Cause and Effect – By Daisaku Ikeda

The people and the society of our age might be compared to a ship in the middle of the ocean which has lost its compass. Without an accurate guide to lead them, they sail aimlessly along towards the future.

Everyone hopes to lead a happy life. For this reason, people throughout the ages have sought religion and various theories have been expounded as to how to become happy. In reality, however, how many have ever succeeded in realizing this objective? There is a widespread tendency throughout society to belittle human life. I cannot help but believe that this trend originates from the ignorance about the principle of cause and effect.

Economics has its principles. Science has its criteria. Likewise Buddhism has discerned the Law or fundamental principles at work in all phenomena in the universe. A passage in the collected writings of Nichiren Daishonin reads:
‘There are shadows in the darkness, but man fails to discern them. There are routes in the sky by which birds fly, yet man cannot see them. Though invisible to us, there are certain currents in the sky and in the ocean for fish and birds to follow.’

Likewise, the principle of causality may remain imperceptible to the eyes of us ordinary people. Another passage states:
‘A person writing at night may put out the lamp, but the words he has written still remain. It is the same with the destiny that we create for ourselves in the threefold world.’
Although we cannot see the works because of the darkness, they nevertheless remain written. Similarly, according to the principle of cause and effect, the karma we have formed remains an inseparable part of our lives. '

We ordinary people tend to be engulfed by the rapid changes of the society, caring only for praise or to avoid blame. However, as long as we allow ourselves to be carried away by such continual flux, we can never expect to obtain a sure guarantee of happiness. A passage reads:
‘If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present. And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present.’

Causality as taught in Buddhism is strict. It permeates the past, present and future. Furthermore, it is not something imposed on us by others, some God for example. Both causes and effects are entirely of our own making. All our actions without exceptions are imprinted in our lives as either good or bad karma.

The law of causality is invisible, but each single moment of our lives contains all phenomena in the universe including ourselves, cause as well as the effect, without exception. Therefore it is described as strict. If things we are dealing with are tangible, we may be able to contrive various ways of evading them. The common law of society and the law of land fall into this category. In contrast, the universal law is a net that no one can escape. No matter what deception, disguise or cunning we may employ, we can never expect to slip through this invisible net.

‘Letter from Sado’ by Nichiren Daishonin states the following with regard to cause and effect:
‘One who climbs a high mountain must eventually descend. One who slights another will in turn be despised. One who deprecates those of handsome appearance will be born ugly. One who robs another of food and clothing is sure to fall into the world of hunger… This is the general law of cause and effect.’

No matter where we may be, we always live with the karmic retribution of everything that we have done in the past. Because we are governed by the general law of causality, we will be forced to agonize under the harshness of our karma throughout our lives. There will be nothing but total darkness ahead, and we, as common mortals, will find it impossible to change our destiny. For instance, Buddhism condemns killing. One who takes life (the most precious treasure of the universe) whether it is another person’s or his own, is certain to receive the retribution of being killed in this existence or the next.
However, this is a shallow view of the law of cause and effect and if this were all that Buddhism taught, we would have to consider our destiny fixed and unchangeable. We would be compelled to live passively and timidly, lest we commit some evil act or other. Nichiren Dashonin’s Buddhism goes far beyond the general law of cause and effect by teaching a supreme law which enables people to break through the fixed chain of causes and effects by opening up the Buddha nature innate within them, which is untouched by karma.

Most people are unknowingly, but profoundly, affected by their destiny or karma. Some are at the mercy of their fate. Others, battered by their own destiny, lapse into a life of resignation. As long as they remain ignorant of the causal law they will have no choice but to repeat the cycle of birth and death in this turbulent sea of suffering. In order to change this tragic destiny of mankind, Nichiren Daishonin established the Buddhism of the essential cause: the cause to manifest one’s innate Buddhahood. It enables the pure life force of the Buddha state, which has existed within us from time without beginning, to well forth in an unceasing current. It changes all the tragic causes and effects that lie between and unveils the pure causes and effects which exist from the beginningless past towards the present and future. This is liberation from the heavy shackles of destiny we have carried from the past. This is the establishment of free individuals in the truest sense of the term.

Source: The Buddhism of the Sun (Pg. 19-21)