Grammatical Analysis
Akusalavipāka: [nt.] Unwholesome result; the fruit of an unprofitable action. Formed by akusala (unwholesome) + vipāka (result).
Orthodox Definition
Akusala-vipāka designates the painful, unpleasant psychological and biological results that ripen from past actions rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion.
Like its counterpart, it operates in two ways:
- Rebirth Result: A heavy unwholesome act generates the rebirth-linking consciousness that drags a being into one of the four lower realms (apāya): hell, the animal kingdom, the ghost realm, or the asura realm.
- Lifespan Result: If a person is reborn as a human (due to past good kamma), their past unwholesome kamma can still catch up to them during their life, manifesting as akusala-vipāka—such as experiencing physical disease, seeing horrifying sights, hearing insults, or suffering financial ruin.
Because vipāka is the passive experiencing of a past debt, the orthodox response to painful akusala-vipāka is patient endurance (khanti), ensuring one does not generate new hatred (new kamma) in response to the pain.
Textual References
- Abhidhamma: Dhammasaṅgaṇī – Defining the exactly seven types of unwholesome resultant consciousness (which are always rootless/ahetuka).
- Historical: Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha (Chapter V) – The grim mapping of specific unwholesome actions to specific torments in the lower realms.