The evil-doer suffers here and hereafter; he suffers in both worlds. He suffers thinking "I have done evil." Further, he suffers, having gone to a state of woe.

The Pali verb tappati is more pointed than the English "suffers" — it carries the sense of being burned, scorched, by one's own act. The teaching adds a second layer: the doer of evil suffers in the seeing of what was done, and again in whatever consequence follows from the doing. The verse refuses to choose between psychological reading and cosmological reading. Both, the Buddha is suggesting, are descriptions of the same underlying process.