Dear Danya,
Welcome to the list. I hope you find it useful for your studies.
Yes, I was puzzled by the word grace. I have a try. See below.
op 04-09-2003 02:56 schreef Piya Tan op libris@...:

> It helps if you have a working definition of "grace".

Danya wrote:
I would really appreciate it if you could suggest articles or books that
you

>> found particularly helpful in understanding how kamma operates within
>> Theravada Buddhism.

Nina: Wheel no 221-224, BPS Sri Lanka, Kamma and its Fruit, also containing
articles by me. I believe it is on line now.
It is very intricate how different conditions operate at different moments
in the course of our lives. Akusala kamma committed aeons ago can still
produce result now when the conditions are right. Each moment of
consciousness, citta, arises and falls away, and is succeeded by the next
one. That is why good and bad inclinations can be accumulated from life to
life. Thus, not only different kammas are accumulated, also good and bad
inclinations which can motivate good and bad deeds. Angulima had
accumulated inclinations to violence but also, he must have listened to
Dhamma in former lives, he must have accumulated right understanding. The
Buddha knew his disposition and he knew that it was the right time for him
to hear the Dhamma. He became a monk and later on he attained arahatship as
you have read in the sutta (M, 86). At the attainment of arahatship the end
of the cycle is reached. Kamma cannot produce as result any kind of rebirth.
However, an arahat can, during his last life, still experience results of
former kammas in the form of pleasant and unpleasant experiences through the
senses. This is explained also in this sutta. A cloth of earth, sticks and
gravel fell upon A"ngulimaala so that he had a broken head. The Buddha
explained that he was experiencing the result of akusala kamma, which, had
he not been an arahat, could have produced rebirth in Hell.
I see the Buddha's great compassion in this sutta, but I would not use the
word grace. Different kammas and different inclinations were the conditions
for different effects. This sutta helps us to understand that events in life
all have their appropriate conditions. This is actually Dhamma Nyaama, the
fixed nature of Dhamma. I wrote (in Meanings of dhamma, no 7) about the
Fixedness of Law (Dhamma) regarding all things, also quoting from Buddhist
Dict by Ven. Nyanatiloka.
<There is a fivefold natural order, that governs:
1. temperature, season.
2. plant life.
3. kamma.
4. functions of citta in the processes.
5. certain events occurring in the lives of the Buddhas.
As regards kamma: akusala kamma produces an undesirable result and kusala
kamma produces a desirable result, and this is niyaama, a fixed order of
dhammas. It cannot be altered.
The ³Gradual Sayings² (I, 285) Ch XIV, §134, Appearance states:
"Monks, whether there be an appearance or non-appearance of a Tathaagata,
this causal law of nature (dhaatudhamma.t.thitataa), this orderly fixing of
things (dhammaniyaamataa) prevails, namely, All phenomena are
impermanent..."
The same is said with regard to the nature of dukkha and anattaa.>
Conditions take their course, no matter whether there is an appearance or
non-appearance of a Tathaagata. When you use the word grace it suggests a
person who bestows grace. This is in the context not according to reality.
Not even a Buddha can alter the fixedness of kamma.
Nina.