Does forgiveness have any effect on kamma?

Question 17. Does forgiveness have any effect on kamma?

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: It can’t erase the effects of old bad kamma, but it can help prevent new bad kamma.

When people wrong you, it’s always wise to forgive them. Although this won’t negate the bad kamma of their actions, it does remove you from what the Buddha called vera, or animosity: the kammic mud fight of trying to settle old scores. You console yourself with the thought that, if you didn’t have that kind of kamma in your own background, you wouldn’t have been wronged that way in the first place. In fact, in light of rebirth, you don’t know how long the back-and-forth of that kind of kamma has already been going on. If you tried to get back at the people who’ve wronged you, you’d simply be continuing the mud fight, creating more of that kamma, which would tend to lead to another round of the same sort of thing. Do you want that? If not, forgive the other side. This doesn’t mean that you have to love them. You simply promise yourself that you won’t try to get back at them.

By being generous with your forgiveness, you pose no danger to others, even those who have wronged you, and in that way you pose no danger to yourself. And by setting a good example in this way, you might also inspire others to be forgiving as well. This will help them pose no danger to themselves, either. In this way, you not only think thoughts of goodwill [mettā], but also show goodwill in action to all sides. As the Buddha said, animosities aren’t ended by more animosity, but by putting animosity aside [Dhp 3-6].

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Karma Q & A: a Study Guide"

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