The Nature of Vipāka

Vipāka is produced by kamma performed in the past. It is not easy to understand that kamma, which already belongs to the past, can still be a condition for the arising of vipākacitta and vipākacetasikas in the present time. The nature of vipāka should be examined in detail, so that there can be right understanding of kamma and vipāka. The reality of vipāka is nāma, citta and cetasikas that arise because they are conditioned by kamma that has been performed already.

When a person is confronted with an unpleasant or a pleasant event in his life, people usually say, “This is his kamma.” We should say that it is the result of kamma performed in the past, so that people can have right understanding of kamma and vipāka. If one does not express oneself precisely and, for example, says that an accident is the kamma of that person, the truth of cause and result will not be clear to other people who are not familiar with this subject. They will confuse kamma and vipāka and take vipāka for kamma.

When we consider the aspect of citta as vipāka, conditioned by accumulated kamma and defilements, we shall see more clearly the true nature of different dhammas. We should remember that without the doorways of the senses and the mind-door, by means of which objects are received and experienced, vipākacittas could not arise in our daily life; the result of kamma could not be received. When seeing arises, there is vipāka, the result of kamma. The result of kamma is received not only when we have an accident, when we suffer from sickness or pain, when we experience gain and loss, honour and dishonour. Also at each moment of seeing, hearing or the other sense-cognitions, when we experience the ordinary objects in daily life, there is result of kamma performed in the past. Sati can be aware of the reality that is vipāka when there is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or the experience of tangible object in daily life.

Vipākacitta is bound to arise; it is the result of kamma that has been performed. We cannot know by which kamma in the past the vipākacittas arising in the different processes are conditioned. For example, we do not know which kamma produces the vipākacitta that hears the sound of a child playing football. It is difficult to understand the subject of kamma in detail. It is one of the subjects that are “unthinkable,” subjects one cannot fathom, and therefore one should not speculate about them.

Kamma that has been performed already is a cause stemming from the past. Even if kamma has been performed at a time that lies far back in the cycle of birth and death, it can still condition the arising of vipākacitta. If someone speculates about which kind of kamma conditions as its result the seeing of this object or the hearing of that sound, he will not be freed from ignorance and confusion. He will be speculating about something he cannot fathom, because he does not have paññā to the degree of penetrating the truth of kamma and vipāka. Vipāka, however, the result of kamma, which experiences objects through the senses, is appearing at this moment, and thus it can be known.

Among the four “Applications of Mindfulness” the third one is “Mindfulness of Citta.” The first type of citta mentioned in this section is citta with attachment (sarāgacitta). Sati can arise and be aware of the characteristic of the citta with attachment and clinging that appears time and again in daily life. If sati does not arise, it will not be known that, when there is seeing of an object, cittas with attachment and clinging to what is seen arise, succeeding one another very rapidly. If paññā knows the characteristics of dhammas that naturally appear, defilements can eventually be eradicated. Paññā can know the difference between the characteristic of vipākacitta, the result of past kamma, and the characteristic of kusala citta and of akusala citta. Kusala citta and akusala citta of the degree of kamma performed at the present time can condition the arising of vipākacitta in the future. We should not only know the characteristic of vipāka which is more obvious, such as in the case of a pleasant or an unpleasant event, but also the characteristic of vipāka which is the experience through the senses of the manifold objects in daily life.

If we understand that vipākacitta that arises is the result of kamma we performed ourselves, can we still be angry with other people or blame them for the vipāka we receive? In the Scriptures we read about events in the lives of people of old who received different vipākas. Also, in the present time different events occur which clearly show that each person has to receive vipāka, the result of past kamma, but we cannot predict in which way it will appear. For example, a building may collapse and crush the owner so that he dies. A bomb is not the cause that the building collapses and crushes that man. His death is not caused by being shot or assaulted. Kamma performed in the past is the cause for receiving results through the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue or the bodysense. Therefore, one should not be angry with someone else or blame him for the vipāka one receives. Sati can be aware of the characteristic of the dhamma that is vipākacitta, not a being, person or self.

Thus, one can come to understand that the moment of vipāka is the result of past kamma, different from the moments of attachment, aversion and ignorance, or the moments of kusala dhammas. The kusala dhammas and akusala dhammas that arise are causes in the present that will condition the arising of results in the future.

The things outside as well as the rūpas of the body that appear to seeing and are perceived as being tall, short, dark or light, appear actually only at the moment they impinge on the eyesense. If there is no eyesense and we do not see, we cannot think of shape and form, of tall, short, dark and light we take for our body.

Therefore, in reality, one’s own body and all the things outside do not belong to anyone. They appear just at the moment seeing-consciousness arises and then they fall away very rapidly.

It is the same with sound that only appears when it impinges on the earsense, and then falls away completely. It does not belong to anybody. By being aware of the characteristics of realities, just as they naturally appear in daily life, the wrong view can be eradicated which takes realities for a being, a person or self.

In daily life there arises, time and again, just a moment of seeing, of hearing, of smelling, of tasting, of body-consciousness or of thinking, and all these passing moments are real. They can be objects of satipaṭṭhāna so that paññā can investigate their characteristics, and in this way realities can be known as they are: not a being, person or self.

We should carefully consider what our possessions we believe we own really are. The moments we do not see them we can merely think about them, but we believe that we own many things. However, of what use can these things be to us during the moments we do not see or touch them? When the characteristics of paramattha dhammas have been understood as they are: not a being, person or self, it will be realized that paramattha dhammas are the same for all people, and that in that respect all people are equal. When seeing-consciousness arises, it sees what appears and then it falls away. The seeing-consciousness and what appears to seeing, visible object, do not belong to anybody. Therefore, we should not take anything for “I” or “mine.” All people are equal, they are the same as far as paramattha dhammas are concerned. The defilement, however, which takes realities for “I” or “mine” is of a different degree for each person.

We are used to enjoying our possessions, but we may begin to realize that we have no possessions at all, that there is just seeing-consciousness that arises and sees and then falls away very rapidly. Where are our possessions at the moments seeing-consciousness does not arise? Our possessions are only that which seeing-consciousness sees when it arises just for a short moment, and therefore, is it right to take what is seen for our possessions? What appears just for an extremely short moment cannot become one’s property, it cannot be owned; it can only appear through the eyes when it is impinging on the eyesense.

It is the same with sound, odour, flavour and tangible object. They impinge just for a moment on the relevant sense-door and, thus, we should not take these realities for “I” or “mine.”

We all want to possess many things, we want to have as much as other people, but it all depends on kamma; the vipāka which appears in the present time is produced by a past cause. Therefore, result or vipāka is not in anyone’s power. Nobody can predict which kamma will produce which vipākacittas as result, arising in the different processes when there is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or the experience of tangible object.

In the “Gradual Sayings” (II, Book of the Fours, Ch VIII, §7, Unthinkable) we read that the Buddha said:

Monks, there are these four unthinkables, not to be thought of, thinking of which one would be distraught and come to grief. What are the four?

Of Buddhas, monks, the range (field of knowledge) is unthinkable, not to be thought of... Of one who has attained jhāna, monks, the range of jhāna is unthinkable, not to be thought of... The fruit of kamma, monks, is unthinkable, not to be thought of... Speculation about the world, monks, is unthinkable, not to be thought of, thinking of which one would be distraught and would come to grief. These, monks, are the four unthinkables...”

While we are seeing now, there is vipākacitta that experiences an object through the eyes. Sati can be aware of the characteristics of realities: of nāma, the reality which experiences an object, and of rūpa, that which appears. Sati can only be aware of these characteristics and more than that cannot be known. It cannot be known which kamma of which past life has conditioned the seeing arising at this moment as its result. It is impossible to find this out. When there is seeing, sati can be mindful and paññā can clearly know the difference between seeing, which is vipāka, and akusala citta with like or dislike or kusala citta, which can arise after seeing.

The fourth aspect of citta as stated by the “Atthasālinī” is its variegated nature (vicitta). Citta is variegated because of the different accompanying dhammas, sampayutta dhammas, namely, the cetasikas that arise together with the citta. The accompanying cetasikas are different; each person has accumulated different inclinations. It is impossible that each person thinks in the same way or adheres to the same belief. People have a different outer appearance and also their ways of thinking, their points of view and their beliefs are not the same. Even the Buddha, during the time he was still alive, before his parinibbāna, could not cause all people to have right view. For those who have accumulated the right conditions, kusala vipākacitta and kusala citta can arise, so that they are able to hear the Dhamma, study it and investigate the truth the Buddha taught. When one has listened to the Dhamma, one should test its meaning, carefully consider it in all details and develop paññā so that the characteristics of realities can be known as they really are, in conformity with the truth the Buddha taught.

Wrong view does not only occur in other beliefs. Also, those who are Buddhists engage in different practices depending on the ideas and points of view they have accumulated.

After the second Council (of Vesāli), the monks of the Vajjiyan Clan, on account of whom the second Council had been convened, propagated different doctrines in conformity with their own opinion. One of their statements was that, in order to attain enlightenment, one should merely recite:

“Dukkha, dukkha” (“Kathāvatthu”, “Points of Controversy”, Nidānakathā).

Thus, we see that wrong understanding and wrong practice have occurred since the past. We all should, in the present time, study the Dhamma and investigate it in detail.

We read in the “Puggala Paññatti” (“Human Types”, Ch IV, §5) that with regard to the grasping of the Dhamma there are four types of people: people who quickly grasp the Dhamma, can realize the four noble Truths and attain enlightenment even during a discourse (ugghaṭitaññū), people who attain enlightenment after a more detailed explanation of a discourse that was uttered in brief (vipacitaññū), people who require guidance and have to study and develop paññā a great deal (neyya puggala), and people who, although they listen to the Dhamma, read a great deal, often discuss and explain the Dhamma to others, cannot attain enlightenment yet (pada parama). In the present time, there are no people of the first and second category, there are only those of the third and fourth category.

We all should study in order to know what the realization of the four noble Truths means, and in what way paññā can be developed that realizes the arising and falling away of the dhammas appearing through the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the bodysense and the mind-door. Thus we shall know that the study of the Dhamma is of great benefit, that it is a supporting condition for sati to be aware of the characteristics of realities which the Buddha penetrated by his enlightenment and which he, out of compassion, taught to others in all details. The characteristic of citta, such as the citta that sees, can be object of satipaṭṭhāna, since it is reality. Right understanding can be developed of realities, so that the characteristic of anattā, non-self, can be clearly known. Realities arise and fall away in daily life, they are not a being, a person or self, not a thing that exists.