Question asked by Dyspi
I’ve been told that negative karma results from harmful thoughts and intentions. If you tried to help someone out of compassion and love for them and you genuinely beloved that you’re helping them- will one accumulate negative karma if the actions result in harm to the person? Or is the intention the only thing that counts when it comes to accumulating negative karma
Hi Dyspi,
Thanks for your question. In the case where the intention is good, but the result is negative, you still collect negative karma because the person experienced some form of suffering, but it is a lot, lot less than if you did the same action with the negative intention. At the same time, because your intention was good, even though the result was negative, you also generate some form of good karma.
So when thinking about karma, even though we explain and learn about it in terms of only good or bad karma, actually one act can produce karma that is mixed, both positive and negative.
There are actually four parts to the creation of karma – the object, intention, action and completion. To learn more about this, you should read the Lamrim teachings. The text we use here in Kechara is known as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand (https://www.vajrasecrets.com/lamrim-liberation-in-the-palm-of-your-hand). I hope this helps.