The pali term kamma,literally,means action or doing.Any kind of intentional action whether mental,verbal,or physical is regarded as kamma.It covers all that is included in the phrase,"Thought,word and deed."Generally speaking,all good and bad actions constitute kamma.in its ultimate sense kamma means all moral and immoral volition.Involuntary,unintentional or unconscious actions,though technically deeds,do not constitute kamma,because volition,the most important factor in determining kamma,is absent.
The Buddha says,"I declare, O Bhikkhus,that volition (cetanana) is kamma.having willed one acts by body,speech and thought."
Every volitional action of persons,except those of Buddhas and Arahants,is called kamma.An exception is made in their case because they are delivered from both good and evil.They have eradicated both ignorance and craving,the roots of kamma.
"Destroyed are their(germinal) seeds,selfish desires no longer grow,"states the Ratana sutta.This does not mean that the Buddhas and Arahants are passive.they are tirelessly active in working for the real well-being and happiness of all.Their deeds,ordinarily accepted as good or moral,lack creative power as regards themselves.
Understanding things as they truly are,they have finally shattered their cosmic fetters-the chain of cause and effect.
Some relions attribute this unevenness to kamma,but they differ from Buddhism when they state that even unintentional actions should be regarded as kamma.
AAccording to them,"the unintentional murderer of his mother is a hideous crimininal.The man who commits murder,or who harms in any way a living being,without intent,is none the less guilty,just as a man who touches fire is burned.
"But this would lead to palpable absurdities.The embryo and the mother would lead to palpable absurdities.The embryo and the mother would be guilty of marking each other suffer...Further the comparsion of the fire is not a happy one.a man would not be guilty of murdet if he got another person to commit it,for we are not burned when we touch fire by means of another.Again ,unconscious sin would be more heavy than it is hot,is likely to be more deeply burned than the man who knows"
In the working of kamma its most important feature is mind.All our words and deeds are coloured by the mind or consciousness we experience at such particular moments."when the mind is unguarded,bodily action is unguaraded.speech also is unguarded,thoight also is unguaraded .
Mind foreruns conditions,mind is chief,mind-made are they,If one speaks or acts with awicked mind,
Then pain followes him as a wagon-wheel follows the hoof of a draught animal.
Mind foreruns conditions,mind is chief,mind-made are they,If one speaks or acts with apure mind,
Then happiness follows him as a shadow which never leaves.
Immaterial mind conditions all kammic activites .
kamma does not necessarily mean past actions.It embraces both past and present deeds.Hence,in one sense,we are the result of what we were,we will not absolutely be the result of what we are.The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the parent of the future,but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future so complex is the working of kamma.for instance,a criminal today may be a saint tomorrow,a good person yesterday may be a vicious one today.
It is this doctrine of kamma that the mother teaches her child when she says,"Be good and you will be happy and we will love you.But if you are bad,you will be unhappy and we will not love you."
Like attracts like.Good begets good.Evil begets evil.This is the law of kamma.In short,kamma is the law of cause and effect in the ethical realm,or as some westerners prefer to say,"action influence".