The First Citta in Life - Different births caused by different kammas

We do not only see that people are born with different characters, we also see that they are born in different surroundings; some people are born in pleasant surroundings and some people are born in miserable surroundings. In order to understand this we should not cling to conventional terms such as 'person' or 'surroundings'. If we think in terms of paramattha dhammas we will see that being in pleasant or miserable surroundings is nothing else but the receiving of pleasant or unpleasant objects through eyes, ears, nose, tongue and bodysense. It is kusala vipāka or akusala vipāka. Vipāka (result) does not arise without conditions; it is caused by good or bad deeds, by kamma. Different people perform different kamma and each deed brings its own result. The fact that people are born in different surroundings must have a condition: it is conditioned by kamma performed in a previous life. Kamma causes one to be born. The patisandhi-citta is the result of kamma; it is vipāka. 

 

In this world we see different births of people and of animals. When we

compare the life of an animal with the life of a human being, we notice that

being born an animal is sorrowful; it is akusala vipāka. Being born a human

being is kusala vipāka, even if one is born poor or if one has to experience

many unpleasant things during one's life. The patisandhi-cittas of different

people are of many different degrees of kusala vipāka because the kusala

kammas which produced them were of different degrees.