Look at the intention, because intention is what makes an act kamma
Before and after something you do, name the intention behind it — the factor the Buddha identifies with kamma itself.
Pourquoi ça marche
In Aṅguttara Nikāya 6.63 the Buddha says, in Sujato’s translation, “It is intention that I call deeds,” and that after making a choice one acts by body, speech and mind. The Abhidhamma places volition (cetanā) among the universal factors present in every mind-state; Mendis explains that it determines the activity of the other factors and is the principal factor behind kamma, so that an act done with no intention — stepping on an insect unknowingly — carries no kammic weight. Attending to intention rather than to outcome alone puts attention where the tradition says the moral weight of an action lies.
Comment faire
- Before a conversation or task that matters, ask: what do I actually intend here — to help, to win, to be seen, to get it over with?
- Name it plainly, without rewriting it into something nicer.
- Afterwards, ask again: was the intention I acted on the one I named, or did another take over?
- Notice mixed intentions without judging them — most real acts carry more than one.
- Where an intention you did not want keeps appearing, note which root it seems to come from.
Données probantes
The identification of intention with deeds is in AN 6.63, which also names contact as the source of deeds. Mendis sets out volition as a universal mental factor and its role in kamma, and Bodhi’s introduction notes that the commentaries work out detailed correlations between kamma and its results. The practice is an application of this teaching and has not been studied. (anecdotal)
The tradition’s account of kamma includes rebirth and results across lives, which this page presents as the tradition’s claim. Attending to intention also does not settle questions of responsibility for consequences, which the texts treat separately.
Sources
- Sujato, B. (trans.). Penetrative (Nibbedhikasutta, Aṅguttara Nikāya 6.63). SuttaCentral.
- Mendis, N. K. G. (1985). The Abhidhamma in Practice (Wheel Publication No. 322). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society. Access to Insight edition.
- Bodhi, B. (gen. ed.) (1993). A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: The Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha of Ācariya Anuruddha (Pali text originally edited and translated by Mahāthera Nārada). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society. Introduction by U Rewata Dhamma and Bhikkhu Bodhi, reproduced at Access to Insight.
Erreur fréquente
Using “my intention was good” to dismiss the effect on someone else. The teaching locates kammic weight in intention, but it does not ask you to ignore harm — the honest review asks both what you meant and what actually happened.
Pratiquez cela avec IX Coach
Plus de pratiques pour Abhidhamma: The Buddhist Analysis of Mind, Mental Factors and Kamma
- Name the root that is present in this moment
When you notice a reaction, ask which root it is growing from — greed, hatred or delusion, or their opposites: contentment, love and understanding.
- Find the universal mental factors in one ordinary experience
Take one moment — hearing a car pass — and look for the factors the Abhidhamma says are present in every mind-state: contact, feeling, perception, intention, focus, vitality, attention.
- Tell a wholesome state from a pleasant one
Before acting on something that feels good, check whether it is rooted in wanting or in goodwill — the Abhidhamma treats “pleasant” and “wholesome” as separate questions.
- Watch the sequence from contact to reaction
Trace how a sight or a remembered remark moves from first contact through feeling and recognition to the moment you react — the moment the Abhidhamma says action is made.
- Use the list of mental factors as a vocabulary for what you notice
Learn a handful of the Abhidhamma’s unwholesome and beautiful factors — conceit, envy, worry, restlessness, mindfulness, tranquillity — so you can recognise them as they arise.
- Review a meditation afterwards in terms of its factors
After a sitting, look back at the states you met — calm, joy, restlessness — as passing combinations of factors, not as a self or a prize.
- Study the Abhidhamma through the Saṅgaha, with others and in small pieces
Begin with the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha and a guide to it, learn the four ultimate realities and the factor groups first, and keep testing the terms against your own experience.
Concepts associés
- Anatta : l'enseignement bouddhiste du non-soi en pratique
Ce que signifie vraiment l'intuition du non-soi — et les pratiques qui la rendent utile, pas nihiliste
- La coproduction conditionnée : comment la souffrance surgit et cesse
La chaîne à douze maillons comme carte de la façon dont la souffrance s'entretient elle-même — et où en sortir
- Yogācāra: The Eight Consciousnesses, Seeds and the Three Natures
The Buddhist school that studied how the mind builds the world it then reacts to
- La méditation vipassana, rendue pratique
Intuition, équanimité et l'approche du scan corporel pour se libérer de la réactivité