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The question is: How does Kamma associate with "provocation"?

Example 1: A says to B "Hit/kill me if you dare."

Example 2: A tells B that killing is justified if the cause is right.

In the above examples, and if B did the hitting/killing after the provocation, who's kamma is worse? A or B? And Why?

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Kamma is largly based on intention...in both the cases you have given the intention is not clear.

Moreover Kamma is not some measurable quantity that can be quantified...so you cannot ask such questions like whose Kamma is more bad...

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  • Thanks for the answer. Initially, i was basing my example on certain scenarios. Example 1 for scenarios from family/relationship disputes...etc. Example 2 for scenarios such as war / military / terrorists... which all of these scenarios involve a lot of emotional provocation that leads to very bad actions.. – Krizalid_Nest May 28 '18 at 2:03
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Example 1: A commits bad Karma for provocation. B commits bad karma for hitting/killing. B's Karma is usually severe than A's for breaking the first precept.

Example 2: A commits bad karma for being ignorant or for lying. B commits bad karma for killing. B's Karma is usually severe than A's for breaking the first precept unless A's actions were caused by extremely strong ignorant views.

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  • Thanks for the answer. In example 1, does "A" break the precept of only 'False speech' ? In example 2, if it was a military commander persuading front-line soldiers to kill their enemies, the kamma for front-lines are still much worse than the commander because they had the 'intention' + 'action' of breaking the first precept? Whereas the commander only had 'intention' ? – Krizalid_Nest May 28 '18 at 2:09
  • Provocation isn't false speech. Military commander persuading soldiers to kill will get the karma for all the kills committed by soldiers on his instructions. Whereas a soldier is only responsible for the kills he commit. – Sankha Kulathantille May 28 '18 at 2:43
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    Thank you, I think it clears my confusion now. I was also thinking about politicians/gov officials who support wars, maybe they also get the kamma for all the kills associated with that war too. – Krizalid_Nest May 28 '18 at 6:30

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