..續本文上一頁ed by (vices), is a great character and he lives unbounded (by evil). It is such a person who experiences the result of the same small offense during his lifetime, without the least future residue.

　　"Now suppose a man throws a lump of salt into a small cup of water. What do you think, monks: would that small quantity of water in the cup become salty and undrinkable through that lump of salt

　　" — "It would, Lord." — "And why so

　　" — "The water in the cup is so little that a lump of salt can make it salty and undrinkable." — "But suppose, monks, that lump of salt is thrown into the river Ganges. Would it make the river Ganges salty and undrinkable

　　" — "Certainly not, Lord." — "And why not

　　" — "Great, Lord, is the mass of water in the Ganges. It will not become salty and undrinkable by a lump of salt."

　　"Further, O monks, suppose a person has to go to jail for a matter of a halfpenny, a penny or a hundred pence, and another man does not have to go to jail on that account.

　　"Now what is the kind of person that has to go to jail for a matter of a halfpenny, a penny or a hundred pence

　　 It is one who is poor, without means or property. But he who is rich, a man of means and property, does not have to go to jail for such a matter."

　　— AN 3.110

　　Hence we must say that it is an inpidual”s accumulation of good or evil kamma and also his dominating character traits, good or evil, which affect the kammic result. They determine the greater or lesser weight of the result and may even spell the difference between whether or not it occurs at all.

　　But even this does not exhaust the existing possibilities of modifications in the weight of kammic reaction. A glance into the life histories of people we know may well show us a person of good and blameless character, living in secure circumstances; yet a single mistake, perhaps even a minor one, suffices to ruin his entire life — his reputation, his career, and his happiness — and it may also lead to a serious deterioration of his character. This seemingly disproportionate crisis might have been due to a chain-reaction of aggravating circumstances beyond his control, to be ascribed to a powerful counteractive kamma of his past. But the chain of bad results may have been precipitated by the person”s own action — decisively triggered by his initial mistake and reinforced by subsequent carelessness, indecision or wrong decisions, which, of course, are unskillful kamma in themselves. This is a case when even a predominantly good character cannot prevent the ripening of bad kamma or soften the full force of the results. The good qualities and deeds of that person will certainly not remain ineffective; but their future outcome might well be weakened by any presently arisen negative character changes or actions, which might form a bad counteractive kamma.

　　Consider too the converse situation: A person deserving to be called a thoroughly bad character, may, on a rare occasion, act on an impulse of generosity and kindness. This action may turn out to have unexpectedly wide and favorable repercussions on his life. It might bring about a decisive improvement in his external circumstances, soften his character, and even initiate a thorough "change of heart."

　　How complex, indeed, are situations in human life, even when they appear deceptively simple! This is so because the situations and their outcome mirror the still greater complexity of the mind, their inexhaustible source. The Buddha himself has said: "The mind”s complexity surpasses even the countless varieties of the animal kingdom." (SN 22.100) For any single inpidual, the mind is a stream of ever-changing mental processes driven by the currents and cross-currents of kamma accumulated in countless past existences. But this complexity, already great, is increa…

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