The History of Buddhist Thought c17.51

c17.51

The view that extinction of pain is brought about by the exhaustion of karma is attributed to the Nigaṇṭhas. It is the most extreme form of the doctrine of action (kiriyavāda). Karma is conceived as something flowing into the individual. An action produces so much karma, whether it was intended or not. As represented by the Buddhists, the Nigaṇṭhas hold that “ whatever an individual experiences, whether pleasurable, painful, or indifferent, is all the effect of his previous karma, and that so by the extinction of old karmas through austerity and by the non-performance of new karmas there is no outflow in the future, and that through there being no outflow in the future there will be destruction of karma, through destruction of karma destruction of pain, through the destruction of pain destruction of feeling, and through destruction of feeling all pain will be exhausted". The view that an act of killing, even if unintentional, involved retribution is rejected in *Kathāvatthu*, xx, 1. The Jains are charged with holding it in *Abhk.*, iv, 73; *cf. Jaina Sūtras*.