..續本文上一頁tions, and responsibility toward others by showing them kindness and compassion. Kamma demonstrates that each and every one of us is endowed with potential for greater development and it is within our reach to create a better world, full of love and joy, or to destroy it with hatred and war. We have the choice before us. Understanding kamma helps us to make the right choice.
Kamma truly puts us in control of our life. We can deal with our present aspirations and plans, and direct future courses of action for our own good as well as for the good of others. This means that we are our own masters and are therefore under an obligation to act with utmost care and responsibility.
Because, according to the doctrine of kamma, people should be judged by their actions, not by social status, caste, or creed, the teachings on kamma have contributed to the establishment of a universal ethical standard in which moral integrity becomes the norm and the measurement of a person”s worth. Kamma is that "which classifies beings into coarse and refined states," says the Buddha. He further declares: "Not by birth is one an outcast, not by birth is one a Brahmin. By action is one an outcast, by action is one a Brahmin."
Belief in the doctrine of kamma is also essential in the realization of Nibbana. Man must first believe in his own potentialities and the possibility of their cultivation. Spiritual practice means that a person must strongly believe in self-improvement, in removing from his or her mind all that is bad or negative and developing what is positive and good. Without such conviction, spiritual advancement is virtually impossible. Although Nibbana is beyond kamma, it is realized through the relinquishment of evil kamma, the cultivation of the good, and the purification of mind. Belief in kamma may almost be regarded as the be-all and end-all of spiritual discipline.
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[Originally published in Sunthorn Plamintr”s Getting to Know Buddhism (Bangkok: Buddhadhamma Foundation, 1994), pp. 109-131.]
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