What Exactly is the Cause-and-Effect Concept in Buddhism?
“Cause-and-effect” covers the three existences of life: previous lives, current life, and the future lives. The karmic causes created in the previous lifetimes are only a part of the continuum of the past, present and the future lives with its manifested effects of the karmic retributions. For example, stinginess and greediness for money in one’s previous life would possibly receive karmic retribution with it, a sense of lack or never having enough and thus would be very poor and living in a difficult situation in this current life.
As stated in the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra: “Even after going through a hundred eons, the impact of a deed a person commits will not be gone. When the cause and supporting conditions come together, the person who committed the deed will face the karmic retribution.”
Based on the law of causality taught in Buddhism that includes the cause, condition, fruition[effect], and retribution, a cause created in the previous life is precisely a karmic cause. The supporting conditions will contribute to a certain degree that can potentially change the outcome that is to be presented by the karmic causes.
The relationship between a karmic cause and its supporting condition is like a glass of water that is filled with sugar in the first place. If some other substance is added to the water, the taste will change. If some lemon juice is added, the taste would then become a glass of sweet-sour lemonade. Hence, if an evil action was created in the past life, one could still stand a chance to alter the karmic condition and fruition[effect] by nurturing compassion and sincerely repenting for one’s previous misdeeds while learning the Buddha Dharma in the current lifetime. Eventually, a possible severe future karmic retribution would then become a milder one, though it would not be eliminated.
Another example is that: imagine a public figure who is known to be good and kind was unfortunately killed in a traffic accident. This outcome may not be a deviation of cause-and-effect. Perhaps, it is simply the ripening of a bad deed from one of his previous lifetimes, in which he was supposed to have a very serious and prolonged punishment for many lifetimes. However, due to his inherent capacity of virtuous acts or his good merits in his current life, the effects of the severe future evil karma would have been minimized or dissipated by the seriousness of the traffic accident. In other words, a very serious prolonged future punishment becomes a mild one by ending his current life.
Karmic causes have different nature of effects such as good, bad, or morally neutral as well as different influential levels such as light or heavy; the same goes for the supporting conditions. Therefore, the multiple combinations of relationships between the different natures of causes and conditions appear to create an abundant variety of outcomes. With a clear understanding of how the cause-effect relationship works would allow us to establish a happier and victorious path for our current and future lifetimes. Thus, as skillful Buddhist practitioners, we are able to change our karma and have a positive outlook towards life.
Tathagatagarbha is a permanent, unchangeable true Mind that exists in every sentient being that stores all the seeds of everyone’s past and current deeds. In other words, according to the principle of cause and conditions, whenever time fits, karmic retributions will take place based on tathagatagarbha (alayavijnana, the eighth vijnana). Therefore, no matter how much time has passed, the karmic actions created in the past will not disappear by themselves. This is actually the true meaning of cause-and-effect in Buddhism.
No comments:
Post a Comment