Merit and demerit — puñña and pāpa — are the principal causes by which human beings are born into vastly differing conditions and circumstances, each being the fruit of the kamma individually accumulated in previous existences.
And yet the principal causes by which those born into this present life come to differ in temperament, outlook, intellectual capacity, ability, and moral virtue are the nurturing, instruction, and guidance instilled by one’s progenitors — namely one’s parents and teachers — as well as those in close proximity to the child from the earliest years of life.
Stated in another way, it is the manner in which each individual conducts and cultivates their life that gives rise to the manifold differences among human beings — chief and foremost among which is the matter of character and disposition. Those who have developed coarse, indolent, careless, or miserly habits — in sum, every manner of unwholesome disposition found within society — have acquired such traits entirely as a consequence of their conditions of living and their mode of daily conduct. These unwholesome dispositions not only perpetuate difficulties in one’s own life in an unbroken continuity, but also give rise to friction, discord, and conflict in one’s relations with others throughout the wider community.
From the book The Life of the Buddha, page 36
