Greetings Chris,
OK... I've split the posts out, so we're free to discuss in more detail now.
My contention is that arahants do not experience vipaka, the mental resultant of kamma.
To start with, let's take a definition from Venerable Nyanaponika -
http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/bu ... dic3_v.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
vipāka: 'kamma-result', is any kammically (morally) neutral mental phenomenon (e.g. bodily agreeable or painful feeling, sense-consciousness, etc. ), which is the result of wholesome or unwholesome volitional action (kamma, q.v.) through body, speech or mind, done either in this or some previous life. Totally wrong is the belief that, according to Buddhism, everything is the result of previous action. Never, for example, is any kammically wholesome or unwholesome volitional action the result of former action, being in reality itself kamma. On this subject s. titthāyatana, kamma, Tab. I; Fund II. Cf. A. III, 101; Kath. 162 (Guide, p. 80).
Kamma-produced (kammaja or kamma-samuṭṭhāna) corporeal things are never called kamma-vipāka, as this term may be applied only to mental phenomena.
I will take it as assumed, that we all agree new kamma is not created by an arahant, so we're left only with the question of what happens with regards to old kamma.
I will also assume that is it agreed that at the death of the arahant there is no active/outstanding kamma, hence there is no jati/birth (however one might choose to translate it).
The question is then, is there some mechanism by which old kamma can, or must, come to fruition in the interim between arahantship and parinibbana.
I say no, for the reason that by attaining the wisdom of arahantship, the arahant has discarded any false experience of a self, and succeeded in abadoning craving. This sutta extract explains it clearly.
"Listen, Udayi. A bhikkhu in this Teaching and Discipline cultivates the Mindfulness Enlightenment Factor ... the Equanimity Enlightenment Factor, which tend to seclusion, tend to dispassion, tend to cessation, which are well developed, which are boundless, void of irritation. Having cultivated the Mindfulness Enlightenment Factor ... the Equanimity Enlightenment Factor ... craving is discarded.
With the discarding of craving, kamma is discarded. With the discarding of kamma, suffering is discarded. Thus, with the ending of craving there is the ending of kamma; with the ending of kamma there is the ending of suffering."S.V.86 (S.19/450/123) -
http://www.buddhanet.net/cmdsg/kamma9.htm#41" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It is not a case of whether these old kamma is destroyed, it is about whether it is abandoned or discarded. The arahant has successfully abandoned the false barrier differentiating agent (self) and act (kamma) and no longer conceives of self, so it would be wrong of us to superimpose the putthujana viewpoint of a self back onto the arahant's experience (i.e. that "the arahant" must/can suffer because of what "the person" did)
The arahant doesn't need to concern him/herself with whether old kamma is destroyed (i.e. whether it exists or not)... because there is longer any basis by which it could come to fruition.
As per SN 12.15...
"By & large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by (takes as its object) a polarity, that of existence & non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'non-existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one.
"By & large, Kaccayana, this world is in bondage to attachments, clingings (sustenances), & biases. But one such as this does not get involved with or cling to these attachments, clingings, fixations of awareness, biases, or obsessions; nor is he resolved on 'my self.' He has no uncertainty or doubt that just stress, when arising, is arising; stress, when passing away, is passing away. In this, his knowledge is independent of others. It's to this extent, Kaccayana, that there is right view.
"'Everything exists': That is one extreme. 'Everything doesn't exist': That is a second extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle: From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications. From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness. From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form. From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media. From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance. From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress & suffering.
"Now from the remainderless fading & cessation of that very ignorance comes the cessation of fabrications. From the cessation of fabrications comes the cessation of consciousness. From the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of name-&-form. From the cessation of name-&-form comes the cessation of the six sense media. From the cessation of the six sense media comes the cessation of contact. From the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling. From the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of stress & suffering."
That shall suffice for now...
Metta,
Retro.