Different Aspects of Citta - Cause and result

Different accumulations of kamma are the condition for different results in life. This is the law of kamma and vipāka, of cause and result. We see that people are born into different circumstances. Some people live in agreeable surroundings and they have many pleasant experiences in their lives. Other people may often have disagreeable experiences; they are poor or they suffer from ill health. When we hear about children who suffer from malnutrition, we wonder why they have to suffer whereas other children receive everything they need. The Buddha taught that everyone receives the result of his own deeds. A deed or kamma of the past can bring its result later on, because akusala kamma and kusala kamma are accumulated. When there are the right conditions the result can be brought  about in the form of vipāka. When the word 'result' is used, people may think of the consequences of their deeds for other people, but 'result' in the sense of vipaka has a different meaning. Vipākacitta is a citta which experiences an unpleasant object or a pleasant object and this citta is the result of a deed we did ourselves. We are used to thinking of a self who experiences unpleasant and pleasant things.  However, there is no self; there are only cittas which experience different objects. Some cittas are cause; they can motivate good deeds or bad deeds which are capable of bringing about their appropriate results. Some cittas are result or vipāka. When we see something unpleasant, it is not self who sees;  it is a citta, seeing-consciousness, which is the result of an unwholesome deed (akusala kamma) we performed either in this life or in a past life. This kind of citta is akusala vipāka. When we see something pleasant, it is a citta which is kusala vipaka, the result of a wholesome deed we performed. Every time we experience an unpleasant  object through one of the five senses, there is akusala vipaka Every time we experience a pleasant object through one of  the five senses there is kusala vipāka. 

 

lf one is being hit by someone else, the pain one feel is not the vipaka (result)

of the deed performed by the other person. The person who is being hit

receives the result of a bad deed he performed himself; for him there is

akusala vipaka through the bodysense. The other person's action is only the

proximate cause of his pain. As regards the other person who performs the

bad deed, it is his akusala citta which motivates that deed. Sooner or later he

will receive the result of his own bad deed. When we have more

understanding of kamma and vipāka we will see many events of our life

more clearly.