Evil Begets Evil

• Evil begets Evil

Manopubbańgamā dhammaā – manoseţţā manomayāManasā ce paduţţhena – bhāsati vā karoti vāTato nań dukkhamanveti – cakkań’va vahato padań

• Meaning

Mind is the forerunner of all evil states. Mind is chief. Everything is made by mind. If one speaks or act with corrupted mind, because of that, suffering follows him/her, as the wheels of the cart follows the draught ox.

(Dhammapada – Yamaka Vagga – Verse 1)

• Story

The Story of Thera Cakkhupala

On one occasion, Thera Cakkhupala came to pay homage to the Buddha at the Jetavana monastery. One night, while working to and fro in meditation (), accidentally some insects were killed by the Thera. Some bhikkhus visiting the thera found the dead insects. They thought that the thera have killed them intentionally and reported the matter to the Buddha. The Buddha asked them whether they had seen the thera killing the insects. When they answered "No, Lord", the Buddha said, "Just as you had not seen him killing, so also he had not seen those living insects. Yet, as the thera had already attained Arahatship he never kill any living being intentionally."

The Bhikkus asked the reason for Venarable Chakkupala's blindness when he's an Arahant. Then the Buddha unveiled the past story of Venerable Chakkupala:

In the past thousands of eons ago there was a physician in one of his previous birth. Once, a blind woman came to take treatments to gain her vision. The woman who was not rich had promised him to become his slave, together with her children, if her eyes were completely cured. The clever physician was able to cure her eyes but the woman fearing that she and her children would have to become slaves, she lied to the physician. She told him that her eyes were getting worse than before. The physician knew she was lying him. Physician got angry and in revenge, he gave her another ointment, which made her totally blind. As a result of this evil karma the physician lost his eyesight many times in his later births.

That physician was Venerable Chakkupala. He suffered the cause of his evil karma.