Each person is born into a different situation, and so each has different personalities and characteristics. The cause of these differences is the karma created by the individual's past and present. This karma affects and controls his or her life.

I. Definition

"Thiện" (good) means goodness and kindness — anything that benefits oneself and others, now and in the future. "Ác" (evil) means evil acts — anything that brings harm to oneself and others, now and in the future. "Nghiệp" (karma) means thoughts and actions that come from body, speech and mind. "Báo" (recompense) means the results of karma.

II. Conceptions of Good and Evil

Good and evil do not have a clear-cut definition. The meaning of good and evil in everyday life differs from their meaning in Buddhism.

1. Good and evil according to customs: whatever follows accepted habit is considered "good", even if it is an immoral act. For example, several peoples in Africa consider killing and eating their elderly parents a good act; in Vietnam it is considered pious for children to slaughter animals to worship parents who have passed away. The meaning of good and evil thus varies with the customs.
2. Good and evil according to the laws: laws are created to keep order and protect the citizens of a country. By following the law, a person is considered "good". Hence "bad" does not necessarily mean immoral, and "good" does not necessarily mean moral. Because laws differ from one country to another, what benefits one country's citizens may harm another's.
3. Good and evil according to theistic religions: these religions teach that believing in God is good and not believing is evil. Since each religion has a different creator-deity, the meaning of good and evil rests on an article of faith rather than on the individual's own moral effort.
4. Good and evil according to Buddhism: Buddhism holds that whatever is reasonable and beneficial to oneself and others, now and in the future, is good; the opposite is evil.

III. Classification

1. Evil (defiled evil): evil actions keep human beings in the cycle of rebirth and suffering. There are many, but they fall under two categories — five immoral actions and ten evil actions.

• a. Five immoral actions: killing one's father, killing one's mother, killing an Arahat, causing the Buddha's body to bleed, and disuniting the Sangha.
• b. Ten evil actions: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, double-tongued speech, exaggerated speech, harmful speech, greed, hatred and ignorance.

2. Intentional good (defiled good): doing good and beneficial things for oneself and others. This brings good recompense but does not yet liberate one from the cycle of rebirth.

• a. Stopping evil: refraining from thinking about or committing the five immoral and ten evil actions.
• b. Doing good: practising the ten good deeds — setting living beings free, being charitable, good conduct, truthful speech, upright speech, gentle speech, reconciling speech, compassion and endurance, and right thinking.

3. Undefiled good: doing good deeds without attachment to a self and without hoping for recompense — acting in accord with one's true nature, with true reality, and with complete understanding.

IV. Understanding Karma

1. By cause: karma of body, of speech, and of mind (action, speech, thought).

2. By result:

• a. Defiled karma: karma that keeps people revolving in the cycle of samsara (rebirth).
• b. Immovable karma: karma of the heavenly beings in the realms of form and of formlessness.
• c. Inconceivable karma: karma of the enlightened ones. They are not bound by any karma, yet can manifest in countless forms to help beings; this karma cannot be explained or fathomed.
• d. Leading karma: the karma that leads a person to receive recompense in a particular form of existence.

3. The power of karma:

• a. One's actions and character are governed by karma.
• b. The circumstances of a person or a people are governed by karma.
• c. Karma controls rebirth: at death a person carries the force of the deeds created in this life and past lives, and that karma directs the next rebirth.
  • Accumulated karma: karma stored up from one life to another.
  • Habitual karma: karma formed by the habits of a single lifetime.
  • Weighty karma: especially strong, important karma that overpowers other karma.
  • Death-proximate karma: karma created as a person nears death.

V. Understanding Recompense

1. Classification:

• a. Direct recompense: results in one's own person — body, character, feelings and thoughts — produced by the causes one has created.
• b. Circumstantial recompense: results in the circumstances of an individual or of a whole people.

2. Timing of recompense:

• a. Immediate recompense: the cause bears its fruit within the same life.
• b. Next-life recompense: the cause of this life bears fruit in the next life.
• c. Later recompense: the cause of this life bears fruit only after many future lives.

3. Recompense as it affects one's own mind:

• a. Recompense within oneself: one shoots a bird; the act instils a habit of cruelty within one's own mind.
• b. Reciprocal recompense: the bird, having been killed, may in some future life — given the conditions — take revenge. This is reciprocal recompense.

4. Kinds of recompense within oneself:

• a. Unintentional:
  • 1) Doing a good deed unintentionally produces no good result within one's own mind.
  • 2) Doing a good deed unintentionally and then regretting it instils an evil imprint within one's own mind.
  • 3) Doing an evil deed unintentionally produces no evil result within one's own mind, though the reciprocal result still exists.
  • 4) Doing an evil deed unintentionally and afterwards repenting with great compassion instils a good imprint within one's own mind.
• b. Intentional:
  • 1) Doing a good deed to gain fame or profit still counts as good in its reciprocal result, but within one's own mind it instils an imprint toward evil.

VI. The Relation Between Karma and Recompense

1. The law of good and evil recompense is a natural law that governs human conduct; it is one detail of the wider law of cause and effect.
2. A person can change his or her own recompense.

VII. Conclusion

1. The law of good and evil karma shows us that the sufferings and joys of human beings depend entirely on the person, not on any deity or God.
2. Everyone living in this world is governed by the force of karma.
3. A person has the right to change his or her own life and to create an ideal future, if only one has firm and resolute will.