In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [83]
“And what, monks, is dark kamma with dark results? Here, monks, someone generates an afflictive volitional formation of body, speech, or mind. Having done so, he is reborn in an afflictive world. When he is reborn in an afflictive world, afflictive contacts touch him. Being touched by afflictive contacts, he experiences an afflictive feeling, extremely painful, as for example the beings in hell experience. This is called dark kamma with dark results.
“And what, monks, is bright kamma with bright results? Here, monks, someone generates a non-afflictive volitional formation of body, speech, or mind. Having done so, he is reborn in a non-afflictive world. When he is reborn in a non-afflictive world, non-afflictive contacts touch him. Being touched by non-afflictive contacts, he experiences a non-afflictive feeling, extremely pleasant, as for example the devas of refulgent glory experience.9 This is called bright kamma with bright results.
“And what, monks, is dark and bright kamma with dark and bright results? Here, monks, someone generates both an afflictive volitional formation of body, speech, or mind and a non-afflictive volitional formation of body, speech, or mind. Having done so, he is reborn in a world that is both afflictive and non-afflictive. When he is reborn in such a world, both afflictive and non-afflictive contacts touch him. Being touched by such contacts, he experiences both an afflictive feeling and a non-afflictive feeling, a mixture and conglomeration of pleasure and pain, as for example human beings and some devas and some beings in the lower world experience. This is called dark and bright kamma with dark and bright results.
“And what, monks, is kamma that is neither dark nor bright, with neither dark nor bright results, which leads to the destruction of kamma? The volition to abandon this dark kamma with dark results, and to abandon the bright kamma with bright results, and to abandon the dark and bright kamma with dark and bright results—this is called the kamma that is neither dark nor bright, with neither dark nor bright results, which leads to the destruction of kamma.10
“These, monks, are the four kinds of kamma declared by me after I had realized them for myself by direct knowledge.”
(AN 4:232; II 230–32)
(2) Why Beings Fare as They Do After Death
1. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was wandering by stages in the Kosalan country with a large Saṅgha of monks, and eventually he arrived at a Kosalan brahmin village named Sālā.
2. The brahmin householders of Sālā heard: “It is said that the ascetic Gotama, the Sakyan son who went forth from a Sakyan clan, has been wandering in the Kosalan country with a large Saṅgha of monks and has come to Sālā. Now a good report of Master Gotama has been circulating thus: ‘That Blessed One is an arahant ... [as in Text III,2] … that is perfectly complete and purified.’ Now it is good to see such arahants.”
3. Then the brahmin householders of Sālā went to the Blessed One. Some paid homage to him and sat down to one side; some exchanged greetings with him and, after their greetings and cordial talk, sat down to one side; some saluted him reverentially and sat down to one side; some remained silent and sat down to one side.
4. When they were seated, they said to the Blessed One: “Master Gotama, what is the cause and condition why some beings here, on the breakup of the body, after death, are reborn in a state of misery, in a bad destination, in the lower world, in hell? And what is the cause and condition why some beings here, on the breakup of the body, after death, are reborn in a good destination, in a heavenly world?”
5. “Householders, it is by reason of unrighteous conduct, conduct not in accordance with the Dhamma, that some beings here, on the breakup of the body, after death, are reborn in a state of misery, in a bad destination, in the lower