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If someone hits you and you even the score, purely to HELP them avoid future bad kamma (like if your intention is purely that... you want to neutralize their bad kamma... not an excuse, no anger at all, general concern):

  • Would it neutralize the bad kamma for the other individual?
  • Despite necessary force to subdue the assailant and keep things even steven... would it still be good kamma based on intention?
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  • for example, someone punches (attacks) me so i subdue them, then punch them back deliberately in the exact same way to help them stay balanced...
    – A Nonimous
    Commented Sep 6, 2014 at 5:38
  • dude... dont change my question!
    – A Nonimous
    Commented Sep 6, 2014 at 13:43
  • its not retaliation per say... or reaction... its a deliberate not retalitory act with the sole intention of keeping the angry individual kammicly balanced.
    – A Nonimous
    Commented Sep 6, 2014 at 13:45
  • another example would be true shaolin monks... which are actually ordained zen buddhist monastics.
    – A Nonimous
    Commented Sep 6, 2014 at 15:03
  • IMO the word "retaliation" describes the action itself, regardless of your intention (which allegedly causes the action) or its future result. In any case, questions need a separate title (I tried to reformat your question without changing it, but I had to invent a title because you didn't supply a title yoursef). You can edit the title again if you think title I chose is not a good summary of your question.
    – ChrisW ♦
    Commented Sep 6, 2014 at 16:44

2 Answers 2

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For the first question the answer is NO. In AN 5.57 we can see that Buddha has used this phrase,

I am my own kamma, I am a heir to my kamma, I am born [in this life] from my kamma, I am the kinsman of my kamma, I am protected by my kamma. Whatever kamma·s I shall do, kalyāṇa·s or pāpaka·s, I shall become their heir.

So you can't neutralize someone else's bad deeds by your actions. He will eventually reap the results of his actions when all the conditions fall into place. I think it's easy to understand this if we consider kamma as a natural law like gravity.

There are four types of kammas with respect to the time of taking effect in abhidhamma.

  1. Immediately effective kamma (Dhitta dhamma vedaniya) - in the present lifetime
  2. Subsequently effective kamma (Aparapariya vedaniya) - in the immediately following lifetime
  3. Indefinitely effective kamma (Upapajja vedaniya) - in lifetimes two or more in the future
  4. Defunct (Ahosi) - kamma whose effects have ripened already

If I consider your example of hitting back when someone hits you, we can categorize this as a immediately effective kamma for the person you're hitting back. But we can't still say the power of his initial kamma has weakened. In another life, in several other lives or even in this life he may reap the results of this. If the conditions didn't fall the kamma may never function as well.

For the second question the answer is also NO. You may not have have anger at the point you hit him, but your intention is filled with delusion. You are purposefully hurting someone with a wrong view in your mind.

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  • so, "he" is generating kamma by acting in anger making him more kammicly apt to angery acts and being conditioned for that type of phenomena to come up in the future... seems to me if he learns a lesson and it changes him to understand his anger, then by punching me he actually generated good kamma due to my intentional response?!... and i also do.
    – A Nonimous
    Commented Sep 6, 2014 at 13:50
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Buddhism is about suffering. And suffering is about attachment. And you question is pretty attached. So you suffer from your imagines. ;) If you don't create karma, your action is clear. If your mind is unclean, your action is unclean too. Thinking doesn't help here. No common solution for your question doesn't exist. Every situation is unique. Like this one.

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  • very insighful but not necessary to type out.
    – A Nonimous
    Commented Sep 6, 2014 at 13:47

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