What role does Intention play,karmically,in one's actions?

[RedLantern]

It is said that no matter how good one's intention is,if the action is wrong,then he or she will accumulate some bad karma ( for good or bad action ) What is definitely thought was that karma is entirely the results of our intention. No matter how wrong the action seems,if the intention is pure,then no bad karma will be generated because of the wrong actions.

[DS Star]

karma is the actions of Body, Speech and Mind with intention. So intention plays very important part too. The act itself will generate certain level of result but will not be full result if the intention does not present.

Example, we stepped on ants, it is a negative karma but since we did not intent to kill them, our negative karma is not the same as per pre-meditative killing of, say, our enemy. The results are different accordingly.

On the other hand, like the famous story of Buddha's previous life that killed a bandit to save 500 merchants (Arhats), his intention was noble and arises from compassion, so the result of his action is very very much reduced.

Conclusion, intention is very important factor for one's karma. It determines the weight of our karma.

[fruven]

I agreed motivation is important factor but due to wrong view one person can think that his motivation is pure or sincere when in fact it is not.

Even if one has done a negative action but regretted from doing it the karma becomes lesser. Of course not doing negative action in the first place is best but one might may not realize such actions are negative because we tend to justify or rationalize our actions.

[Matibhadra]

Thank you for the interesting discussion and penetrating explanations.

one might may not realize such actions are negative because we tend to justify or rationalize our actions

One might also consider how much this human tendency to justify and rationalize individual and collective harmful actions and purposes crystalized into ideologies of supremacism, discrimination, exclusivism, elitism, exceptionalism, and chosenness.

[MoMo]

For any white or black karma to complete, there are four steps in total, 1. Basis or object 2. Intention 3. Deeds 4. Final step.
The Basis/objects are animate or inanimate objects, ie. another person other than one self, others possession, hash words that other could understand...
1. Intention is what we conceived in our mind. This has 3 sub-parts that are 1a. recognition 1b. motive 1c. delusion.
Takes Black Karma created from non-virtuous act of killing an animal as food for instance,
The object is another being other than self.
The Intention : Recognition is unmistakenly identified a particular animal.
The motive : is wanting to kill it to have as one food.
The delusion : is any of the 3 poisons, ie. being attached to the taste of it meat, thinking about it is not a misdeed to kill...etc
The Deed is carrying out the act of killing.
The Final step result in the death of that particular animal and one rejoice over the act.
The process of White Karma is the opposite of above.
The object is another being other than self.
The Intention : Recognition is unmistakenly identified a particular animal that to be save.
The motive : is wanting to save it from being kill.
The wisdom : is knowing the consequences of karma incurred with the act of killing and the meritorious act of liberating lives.
The deed is abandon killing or liberating live.
The Final step result in the life of that particular animal being saved and one rejoice over the act.
From the about example,it ended with two opposite results with just a twist of intention.

[maricisun]

Intention is the thought of one's action to do something either good or bad. If the intention is good then it will be good karma. If the intention is bad and just being selfish, then the karma will be bad. Karma has its cause and effect. The effect which we will see later.

[Blueupali]

It is said that no matter how good one's intention is,if the action is wrong,then he or she will accumulate some bad karma ( for good or bad action ) What is definitely thought was that karma is entirely the results of our intention. No matter how wrong the action seems,if the intention is pure,then no bad karma will be generated because of the wrong actions.

Here is a good article on intention http://dharmakaya.org/what-does-a-hat-have-to-do-with-karma/ by Trungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche, Ph.D.--- it explains how intention effects our karma and how we have to be honest with ourselves about our intention

[yontenjamyang]

For any white or black karma to complete, there are four steps in total, 1. Basis or object 2. Intention 3. Deeds 4. Final step.
The Basis/objects are animate or inanimate objects, ie. another person other than one self, others possession, hash words that other could understand...
1. Intention is what we conceived in our mind. This has 3 sub-parts that are 1a. recognition 1b. motive 1c. delusion.
Takes Black Karma created from non-virtuous act of killing an animal as food for instance,
The object is another being other than self.
The Intention : Recognition is unmistakenly identified a particular animal.
The motive : is wanting to kill it to have as one food.
The delusion : is any of the 3 poisons, ie. being attached to the taste of it meat, thinking about it is not a misdeed to kill...etc
The Deed is carrying out the act of killing.
The Final step result in the death of that particular animal and one rejoice over the act.
The process of White Karma is the opposite of above.
The object is another being other than self.
The Intention : Recognition is unmistakenly identified a particular animal that to be save.
The motive : is wanting to save it from being kill.
The wisdom : is knowing the consequences of karma incurred with the act of killing and the meritorious act of liberating lives.
The deed is abandon killing or liberating live.
The Final step result in the life of that particular animal being saved and one rejoice over the act.
From the about example,it ended with two opposite results with just a twist of intention.

Yes, intention is powerful in determining the results of the act. It can affect the karma being positive or negative and also the absent or present of intention will affect the strength of the resulting karma. Unintentional acts results are lesser. Intent also determines the actual direction of the act as positive or negative.

However, without the actual action, intention itself is not potent. Intention without the actual action results is negative habituation of the mind that can potentially lead to future conduct of the action.

[vajrastorm]

Intention has always been the determiner ,karmically of one's action. Lord Buddha, in one lifetime, was the captain of  a ship. On board was a man, who intended to kill all the merchants travelling on board the ship, so that he could take all of their valuable goods. Buddha saw his intention. So he killed him, so as to save the lives of all the other merchants on board. Out of compassion, he also wanted to prevent this would-be murderer from committing the gross transgression of killing so many. If it were all about the act of killing, then Buddha would have on his hands , the deliberate act of taking a life. But he was acting out of a Bodhicitta motivation. That was the determiner of the karmic weight of his action.

It is said, in the Lamrim(p.508), that with a Bodhicitta motivation, even reciting Om Mani Padme Hum a single time , is as powerful, in effect, as reciting this mantra as many times as there are sentient beings!

[Klein]

karma is the actions of Body, Speech and Mind with intention. So intention plays very important part too. The act itself will generate certain level of result but will not be full result if the intention does not present.

Example, we stepped on ants, it is a negative karma but since we did not intent to kill them, our negative karma is not the same as per pre-meditative killing of, say, our enemy. The results are different accordingly.

On the other hand, like the famous story of Buddha's previous life that killed a bandit to save 500 merchants (Arhats), his intention was noble and arises from compassion, so the result of his action is very very much reduced.

Conclusion, intention is very important factor for one's karma. It determines the weight of our karma.

Adding on to what you wrote, although during Buddha's previous life he killed the bandits to save many lives, Buddha had to be reborn in the hell realm due to the karma of killing. However, Buddha emerged out of the hell realm very quickly because of his intention of saving so many lives. The merits he generated from his compassionate intention diluted the effects of killing.

[Midakpa]

If intention is one of the conditions necessary to complete an action, whether virtuous or non-virtuous, then intention does play an important role because it will produce an effect similar to the cause. For example, if we do something with evil intention, the effect will come back to us.

There are ten non-virtuous actions and ten virtuous actions. To complete an action, certain conditions are necessary, but intention is not always one of the conditions. An immoral action that requires intention as one of its conditions is killing. To complete the offence of killing, five conditions are necessary, viz.: a being, consciousness that it is a being, intention to kill, effort of killing and consequent death. An action that does not include intention as a condition is wrong view. To complete this wrong view, two conditions are necessary, viz.: perverted manner in which an object is viewed and the misunderstanding of it according to that view. In the case of wrong view, intention does not play a role in the action of having wrong view.

So, intention plays a role, karmically, only if it is one of the conditions necessary for the action to be completed.

[angelsherfield]

Agreed. Motivation of an action defines the result or the effects of the actions. If the intention is selfiness, the bad effects will be created. It is just the timing matter - when it will be reflected in life.

[angelica]

Intention play an important role in determining whether our action will result in good or bad karma. 2 person that do the same action, but with different intention, will create different result. For example, if A sweep the floor and clean the  temple cos A was being asked to do it whereas B with the intention to clean the temple so that people that come to temple will have a nice and clean place for prayers. Both of them might be doing the same task, but will result in different result. B will accumulate lots of merits for his good intention to benefit others. Therefore, for every action that we do, we need to set the right intention.

[pinecone]

Intention plays a major role in generating Karma i.e. If you helped someone with the intention of feeling good and impressing others, automatically the action was done with an incorrect motivation, whereas if you helped that person in order to lessen the pain and suffering of that person, then positive Karma is generated.. All the combined intended actions add up to what we are now. The word “action” includes physical action, speech, and thoughts .
As the Buddha said "Do not overlook tiny good actions, thinking they are of no benefit; even tiny drops of water in the end will fill a huge vessel”.
In addition , the Buddha said that we are subject to this karmic effect where the ethical actions and thoughts we have will have a positive effect on the future and on our spiritual development. Similarly, it could also apply to seemingly tiny negative action, where its result if left unpurify  could be catastrophic. 

[Midakpa]

Intention is important in both the white and black karmic process. For the black karmic process to be complete there must be four components: the basis, intention, deed, and final step. The intention itself has three parts: the recognition, motive, and delusion. For example, the basis of killing is the being that is to be killed; the recognition is to recognise unmistakenly that a thing is what it is. The motive is wanting to kill. The delusion is any of the three delusions/poisons.The deed is carrying out the killing. The final step is the other being's death before one's own.

For the white karmic process to be complete, there are four components: the basis, motive (intention), deed and final step. Let us take the white karmic action of not killing a sheep. The basis of the karma is the sheep. The motive is not wanting to kill the sheep, thinking "It would not be right" because we know the drawbacks of killing the sheep. The deed is refraining from killing . The final step is when one decides not to kill it.

Thus, intention plays a part in committing both black and white karma. Without intention, the karmic process is not complete.