Prior or later good kamma dilutes
evil kamma performed now!
The Blessed Buddha once explained:
Regarding the effects of actions, Ananda, as to the person here who kills
living beings, who takes what is not given, who misconducts himself in sex,
who
speaks false, divisively, who speaks aggressively, who speaks gossip,
who is envious & jealous, who is of ill will, and who holds wrong views, yet
who
at the breakup of the body, right after death, reappears in a happy
destination, maybe in the divine dimensions: Either earlier - prior to this -
such one also did some good actions resulting in existence felt as
pleasure,
or later after this, such one
did quite good actions to be felt as
pleasure,
or at the death-moment such one entered and
maintained right views!
Caused by that such one is reborn in a happy destination, even in heaven!
But since such one, here & now in the present, has also killed living
beings,
taken what was not given, misconducted himself in sensual pleasures,
spoken
falsely,
spoken divisively, spoken aggressively, & spoken idle & empty gossip,
and
since such one has been envious and jealous, been of ill will, and held
wrong views, such one will experience the
result of that either here and
now, or
in the next rebirth, or in some subsequent even later existence...
Behaviour (kamma=action) is almost always mixed:
Some good, some bad!
The later effects are therefore similarly mixed: Sometimes pleasure,
and
sometimes
pain... Good begets good and dilutes and delays evil, while Evil
begets evil and dilutes and
delays the effects of prior good behaviour!
For details on the Mechanics
of Kamma = Intentional Action see:
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_is_intention.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Buddha_on_Kamma.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_leading_to_short_vs_long_life.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_leading_to_Health_vs_Sickness.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_leading_to_Low_or_High_Birth.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_leading_to_Wealth_or_Poverty.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_leading_to_Beauty_vs_Ugliness.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Effect_of_kammic_Action_is_Delayed.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_leading_to_Power_or_Disrespect.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Evil_Kamma_enhances_other_Evil_Kamma.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Good_Action_enhances_other_Good_Kamma.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kamma_leading_to_Stupidity_or_Intelligence.htm
Source:
The Moderate speeches of the Buddha: The great speech on Action. MN 136
http://store.pariyatti.org/Middle-Length-Discourses-of-the-Buddha_p_1543.html Full Text:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/majjhima/mn136.html
