“Intention Is Kamma”: What the Buddha Meant (AN 6.63)

By Tim Yu · Updated 2026-06-08

In one short sentence the Buddha gives the whole of karma a precise centre: intention. “Intention, I tell you, is kamma.” Karma is not blind fate, and it is not really the outward deed — it is the willing behind what we do, think, and say. That single shift is what makes karma something you can work with. Here is the line, its meaning, and where it comes from.

“Intention, I tell you, is kamma. Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, and intellect.” — The Buddha, Nibbedhika Sutta (AN 6.63), trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu

What it means

The Pali word translated “intention” is cetanā — volition, the act of willing. By identifying kamma (Sanskrit karma) with cetanā, the Buddha relocates the whole subject. Karma is not a ledger of external acts kept by the universe, and it is not a sentence handed down by fate. It is, first of all, what is going on in the mind that produces the act.

This is why the same outward action can be very different karma. A surgeon’s cut and an assailant’s are both “cutting a body,” but the intentions could not be more unlike — and it is the intention that shapes the character of the doer and the trajectory of consequences. Harm done by genuine accident is not the karma of harm done out of hatred.

Two things follow. First, karma is moral, not mechanical — it turns on the heart, not just the hand. Second, and more practically, it is trainable. You cannot fully control what happens to you, or even always the results of what you do; but you can cultivate the quality of will behind your choices. That is the whole project of the path.

Where it comes from

The line is from the Nibbedhika Sutta (“The Penetrative Discourse,” AN 6.63), in the Pali Canon; the translation is Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s. It is the canonical anchor for the Buddhist understanding of karma: not impersonal destiny but the lawful unfolding of intention.

Why it matters

Because karma is intention, the path gives so much weight to right intention — the deliberate orienting of the will toward non-harming and goodwill. It is also why the difference between good and bad karma is finally a difference of motive, and why meditation, which works directly on the mind, is karmic training at the source rather than mere relaxation.

Browse more sourced lines in our Buddhist quotes collection.