Page 39 - 加拿大佛教会湛山精舍杂志季刊第74期

“karmic force”. may conceal numerous good actions. By contrast,
a great plan for the benefit of all may contain some
Starting from the moment a human being is born into not immediately perceptible evil or unwholesome
this world he/she enters a round of diverse circum- features. It may occur that a person born into the
stances beyond his/her control. Favorable to a greater heavenly realm on the wheel of existence prior to
or lesser degree, they are all a manifestation of karmic having completed retribution for some bad karma
force. The functioning of karmic energy, when un- will have to do so after his/her rebirth may occur
derstood in terms of a non-spacial continuum or time in a much lower realm. The one born in hell, on
as an apparently irreversible succession of events the other hand, will have his/her chances for better
spanning the past through the present to the future, is rebirth improved by formerly accumulated good
known as “cause and effect”. All that exists is totally karma, activated once his/her retribution has been
controlled by and dependent on cause and effect for exhausted. Another example is that of a person
its continuation or demise. Birth and death of a hu- whose present karma is good but there is retribu-
man being, the length of his/her life, his/her prosper- tion to be endured due to unwholesome circum-
ity or the lack of it as well as all the countless events stances at the time of his/her death; that will come
he/she encounters during his/her life are the evidence first, while his/her present karma is ripening.
of cause and effect. Flourishing and disintegration of
cities or the establishing and dissolution of countries The rice we eat comes from last year’s seed and
never happen haphazardly. failing to plant this year there will be no seed in the
year to come. This explanation is as clear as can
The formula of cause and effect can be compared be, because the three-fold karmic action of body,
to the simplest mathematical equation. Given such speech and mind likewise continually produces
and such a cause, such and such an effect is inevi- good and bad seeds moment by moment, day by
table. The immediate causes and effects are clearer day. Some of the effects will occur while an ac-
and therefore easier to see, while the distant ones are tion is in progress and others, after the fact. How
concealed, hence difficult to discern. A given effect, soon after will retribution follow and for how long
though anticipated, may not materialize because addi- is determined by the karmic causes alone. Since
tional causes influence the outcome. Complex causes these change moment to moment, their effect in
should be expected to produce complex effects. the form of retribution has to change correspond-
ingly with them. There are three kinds of retribu-
As a matter of fact, all that exists ought to be per- tion according to the length and timing of its oc-
ceived as a complex, constantly changing process that currence. One kind is operative in the present, one
corresponds to the intricate functioning of the human in the life immediately following, and one kind of
mind. The ways in which karmic effects are consist- retribution will manifest after an interval of unde-
ent with their karmic causes vary in complexity and termined length. It may be positive or negative,
therefore the retribution also changes in the course of i.e. blessings or trouble. Though this doctrine may
time. For that reason conditions of sentient beings appear complicated on the face of it, the causes
in the six realms on the wheel of existence vary so within causes, effects within effects never fail. In
much. There are those who encounter blessings in the the same way a creditor never forgets to collect,
midst of calamity or vice versa. A good person may retribution is sure to follow each action.
give rise to an unwholesome thought while an evil
person may entertain a wholesome one. The over- One reaps exactly as one has sow; it is as simple
all tendency of a predominantly unwholesome karma as that. This doctrine contrasts with the concept

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