In daily life, there are many discussions about causality, including “karmic retribution,” “cause and effect,” “causal relationship,” and so on. It seems that we are already very familiar with what “causality” is. In the original concept of Buddhism, the term “causality,” such as the saying “Causality is not false, all phenomena are empty” in many Buddhist scriptures, can be understood as causality is not false, but real. The reason why “causality” is important in the concept of Buddhism is because the entire path to liberation in Buddhism relies on the existence of “causality”.
What is “causality” ?
From its literal meaning, “causality” refers to the production of corresponding results under certain specific preconditions. It is a commonly used description of various logical relationships in language and logical systems. Some theories even use “causality” to represent a kind of law of things in the world, in order to understand the rules of changes in things in scientific research activities. For example, when Newton analyzed the “causality” of the apple falling from the tree to the ground, he discovered the existence of gravity. It is also included in the induction of life experience, such as seeing a black ball sliding a certain distance and hitting a white ball, causing the white ball to bounce off. What I see is a series of images, and then we judge that the “cause” is the black ball hitting the white ball, resulting in the “effect” of the white ball bouncing off. Therefore, many times we feel that we only need to see the cause, and we can roughly know what the effect is.
Another type of “causality” can be explained as follows: in social relationships, every person’s behavior will lead to a certain result. For example, “good deeds bring good rewards, bad deeds bring bad consequences.” When we do something that conforms to contemporary universal values, we will receive some good rewards. Otherwise, we will go to hell or suffer retribution. However, in our daily lives, we often find that many “retributions” have not actually fallen on the wrongdoers, and many do-gooders have even suffered imprisonment. At this time, many people will say, “It’s not that there is no retribution, the time has not come yet” to comfort themselves, balance their anger, or even fantasize that these “evils” will be repaid in the next life of the wrongdoer, such as becoming “blind” or “disabled.” However, such statements involve moral value judgments, just like a set of Buddhist social scoring systems. In Buddhism, who can judge how much merit you will gain by saving an insect? What retribution will you face by killing a cockroach? There is also a temporal issue with doing good deeds. Who can guarantee that a good deed done at this moment will not turn into an evil deed the next moment? And if all disabled people are reincarnations of wrongdoers, do we still need to sympathize with them? It seems that “causality” suddenly becomes elusive in such situations.
How should causality be understood in the original teachings of Buddhism ?
The first example represents the “causality” relationship in natural science, while the second example is the “causality” in social relationships. Regardless of whether the relationship between quantum physics and “causality” can be combined, it still works in natural science, but the “karmic retribution” in social relationships seems to break the theory of “causality is not false.”
In many primitive religious theories, many myths and rituals are related to natural phenomena. Any natural phenomenon can be imagined as a god who governs it, such as the god of thunder, the god of wind, and so on. Many rituals are for praying to the gods for good weather and family safety. However, in the original Buddhist scriptures, there is no explanation of natural phenomena or worldly rules. Many are analyses of personal psychological phenomena and point out how to be liberated from these sufferings in meditation practice. Therefore, it can be concluded that in the theory of original Buddhism, we cannot use it to explain external physical or social regulatory changes.
Yes, “causality” refers to the internal changes that each person undergoes due to external environmental information. For example, some traumatic experiences in childhood can lead to behavioral deviations in adulthood, or past insults and humiliations can become future obsessions. These experiences can be triggered by receiving information at a certain moment in the future, and even many emotional reactions can be so intense that they can destroy objective rational cognition and deny facts. The inner world changes based on external environmental changes and is uncontrollable.
Indeed, human cognition has deficiencies and limitations. We can only understand other people’s statements based on our own understanding. When the speaker expresses something beyond the listener’s cognition, the listener will interpret the speaker’s meaning based on their own understanding and cognition, which can lead to distortions of the concept of “causality” in Buddhism due to the use of external cognition to understand Buddhism.
Cutting off causality in the original teachings of Buddhism
Due to the triggering of the “Causality chain” by many information receptions that cause painful “karmic consequences,” some people have proposed solutions, such as transforming all external information, intercepting all information that is unfavorable to their emotions, or even destroying all senses so that they cannot receive any information. These involve means to clear memory or cause permanent disability to solve the problem.
However, in the theory of original Buddhism, what we need to cut off is not the cause or the effect, but “karma.” “Karma” is the connection in “causality.” For example, if you have a fearful heart towards cockroaches, if the “karma” is strong, it means your fear is more significant. Some people may even have physiological effects such as fainting and dizziness. Our ego is all bound by “karma,” and meditation is the means to cut off “karma.” However, not all “karma” needs to be cleared. For example, there is something called “good karma,” which can connect individual “causality” and make the psychological state healthier.
