“Practitioners, there are these four kinds of karma [intentional, volitional action] declared by me after realizing them (experiencing them) by direct knowledge (abhinna).
“What are the four? There is:
- dark karma with dark results
- bright karma with bright results
- dark and bright karma with dark and bright results, and
- karma that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright results, which leads to the destruction of karma.
“What is dark karma with dark results? Practitioners, here [within this teaching] someone generates a physical, verbal, or mental volitional formation that afflicts oneself and/or others [a bodily, spoken, or strictly internal deed]. Having done so, one is reborn [when and if that deed ripens] in a world of affliction. There affliction makes contact as sensation, and one experiences extremely painful feelings like those felt by beings in the various hells. This is dark karma with dark results.
“Practitioners, what is bright karma with bright results? Here someone generates a physical, verbal, or mental volitional formation that does not afflict oneself or others. Having done so, one is reborn in a world largely free of affliction. There sensations free of affliction make contact, and one experiences extremely pleasant feelings like those felt by the [light-streaming] devas of refulgent glory (subhakinha deva). This is bright karma with bright results.“Practitioners, what is dark and bright karma with dark and bright results? Here someone generates both non-afflicting and afflicting physical, verbal, mental volitional formations. Having done so, one is reborn in a world where there is both affliction and non-affliction. There both kinds of contact are made, and one experiences both extremes of sensation, a mixture of pleasure and pain like the beings born in the human world, some devas, and some beings [such as animals and ghosts] in the lower worlds experience. This is dark and bright karma with dark and bright results.
“Practitioners, what is karma that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright results that leads to the destruction of karma?
“Here, practitioners, someone develops right- view, -intention, -speech, -action, -livelihood, -effort, -mindfulness, and right-concentration [the Noble Eightfold Path].
“These are the four kinds of karma declared by me after realizing them by direct knowledge.