Is the thought of killing someone without actually killing him bad Karma? How powerful is it? I think it is certainly bad karma. But I am willing to know the Buddhist explanation of it with more detail. What will happen, if a person forcefully resit those thoughts when thoughts are arriving?
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1related in general the act of intentional killing (or attempt to act) is far worse than any fleeting thought, which may just be a mental disease anyway hth :)– user25078Commented May 19 at 16:41
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Thank you for the link.– GalaxylokkaCommented May 21 at 5:02
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4 Answers
Is the thought of killing someone without actually killing him bad Karma?
Of course, yes. Just forget the physical part, you (not you, the one who act. Don't take this personally) just killed him/her mentally. How could that be no bad.
How powerful is it?
Not much powerful if you just only thought and forget it. But become more and more powerful if you redo the process(mentally killing) again and again.
What will happen, if a person forcefully resit those thoughts when thoughts are arriving?
Yes. That's what a good Buddhist do. It's the frist step on fallowing the path. This reduces the generation of more bad karma.
If there's intention behind it, I expect it would, since intention is karma according to the suttas. The least it does is reinforce a negative, unhappy mental state, like wearing a groove with a wagon wheel; "anger begets anger." I expect the magnitude of the karma would depend on how strongly you mean it, and how long you were overcome by it. The opposite intention is good will, and multiple suttas recommend broadcasting it throughout the universe. I don't think it would be taught if it had no effect.
I think it's better to just not agree with those kinds of thoughts when they pass through your mind, and don't take them up and go along with them, because you see that they'll hurt you. MN 20 suggests forceful suppression as one of the methods, but it's listed last, which kind of implies it's a last resort. Because Buddhist teachers pretty much always recommend letting go instead of fighting things. Fighting is stress, and letting go is releasing tension. Ajahn Chah said Buddhists don't fight things, they investigate them.
Its bad kamma because it not only reinforces an unwise underlying tendency but it also hinders/prevents the development of wisdom.
answered May 23 at 22:56
If the thought arises unbidden - an intrusive thought - it isn't bad kamma. Only if you intentionally delight in and engage with the thought - fantasising or planning - does it become bad kamma.
In Sabbāsavā Sutta as well as many other places the Buddha recommends quickly destroying and eliminating such thoughts. Iti 110 says if you don't do this you count as a lazy meditator!
“If, while he is walking [..sitting.. standing..lying down], monks, there arises in a monk a thought of sensuality, a thought of ill-will, or a thought of harmfulness, and he does not quickly abandon, dispel, demolish, or wipe that thought out of existence, then a monk walking with such a lack of ardency & compunction is called continually & continuously lethargic & low in his persistence." https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Iti/iti110.html
