Nyanatiloka Buddhist Dictionary

constitute 'courses of action'.II. The tenfold wholesome course of action (kusala-kamma-patha):3 bodily actions: avoidance of killing, stealing, unlawful sexual intercourse;4 verbal actions: avoidance of lying, slandering, rude speech, foolish babble; i.e. true,conciliatory, mild, and wise speech;3 mental actions: unselfishness, good-will, right views.Both lists occur repeatedly, e.g. in A. X, 28, 176; M. 9; they are explained in detail in M. 114, and in Com. toM. 9 (R. Und., p. 14), Atthasálini Tr. I, 126ff.kamma-samutthána-rúpa: 'corporeality produced through karma'; s. samutthána.kammatthána: lit. 'working-ground' (i.e. for meditation), is the term in the Com. for 'subjects of meditation';s. bhávaná.kamma-vatta: 'karma-round'; s. vatta.kammáyúhana: s. áyúhana.kámupádána: 'sensuous clinging', is one of the 4 kinds of clinging (upádána, q.v.).kankhá: 'doubt', may be either an intellectual, critical doubt or an ethically and psychologically detrimentaldoubt. The latter may either be a persistent negative skepticism or wavering indecision. Only the detrimentaldoubt (identical with vicikicchá, q.v.) is to be rejected as karmically unwholesome, as it paralyses thinkingand hinders the inner development of man. Reasoned, critical doubt in dubious matters is thereby notdiscouraged.The 16 doubts enumerated in the Suttas (e.g. M. 2) are the following: "Have I been in the past? Or, have I notbeen in the past? What have I been in the past? How have I been in the past? From what state into what statedid I change in the past? - Shall I be in the future? Or, shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in thefuture? How shall I be in the future? From what state into what state shall I change in the future? - Am I? Or,am I not? What am I? How am I? Whence has this being come? Whither will it go?"kankhá-vitarana-visuddhi: 'purification by overcoming doubt', is the 4th of the 7 stages of purification(visuddhi, q.v.).kappa (Sanskrit kalpa): 'world-period', an inconceivably long space of time, an aeon. This again issubdivided into 4 sections: world-dissolution (samvatta-kappa) dissolving world), continuation of the chaos(samvatta-ttháyí), world-formation (vivatta-kappa), continuation of the formed world (vivatta-ttháyí)."How long a world-dissolution will continue, how long the chaos, how long the formation, how long thecontinuation of the formed world, of these things; o monks, one hardly can say that it will be so many years,or so many centuries, or so many millennia, or so many hundred thousands of years" (A. IV, 156)A detailed description of the 4 world-periods is given in that stirring discourse on the all-embracingimpermanence in A. VII, 62.The beautiful simile in S. XV, 5 may be mentioned here: "Suppose, o monks, there was a huge rock of onesolid mass, one mile long, one mile wide, one mile high, without split or flaw. And at the end of everyhundred years a man should come and rub against it once with a silken cloth. Then that huge rock wouldwear off and disappear quicker than a world-period. But of such world-periods, o monks, many have passedaway, many hundreds, many thousands, many hundred thousands. And how is this possible? Inconceivable, omonks, is this samsára (q.v.), not to be discovered is any first beginning of beings, who obstructed by