Sacred Texts: Buddhism

Buddhism in Translations - § 27. Karma.

Henry Clarke WarrenPali Canon TranslationsTheravada Buddhism

Summary only - full text stays on its own separately-gated source. Read the full text at the source »

This is a translated excerpt from the *Visuddhi-Magga* (Path of Purification), a foundational 5th-century Theravada Buddhist scholastic treatise, presenting a systematic doctrinal analysis of karma. The passage categorizes karma into six types across two triplets: meritorious, demeritorious, and "immovability" karma (tied to formless-realm meditation); and bodily, vocal, and mental karma distinguished by the avenue through which intention manifests. Its central argument is that all karma — including ostensibly good, meritorious acts — is causally dependent on ignorance (*avijjā*), the failure to perceive the Four Noble Truths correctly. The text makes the striking claim that even meritorious deeds performed in pursuit of happiness are themselves forms of suffering, since they perpetuate the cycle of rebirth; it illustrates this with vivid similes (a moth flying into a lamp, someone licking a honey-smeared knife's edge). The passage culminates in the assertion that a truly wise person who abandons ignorance does not even perform meritorious karma, implying liberation transcends the entire karmic framework rather than merely improving one's karmic balance. Readers interested in Theravada Buddhist philosophy of mind, the mechanics of dependent origination, or the doctrinal basis for why enlightenment ends rebirth will find this a dense but rewarding primary source.

Buddhism in Translations - § 27. Karma.

Related pages View as graph →