Question

How can we know what is bad and what is good? For example, a young girl is working as a prostitute. We don't know why she is doing such a job. Maybe forced to do it. Is she bad?

Answer

Intention produces Kamma. What is a person's intention for doing what they do? Now we can look at the outside of the occupation of prostitution, we could say it's not good, from the outside we can certainly make that comment. It's been around since whenever, the beginning of organized humanity. It's something that's not good, but it's part of society around the world. It seems like it cannot be stopped. But would you say it's not good? Because why, because people aren't really being compassionate towards each other. People are looking at another person's physical body for their pleasure without really considering the human being that is inside that body. So as to the occupation itself, we can say it's not good. As to the woman who's doing it? That's not always so clear. Because, yes, they might be forced into it, forced into something that's not their intention. If it's not your intention to be involved in such activities, then you can't really say that that person is a bad person. Whether they can get out of it or not is not always possible. But to make a judgment on the person themselves, well, we may have to hold back on that one.

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