..续本文上一页nitial stage, the first moment of a thought-unit, which also becomes ineffective (ahosi), unless it can produce an effect in that life itself (di.t.tha dhamma vedaniiya kamma). Kamma which is so strong that it can produce an effect at any other than the above mentioned births is called indefinitely effective (aparaapariya vedaniiya kamma).
Properly classified, kamma is thus:
(A) According to function (kicca):
1. Reproductive (janaka)
2. Supportive (upatthambhaka)
3. Counteractive (upapii.laka)
4. Destructive (upaghaataka)
(B) According to the strength of effect (paakadaana):
1. Serious (garuka)
2. Death-proximate (aasanna)
3. Habitual (aaci.n.na<¯i>)
4. Accumulative (ka.tattaa)
(C) According to the time of taking effect (paakakaala):
1. Effective in this vary life (di.t.tha dhamma vedaniiya)
2. Effective in the next life (upapajja vedaniiya)
3. Indefinitely effective (aparaapariya vedaniiya)
4. Ineffective (ahosi)
(D) According to the spheres of effect (paaka.t.thaana):
1. Unskilful in the spheres of sense (akusala-kaamaavacara)
2. Skilful in the spheres of sense (kaamaavacara kusala)
3. Skilful in the spheres of form (ruupaavacara kusala)
4. Skilful in the formless spheres (aruupaavacara kusala)
“If anyone says, O monks, that a man must necessarily reap according to (all) his deeds, in that case there is no religious striving possible, nor is there an opportunity to end sorrow. But, if one maintains, O monks, that what a man reaps is the result of (some of) his deeds, in that case striving for holiness is possible and also the ending of sorrow” (AN).
The reproductivity of kamma leads us necessarily to the problem of rebirth. A problem indeed, for if there is kamma there must be rebirth and yet there is none to be reborn according to the teaching of anattaa. It is again the misconception of self-entity that poses the problem; and it is the process of actuality that solves it. The mere asking of the question, “What is reborn
” is based on the ignorance of the self-less process of kamma. Kamma is not an entity that moves from life to life, as a visitor goes from house to house; but kamma is life itself, in so far as life is the product (vipaaka) of kamma. In each step we make now in full-grown age lie also the feeble attempts of our babyhood. As actions they were a process that ceased with the act, but that process set further processes working, actual processes.
The present actuality, which expresses itself as the result of all the preceding processes, carries in its very action all the efforts that went into the making of the previous actions. This continuity without identity—like a flame arises ever new, being fed by ever-new fuel, and yet depends in its very existence upon its continued burning—this continuity of the process is kamma, and this lack of identity is anattaa.
Kamma thus is not an entity; but a process, an action, energy, in-force, i.e. a force not derived from some external agency, but from its intrinsic nature. Now that in-force which constitutes the process of action, which makes action act, that is craving—like the process of combustion makes the flame burn and consume everything that is combustible, like the mere exposure to the atmosphere sets a process of oxidization going in certain metals.
Now a flame is not “born” from wood or coal or straw, for those materials can lie side by side for hundreds of years without being burnt. They are merely the opportunity given to maintain a flame. A flame originates not in fuel but in friction and can thus arise even in materials that are not combustible, …
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