What is cause and effect?

Cause and effect, that is, cause and effect, means that whatever the effect will be, there will be the cause.

The law of cause and effect states: If you sow melons, you will reap melons; if you sow beans, you will reap beans. Buddhism believes that anything can be a cause or an effect, and there is no absolute cause or effect. Causes discussed in Buddhism are sometimes used together with conditions, and there are some differences.

Cause in the narrow sense refers to the direct cause or internal cause that produces the result, while fate mainly refers to the auxiliary cause or external indirect conditions that produce the result.

Cause in a broad sense also includes fate. Cause and effect is an understanding of the interrelationship between existence and behavior, especially the relationship between before and after. The cause and effect theory of Buddhism is the basis of its theory of reincarnation and liberation, and also the basis of its theory of life phenomena. The twelve causes, six causes, and four causes in Buddhism , five fruits and other statements all fall within the scope of Buddhist causal theory.

With the development of Buddhism, the law of cause and effect in Buddhism has also been expressed in different ways:

1. In Hinayana Buddhism, the concept of cause and effect in Sarvastivada is mainly six causes, four conditions, and five fruits. . The six causes were put forward when analyzing the various conditions or effects of the good and evil consequences of the three lives, including capable causes, common causes, similar causes, corresponding causes, universal causes and different ripe causes. The four conditions are the causes when all conditioned phenomena arise. They are a classification of causes when analyzing from the perspective of the production of general effects, including cause conditions, uninterrupted conditions, object conditions and increasing conditions. The five fruits are the fruits produced by causes and conditions or realized by the power of Tao, including the fruit of unusual ripeness, the fruit of equal flow, the fruit of scholar, the fruit of increasing and the fruit of separation.

2. The Madhyamika sect of Mahayana Buddhism starts from its theoretical view of "emptiness" and denies the existence of real causal relationships. It believes that the cause is not real and the effect is not real, thus denying the theory that there is an effect in the cause. and the theory that there is no effect within the cause, denying that there is any real "birth". This also fundamentally denies the causal relationship between things.

3. The Yoga School of Mahayana Buddhism starts from its theoretical "consciousness" and proposes ten causes, four conditions, and five fruits. It believes that the causal relationship has a certain degree of reality, but the "consciousness" is not real. Yes, so there is no substantial difference between its concept of cause and effect and that of the Madhyamika school.