What is the law of cause and effect?

The law of cause and effect, in simple terms, is the law that future outcomes are determined by some cause created in the past.

When you look back on your own life, you may recall that you got your current job at your current company because of your actions at that time. You can also recall that you met your current wife because you went to that place at that time, or that you are now helped by that person because you helped that person at that time, in the past.

This law of cause and effect (the rule of karma) is a law of nature. It is completely natural, and reality operates that way. The present is the cause of the future, and the result of the past. What you do now will gradually change the future. This is why you cannot change the past, but you can change the future.

Why should the law of cause and effect and morality be considered together?

Most people think that this is obvious without being told, now. However, there are not so many people who live their lives paying attention to the law of cause and effect.

This law of cause and effect can be very frightening in some ways. The fact that what you do will show up as the result of what you do means that if you don't pay attention to the causes that you are currently creating, the results could be disastrous.

Therefore, this law of cause and effect and morality need to be considered together. If you do good deeds, there will be good results, and if you do bad deeds, there will be bad results. The reason why we should not do bad deeds is that the consequences of doing bad deeds will eventually fall on us, according to the law of cause and effect (karma).

Please see this article for more information on what morality is.→The Five Commandments (The Five Moralities)

When we think about it, we become afraid to do bad things. On the other hand, it makes me more willing to do good deeds. In fact, since I began to live consciously with this in my life, I have been moving more and more away from bad deeds and have been more proactive in doing good deeds. Since the results are good, I am doing more and more good deeds.

As we accumulate goodness in this way, our lives will continue to improve. Good relationships will become stronger, good people will gather around you, and an environment in which it is easy to do good things will be created.

For example, if you are the captain of a ship, and you turn the ship's rudder just a little to the right, the ship will gradually head to the right. At first, there is a little change in course, but if you continue straight ahead, you will reach a point well to the right of the point where you started.

In the same way, if we continue to do good deeds in our lives, we may not feel the effects at first, but they will accumulate and eventually will bear fruits.

Of course, the opposite is also true. Bad behavior leads to bad results, and the deeper the bad behavior is the stronger the bad karma becomes, which makes it easier for bad people and bad things to be done.

From there, it becomes easy to do bad deeds again, and as the bad environment or situation is reinforced in this way, it becomes difficult to change it to a good environment or situation.

A hated child will be a blessing in disguise!

Some may find this rule of cause and effect hard to believe. There is even a saying that goes: "A hated child will be a blessing in disguise." It is true that there may be people who do bad things, make money, and live in luxury. However, we do not know if such people's hearts are always at peace.

Moreover, the sins do not stop only in this life. They will continue to haunt us in the next life and beyond until they are repaid. Before the law of cause and effect, all living beings are completely equal. They are judged equally and will move on to the next. The environment and circumstances in which we are born are the result of the law of cause and effect (karma) that preceded our birth. Also, the causes of this life become the results of the next life.

Do you live in the light or the dark?

The Buddha used the terms light and darkness to describe this, saying that there are four kinds of people:
People who live from darkness to darkness.
People who live from light to dark.
People who live from darkness to light.
People who live from light to light.

We cannot change our past circumstances, nor we can change our natural traits or environment. I want to live a life that moves toward the light, whether that place where I am now is darkness or light.

Rules of Causation and Moral Education for Children

This law of cause and effect is useful in teaching children why they should not do bad things. It’s better to teach them that doing bad things will have bad consequences for them, and doing good things will have good consequences for them. Teaching good and bad from this point of view will lead the child to a good life. Teaching the law of cause and effect will benefit on the child's life far more than money or wealth.

How to end the law of cause and effect?

As a side note, this law of cause and effect (karma) also has an end. If you do not create a cause in the present, there is no more result. In other words, if all causes in the past, including all previous lives, become results, then that is the end. And when all the reckoning is over and you become pure consciousness, there is no more return to samsara. That is nirvana. That is why ordained persons leave the mundane world. This is to avoid creating unnecessary causes.

This may not be very clear from the text, but as you continue with Vipassana meditation, you will often understand the meaning of this, through experience.