I will introduce one of the teachings by the Buddha, which is Karma
It can be summarized into Cause, Condition and Effect. Why not simply cause and effect?
Because sometimes, the missing link between the cause and the effect is the condition. For example, for a fire to start, there must be a person (the cause of the fire), say A, to use strike 2 pebbles together to create spark, and then there must be some fuel, say paper. So when spark + paper, you get fire (effect), which burns the paper. But we are actually missing out one of the important conditions, and what is it? It is air, without air, there won’t be any fire. Remember the fire triangle you learn in secondary school chemistry classes, fire requires 3 elements, namely heat, oxygen and fuel, without anyone of them, fire will not start. So the fire (the effect) requires the conditions, which is air, fuel and heat, you (the cause) can try provide the conditions, such as paper and the spark, but without the condition air, you cannot start the fire no matter how hard you try.
In a way, if the spark is the cause and the fire is the effect, the paper is also one of the conditions, other than air. Karma is complex in the sense that usually, there are many conditions involved for an effect to occur. Another example is a seed being a cause, and air, water, soil and sunlight being the multiple conditions, with which a plant is the effect.
Still do not understand? Let’s take a look in history, in the Qing Dynasty, under Emperor Kangxi. There are rebels trying to restore the Ming dynasty, but they are not particularly successful, why? It is because the conditions are not right. Under Kangxi, people lead a good life, so why would people want to support the rebels. There are no real reasons to support them. Because by toppling the Qing Empire, the country would be plunged in anarchy, making the people suffer. The rebels may have the cause (to drive out the Machus who invaded their land), but the conditions are not right, so there is no desired effect such as the falling of the Qing Empire and huge support for the rebels.
Is Karma believable?
It can be very easily simplified, if you never bother to go for lecture and tutorial and did not study anything related to your module, then you are bound to fail. Why? The cause is that you never bother to study your work, the condition remain constant that you have never touched any thing related to your module, the effect will of course be you fail your module.
Or more accurate to say that the cause of failing is not having the cause to pass, with the addition that there were no conditions of passing. Even if there were conditions, there would be no effect of passing as conditions without a cause cannot have effect. Eg. With the presence of air, water, soil and sunlight, but without a seed, no plant will grow.
However, if the conditions are different, you may still pass your exams, but that may not be within your control. E.g. If you did not attend lectures and tutorials, but when lets say you spend your time working or playing games, and those things you do are closely related to what you have to learn, then you may still know how to answer the questions during exams, and pass it.
Karma is not just about the present, it is about the past too, what you do in your past lives (take note, it is unlimited past lives, not only the previous one), affects you now and the future, what you do now affects the future, both near and far. So do take note of your actions.
What we do now can affect us presently too. For instance, the very moment we bear hatred, we suffer the agony of resentment.
One last story for Karma, this story is rather common. Let’s say that there is a guy call Xiao Ming, who always ill-treat his old father, and his son, Ah Boy sees it. Keeping the conditions are constant, that 50 years down the road, Ah Boy mentality of ill-treating the old aged parents is never corrected/changed, when Xiao Ming is old, he will be ill-treated by Ah Boy. People will say its Xiao Ming’s karma, by looking at it, well, it can be deduced from there. However, because we are not able to look beyond this life, we cannot see the real cause to this, but one thing holds true, the law of Karma is in place. But such stories are always open-ended, because the variables (especially the conditions) are always changing, the only constant is change. Even now, everyone is writing their own Karma book, whatever the cause the people are producing, we will have to see the conditions, which will then determine the exact effect.
So people, do start and continue creating good and positive cause so that you may have a good effect.
Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu
TH
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