kammaja rūpa
Kamma-born matter
[ KUM-ma-ja ROO-pa ]
Seeing it in life
One of four sources of rūpa: kamma, citta, temperature (utu), and nutriment (āhāra). Sense faculties and heart-base are kammaja.
In short
Matter produced by past wholesome or unwholesome kamma.
The analysis
Kammaja-rūpa is matter produced by past wholesome or unwholesome kamma — one of four sources of material phenomena, alongside citta (mind-produced), utu (temperature-produced), and āhāra (nutriment-produced). The sense faculties and the heart-base are specifically kammaja, meaning their arising traces back to prior volitional action rather than to a present moment's mental state, temperature condition, or nutritive process.
Where it sits
Kammaja-rūpa sits alongside the three other sources of matter as part of the fuller material analysis — a single moment of rūpa can have several different sources contributing to different aspects of it simultaneously.
The specific sensitivity of the eye that makes sight possible at all, present from before any choice was made about it, traces in this framework to kammaja-rūpa — matter whose origin is prior volitional action.
Commonly mistaken for
All matter in the body. Only certain rūpa — notably sense faculties and the heart-base — are specifically kammaja; other bodily matter derives from mind, temperature, or nutriment.
A fatalistic determination of physical form. It describes one source among four contributing to the material continuum.
Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha VI.
Related terms