in theravada buddhism, can you purify your karma?

[confusedsoso]

In theravada buddhism, can you purify your karma? I heard in mahayana buddhism you can purify your karma while in theravada buddhism you have to pay up all your karma. Am I right in all of this??

[befriend]

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html

[SarathW]

The simple answer is NO.
However, vipaka (result) for your Kamma (action) is fruition in different ways.
It is a complex subject.
Even Devadatta who killed many thousands of people became an arahant.

[Sam Vara]

The simple answer is NO.
However, vipaka (result) for your Kamma (action) is fruition in different ways.
It is a complex subject.
Even Devadatta who killed many thousands of people became an arahant.

Devadatta, or Angulimala?

Is there a story of Devadatta becoming an arahant?

[SarathW]

The simple answer is NO.
However, vipaka (result) for your Kamma (action) is fruition in different ways.
It is a complex subject.
Even Devadatta who killed many thousands of people became an arahant.

Devadatta, or Angulimala?

Is there a story of Devadatta becoming an arahant?

Sorry I got my wires crossed.
Yes, I am talking about Angulimala.
By the way, can recall a story that Devadatta one day become a Pcceka Buddha or something like that.

[Goofaholix]

In theravada buddhism, can you purify your karma? I heard in mahayana buddhism you can purify your karma while in theravada buddhism you have to pay up all your karma. Am I right in all of this??

For that to make sense you'd have to assume all kamma is bad (Jainism?), which is not the case, what would be the point in purifying good kamma?

[confusedsoso]

In theravada buddhism, can you purify your karma? I heard in mahayana buddhism you can purify your karma while in theravada buddhism you have to pay up all your karma. Am I right in all of this??

For that to make sense you'd have to assume all kamma is bad (Jainism?), which is not the case, what would be the point in purifying good kamma?

of course not the good karma silly

[Goofaholix]

of course not the good karma silly :tongue:

Yes it is silly. As kamma can be anything from good to bad you just want to go for the good and abstain from the bad.

[Mahabrahma]

Rid yourself from the consiquences of action (karma), and act without a material reaction which is binding to the Saha World, be it good or be it bad, and act only in Spiritual Karuna (Transcendental Compassion) for other beings instead.

[dharmacorps]

There is a sutta where the Buddha sees a recluse ritually bathing himself in the ganges. When asked by the Buddha why he is doing so, the recluse said he bathed in the holy river to "purify bad karma".

The Buddha asked him if this could be done, wouldn't it wash away his good karma as well?

[DNS]

There is a sutta where the Buddha sees a recluse ritually bathing himself in the ganges. When asked by the Buddha why he is doing so, the recluse said he bathed in the holy river to "purify bad karma".

The Buddha asked him if this could be done, wouldn't it wash away his good karma as well?

I don't remember reading that one. But I do remember one where someone was doing ritual water purification and a bhikkhuni remarked, "if water purifies beings, the fish and the sea turtles must be very holy by now."

[TRobinson465]

In theravada buddhism, can you purify your karma? I heard in mahayana buddhism you can purify your karma while in theravada buddhism you have to pay up all your karma. Am I right in all of this??

You do not have to pay up all your kamma. if you enlighten you will simply pass into nibbana and your remaining kamma will become ahosikamma, or kamma that ceases. however, as long as you are in samsara you have to "pay up" all your kamma if you dont reach nibbana soon, you cannot purify it, you can only dilute it as shown in the salt crystal sutta posted earlier or enlighten and basically "escape" it.

[asahi]

There is a possibility to purify the karma . For example , ajahn keng khemako in one of his talk told he had a kind of very painful skin disease uncurable either by western medicine , eastern medicine or other traditional methods for more than 20 years if not mistaken . But since he could perceive the karmic creditor actually is a king cobra which he has killed when he was a soldier , he heard from Mahayana monk that if he release king cobra and dedicates the merits to the king cobra , he would get recover . So , he ask one devotee to purchase a king cobra that suppose to be killed , he somehow recover a little bit immediately after that . Then he again asked the devotee to release more , in which finally he got totally cure from the skin disease .

[jinic]

The simple answer is NO.
However, vipaka (result) for your Kamma (action) is fruition in different ways.
It is a complex subject.
Even Devadatta who killed many thousands of people became an arahant.

Devadatta, or Angulimala?

Is there a story of Devadatta becoming an arahant?

Sorry I got my wires crossed.
Yes, I am talking about Angulimala.
By the way, can recall a story that Devadatta one day become a Pcceka Buddha or something like that.

It's in the Questions of King Milinda.

And Devadatta's sorrow, O king, was mitigated. For Devadatta at the moment of his death took refuge in Him for the rest of his existences when he said:

"In him, who of the best is far the best 1,
The god of gods, the guide of gods and men,
Who see'th all, and bears the hundred marks
Of goodness,--'tis in him I refuge take
Through all the lives that I may have to live."

 2'If you divide this Kalpa, O king, into six parts, it was at the end of the first part that Devadatta created schism in the Order. After he has suffered the other five in purgatory he will be released, and will become a Pakkeka-Buddha 3 under the name of Atthissara.'

https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe35/sbe3512.htm

This is a Sarvastivadin text tho, not universally accepted as canonical by Theravada

[Bundokji]

https://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/v ... ?verse=173

The story of Thera Angulimala as other discussants mentioned.