There seems to be two issues that may be difficult to grasp.
1. A LIVING Arahant is subjected to kamma vipaka DURING his/her life.
2. No kamma vipaka will come to an Arahant AFTER his/her death.
When we clarify some basic and fundamental issues, hopefully the answers will become clear.
FIRST is the definition of an anantariya kamma vipaka. As I explained above, such a kamma vipaka should bring results “without a gap”, immediately.
However, a “complication” arises due to a SECOND key factor. The primary “body” that is directly subjected to anantariya kamma vipaka is the “mental body” consisting of the kammaja kaya, cittaja kaya, and utuja kaya. All living beings have this “mental body” and in human and animal realms it is given a special name “gandhabba”.
– The gandhabba or the mental body is trapped inside a solid physical body, and thus is “shielded” form those anantariya kamma vipaka.
THIRDLY, in addition to the five “bad” anantariya kamma that I mentioned earlier, there are several “good” anantariya kamma: magga phala (stages of Nibbana) and attainment of (Ariya or anariya) jhanas. Of course these apply to only humans.
If one did not have a solid body, one attaining the Anagami stage would be instantaneously born in the rupavacara realms reserved for the Anagamis, and one attaining the Arahant stage would immediately undergo Parinibbana (i.e., cease to exist in the 31 realms and immediately get to Nibbana). Furthermore, one attaining a jhana would immediately be born in a brahma realm.
However, since the mental body is “shielded” by the solid physical body, any type of anantariya kamma vipaka will have to wait until the mental body comes out of the physical body AFTER the natural death of the physical body (In the case of an Arahant/yogi coming out of the physical body to perform supernormal powers, this does not apply since the two bodies have not been “kammically separated”).
Those are THREE factors that we need to keep in mind.
Now we can see why 1 and 2 above hold. An Arahant HAS TO live with the physical body that he/she was born with until the death of the physical body. At death, the gandhabba comes out and immediately undergoes Parinibbana. Until then, the physical body would have to bear many good and bad kamma vipaka.
There is actually a FOURTH issue that completes this analysis. One attains the final stage of Nibbana (Arahanthood), not by removing or exhausting all kamma vipaka from the past.
– One attains the Arahanthood by cultivating one’s panna (wisdom) to the level where one truly understands the real nature of this world. At that point one’s mind will not be tempted by ANY desire to born ANYWHERE in the 31 realms. That is a CRITICAL POINT to understand.
– Now when the gandhabba comes out of the dead body of an Arahant, it immediately undergoes the cuti (separation from the human bhava), due to the anantariya kamma vipaka associated with the Arahant phala.
– But now, that lifestream CANNOT grasp a new bhava anywhere in the 31 realms since there is no “upadana” in the step of “upadana paccaya bhava” in the Paticca Samuppada process.
– Therefore, even though there are many good and bad kamma vipaka may be associated with that Arahant (the case of Angulimala is a good example), those all will become “ahosi kamma” (are not able to bring out vipaka), simply because one is not born in any of the 31 realms to experience them.
In the case of the death of an Anagami, the gandhabba comes out, undergoes cuti, but can grasp a bhava in the rupavacara brahma realms reserved for the Anagamis. Therefore, a cuti-patisandhi transition takes place leading to the rebirth in such a realm. But an Anagami‘s mind would not grasp a bhava anywhere in the kamavacara realms, since he/she has lost all “upadana” (loosely tied to cravings) for such realms.
In the same way, a Sotapannas’ mind would not grasp a bhava in the apayas. Any “apayagami kamma” he/she had done have now become “ahosi kamma“.
Even though one who attained an anariya jhana would grasp a bhava in the appropriate brahma realm, that is just for that particular cuti-patisandhi transition. Since he/she had not attained a magga phala (and thus has not “seen” the futility/danger of “apayagami actions”), a birth in the apayas can happen in the future.
Please feel free to ask questions if something is not clear. These are important issues to be resolved.
Finally, I would like to point out the following about taking part in the discussion forum. I have seen many discussion forums where people use them to “show off” their knowledge. Here we are trying to learn true and pure Buddha Dhamma to seek relief from future suffering. This needs to be taken seriously, and I do not want this forum to become a philosophical-type forum where people write whatever comes to their minds.
First thing in serious learning is to be able to admit that one does not know something, if that is the case. One should not try to explain things that one is not comfortable with. I do not try to explain things that I am confident of. If I do not have a comfortable understanding, I just say so. I am willing to change my interpretation of even those things that I feel comfortable about, if good evidence to the contrary is shown.
Here are the rules advocated by the Buddha (for speech, but these discussions belong to the same category):
-If you know something that is not helpful and is untrue, then do not say it
-If you know something that might be helpful, but is untrue, do not say it
-If you know something that is not helpful and is true, do not speak about it
-If you know something that is helpful and is true, then find the right time to say it.
In other words, state things that you know to be true AND only if that helps the topic of discussion. That will reduce a lot clutter in the discussion forum. Many people read these discussions, and we do not want them to waste their time reading unnecessary rantings.
Please be to the point if you are confident about the material and be grammatical as much as possible. We want this website and the discussion forum to be a source of good information.
On the other hand, I do not want to discourage useful discussions, so I hope I am not sending the wrong message.
– One good practice that could help is not to post a reply right away in response to a new comment/question, but hold off at least an hour; give it more thought and formulate a response methodically.