Thanks Akvan,
Yes, that example of wounding Angulimala, i knew, that is attributed to his bad kamma. I belief he killed 999 people. I think this number means ‘a lot of people’.
Milindapanha, Book IV, Chapter 1, §62-66 deals specifically with the pains and discomfort of the Buddha.
How are they caused? Nagasena in short:
(§65): …”the Blessed One never suffered pain which was the result of his own Karma, or brought about the avoidance of dissimilarity, yet he suffered pain from each of the other six causes”.
The wounding of a splinter in his foot by an attempt of Devadatta to murder the Budddha is not due to Buddha’s bad kamma, but due to 1 of 7 other causes, due to external agency.
This part of Milindapanha also transmitts that the Buddha was totally free of bad kamma or sinn. All the evil within was burnt. That is why any pain or discomfort of the Budddha cannot be seen as kamma-vipaka or due to his own bad kamma. At least, that is the reasoning of Nagasena.
At the moment, i belief, a reasonble attitude is that if one does not know if kamma plays a role, it useless to speculate.
I also think it is not supported by the sutta’s to belief that kamma is always a primary cause for sufferings or some kind of deeper underlying mechanism. For this i do not see support in the sutta’s, because kamma is really mentioned as 1 of 8 separate causes for pains, illness, bad feelings, discomfort. It is not presented as an underlying deeper cause for these manifestations. If the Bueddha taught this, then it would be very easy to list 7 causes for sufferings and to teach that kamma is Always an underlying cause. But this is not done. Kamma is presented as 1 of 8 possible causes for sufferings.
I do not know for sure if the Budddha taught …”that one cannot and does not need to repay all one’s kammic (sansarik) debt to attain nibbana”.
See for example this lines:
“Bhikkhus, I do not say that there is a termination of volitional kamma that has been done and accumulated so long as one has not experienced its results, and that may be in this very life, or in the next rebirth, or on some subsequent occasion. But I do not say that there is making an end of suffering so long as one has not experienced the results of volitional kamma that has been done and accumulated“.
https://suttacentral.net/en/an10.217
https://suttacentral.net/en/an10.218
Regarding the suffering the Budddha talks about. He also talks about ending the bodily suffering. Maybe not in this live but in future lives by not grasping a new body again and ending the proces of rebirth.
kind regards,
Siebe