Do Kamma concept developed and changed time to time?

Textual analysis and comparative discussion on early Buddhist sects and scriptures.
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Milinda
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Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2022 8:26 pm

Do Kamma concept developed and changed time to time?

Post by Milinda »

The main concept we have from Kamma today, perhaps it's in some way different from the past?

The sammatiyas saw the person as a kind of transmitter of karma. An act generates a karma that will bear fruit at a future time. The person would be an essence to which that karmic seed would adhere in some way. The purpose of being the last of the person would be to serve as a mere transmitter of karma. Very little purpose for so many people.

https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/sa ... inition%20(in&text=Sammatiyah%20%2D%20a%20branch%20of%20Sthavirandin,thus%20often%20linked%20with%20Vatsiputriyah.

The Sammatiya they are from 300 years after the Nirvana of Shakyamuni


Curiously, a few centuries later, between the 2nd and 5th AD, a Mahayana school, that of the yogachara, would develop the doctrine of alaya-vijñana (store-consciousness) which would seem to be an evolution of what was defended by the sammatiyas (note, I am not saying that his idea came from them; only there are coincidences).
The alayavijñana would be the flow of consciousness to which the karmic seeds of our acts adhere, which are called to mature in this life or in the following ones. The alayavijnana would offer a greater sense of continuity between lives than Nagasena or Kukrit Pramoj.

But how do you think the concept of Kamma was in the Sakyamuni times??
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