Supportive Kamma (Upattham-bhaka-kamma)
1. The Meaning of Supportive Kamma
Supportive Kamma is the Kamma which supports other types of Kamma in that it causes all the beings in the different planes of existence to experience suffering or happiness accordingly.
2. Characteristics of Supportive Kamma
From its definition, Supportive Kamma is like a hero that helps each being to experience happiness or like a villain that adds salt to the wound by causing each being to experience more hardship and suffering. Supportive Kamma acts in concert with Reproductive Kamma in that it causes beings in different planes of existence to experience suffering or happiness in accordance with their overall Kamma. If Reproductive Kamma causes a being to have a good rebirth, the Supportive Kamma will work to increase its happiness. On the contrary, if Reproductive Kamma causes a being to have a bad rebirth, the Supportive Kamma will work to increase its suffering.
There are two categories of Supportive Kamma and include unwholesome Supportive Kamma and wholesome Supportive Kamma. A being's unwholesome Supportive Kamma can work to cause it to meet with a series of obstacles or disastrous events to make its life really miserable, as shown in the following case study.
A Case Study in Unwholesome Kamma as Recorded in the Tripitaka
The Hereafter of a Miserly Millionaire
During the time of our Lord Buddha, there was a millionaire by the name of 'Ananda.' He was terribly mean and never once practiced generosity. Moreover, he did not observe the Precepts. His increasing wealth only went to make him even more miserly. He was determined to keep all of his wealth intact. He was so stingy that he spent very little on food and ate only poor quality food. The problem was he appeared to grow stingier and stingier with time.
Every two weeks, he would call his family members and relatives to meet so that he could remind them of how 800 million was hardly a fortune. Therefore, they should be vigilant and never give any of it out to beggars or ascetics with shaved heads because no advantages could be gained from giving them anything. To him, it was only a waste of money. He admonished them to constantly increase the family wealth by telling them that any dent made on their wealth would make them closer to losing their independence, because one day their wealth would be all spent.
He drilled into them such teaching on a regular basis until he died. His miserliness became the Reproductive Kamma which caused him to have a rebirth in the womb of a beggar woman who lived in abject poverty in the community of beggars. Upon his conception, his Supportive Kamma caused the beggar community to suffer more and more hardship. What used to work for them no longer did and they met obstacles every step of the way. The beggars had to call a meeting to discuss the fact that in the past, some of their members might have encountered obstacles from time to time, but they had never before suffered such scarcity as a whole community. The love and unity of the community members had been replaced by irritation and annoyance. They concluded that someone of very ill fortune had to be among them.
The members devised a way to find the person of ill fortune by dividing themselves into groups. A person of ill fortune would cause the group to experience scarcity while other groups would not. Finally, they found the person of ill fortune to be the woman in whose womb the former miserly millionaire had been conceived. She was subsequently cast out of the community. After she left, the community of beggars was able to receive alms as they used to do.
After the beggar woman left the community, her life took a downward turn. She had to wander from place to place until she gave birth to a male infant. The infant was terribly ugly. His mother raised him until he was old enough to be on his own. She then gave him an old begging bowl and left him to find a better life for herself.
After the mother and son parted company, the son wandered off to different places until one day he reached the house in which he used to live during his previous lifetime. He happened to be able to recall his past life so he walked into the house. When the residents of the house found the repulsive-looking beggar in the compound of their house, they were so affronted that they chased him out of the house and beat him until he fell unconscious.
The Lord Buddha happened to walk past the house at the time and saw the entire incident. He told the people at the house that the boy they had just beaten was indeed the rebirth form of the deceased millionaire, Ananda. The homeowners did not believe it, so the Lord Buddha told the boy to recount his past life as the millionaire Ananda for them, and to lead them to the site where he had buried the treasures. No one else except for the millionaire Ananda knew about this site. As a result, Ananda's son came to believe in the Law of Kamma and the Lord Buddha's Teachings.
A Case Study in Wholesome Kamma as Recorded in the Tripitaka
The Past Kamma of the Senior Monk Phra Anuruddha
Phra Anuruddha was one of the most important Arahats during the time of ou r Lord Buddha. He was one of the eighty foremost Arahats and was most accomplished in the area of 'Celestial Eye.' It was said that except during mealtimes, Phra Anuruddha could maintain his elevated meditative state and employed his 'Celestial Eye' to watch the comings and goings of different beings in all three spheres of existence. During the Lord Buddha's attainment of complete Nibbana, it was Phra Anuruddha who employed his 'Celestial Eye' to follow every step of the holy process.
Phra Anuruddha was a cousin of the Lord Buddha. He was the prince of a royalty by the name of 'Amitodana' of Kapilavastu City, the Lord Buddha's uncle. He had a brother born of the same mother by the name of 'Mahanama. He possessed an incalculable amount of merit which caused him to be high-born. Before becoming ordained as a Buddhist monk, he had enjoyed all forms of physical comfort and had never experienced any hardship or any want. He had no idea what 'no more' meant.
Once when Phra Anuruddha was still a child, there was an agreement among the children who were his playmates that whoever lost in a game would bring snacks for everyone else. Since he lost most of the time, his mother ended up having to provide so many snacks for all of his playmates. One time, his mother had an attendant tell him that there were no more snacks. Because of his life of plenty, he understood his mother to say that the snack was called 'no more' so he sent his attendant to fetch the 'no more' snacks. His mother wanted to teach him a lesson so she sent a covered gold platter with nothing inside it to him. But when he opened the cover, he found the platter to be filled with delicious snacks. The delicious snacks appeared by means of celestial powers which were manifested on his behalf as a result of his incalculable merit.
During one conversation with his royal cousins, the subject of the origin of rice was discussed. One boy said that rice came from the paddies. Another one said it came from the granary. Another one said it came from the rice pot. Young Anuruddha said it came from the plate. It goes to show that these boys had seen the work carried out in the rice paddies, all except for young Anuruddha. By the time he was a teenager, his parents had three castles built for him for each of the three seasons. Music played by female musicians echoed throughout the castle whenever he was in residence.
After his cousin Prince Siddhattha became enlightened as the Lord Buddha and returned to Kapilavastu City to teach His father King Suddhodana, the king held a meeting of all the royal members. He wanted each royal house to send a son so that they could be ordained as a Buddhist monk. Young Anuruddha was among the ones chosen. He studied meditation with the Most Venerable Sariputra, the Lord Buddha's Chief Disciple. Phra Anuruddha later attained Arahatship and was honored by the Lord Buddha as being the most accomplished in the area of 'Celestial Eye.'
A long, long time ago during the time of the Lord Padumuttara Buddha, in that existence Phra Anuruddha was a very wealthy man and had the opportunity to listen to the Lord Padumuttara Buddha's sermons together with the masses. After one sermon, the Lord Padumuttara Buddha honored one particular monk as being the most accomplished in the area of 'Celestial Eye.' This caused Phra Anuruddha in that existence to feel a deep desire for the same honor sometime in the future. He respectfully approached the Lord Padumuttara Buddha to request Him and 100,000 monks to receive food offerings from him the following day. He had made great offerings for the entire seven days. On the seventh day, he made an offering of a very fine cloth to the Lord Padumuttara Buddha. He told the Lord Buddha that he had made all the offerings for the entire week with the hope that one day in the distant future he would be honored as being the most accomplished in the area of 'Celestial Eye' during the time of a future Buddha. The Lord Padumuttara employed the 'Buddha-Eye' to look into the future. The Lord Buddha found that the wealthy man's wish would indeed be fulfilled. The Lord Buddha gave the forecast that 100,000 Kappas into the future, there would appear a Buddha by the name of 'Gautama.' During the time of the Lord Gautama Buddha, the wealthy man would be honored as the most accomplished in the area of 'Celestial Eye' and his name would be 'Anuruddha.'
In that existence, he had accumulated only wholesome deeds throughout his entire life. After the Lord Padumuttara attained complete Nibbana, the masses came together to build a gold Cetiya 112 kilometers high. The wealthy man worshipped the gold Cetiya with a large number of great and small torches. In this Kappa, Phra Anuruddha was once reborn in the time of the Lord Kassapa Buddha. After the Lord Kassapa Buddha attained complete Nibbana, the masses came together to build a Cetiya 16 kilometers high. In that existence, Phra Anuruddha had a large number of bronze vessels made. He put clarified butter and coils of wick in each vessel and placed the vessels side by side all around the Cetiya. He then had a large bronze vessel made and filled it with clarified butter and 1,000 coils of wick. He lit the wicks, placed the large vessel on his head and circumambulated the Cetiya all night long.
In another one of Phra Anuruddha's past existences, he was reborn during the time when the Lord Buddha was absent from the world. He was very poor and earned a living by hauling fresh grass. His name was 'Annabhara' and he shared accommodations with a wealthy man's attendant. He had the opportunity to offer alms to the Silent Buddha (Pacceka-buddha) by the name of 'Uparittha' who had just emerged from the bliss of deep meditation. The merit made gave its fruit almost instantly and caused a huge treasure trove to appear miraculously to him. He was later honored by the king to assume the position of millionaire by the name of 'Dhana the millionaire.' He had accumulated wholesome deeds for the rest of his life. After he died, he was reborn in the Celestial Realm and the Human Realm countless times until he had his last rebirth as Prince Anuruddha.
