All happiness in the sense of feelings of ease—whether of ordinary or noble beings, including even the slightest pleasures such as the rising of a cool breeze for a being born in a hell—arises from previously accumulated virtuous karma.
It is impossible for happiness to arise from nonvirtuous karma.
All sufferings in the sense of painful feeling — including even the slightest suffering occurring in an Arhat’s mind-stream – arise from previously accumulated nonvirtuous karma.
It is impossible for suffering to arise from virtuous karma.
Consequently, happiness and suffering do not occur in the absence of causes, nor do they arise from incompatible causes such as a divine creator or a primal essence.
Rather, happiness and suffering, in general, come from virtuous and nonvirtuous karma, and the various particular happinesses and sufferings arise individually, without even the slightest confusion, from various particular instances of these two kinds of karma.
Attaining certain knowledge of the definiteness, or non-deceptiveness, of karma and its effects is called the correct viewpoint for all Buddhists; and is praised as the foundation of all virtue.