so vālaggamattopi okāso atthi, yattha ṭhito pāpakammato muccituṃ sakkuṇeyyāti. The meaning is: In no country or region anywhere on this earth — in none of the four directions or any of the regions on earth would there be a single spot, not even of the size of the tip of a hair — where one will be able to find release from one’s bad deeds.
Tayojanavatthu, Pāpavaggo, Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā.