Any
Cause Entails Effect: Be mindful in all you do!
There are some fundamental tenets. One is the universal
regime of cause
and effect.
The second is the fact of mutually linked interdependence of all
phenomena..
The third is in understanding that there is a
specific
dependence in any origination,
which is that which dependently emerges, changes, disappears
and disintegrates...
The 4th fact is the
impermanence of all conditioned
things, and the complete absence
of mind-independent existence or substance of both
the cognizer and
the cognized....
The fifth is the suffering caused by mistaken
perception of
permanence of reality.
In our social as well as individual
lives, we have to
encounter much suffering caused
by this false apprehension of a 'stable' reality,
and thus a possible 'lasting' happiness.
Buddhism does not believe in mortifying the flesh; it does
not believe in ignoring
the demands of life, or the potential for expanding
knowledge about the universe;
it does not deny that knowledge can help to reduce suffering
or improve
conditions
of living. It has therefore no distaste for
science or technology.
On the contrary,
it believes that right use of science/technology can
improve the quality of our lives.
But since technology
involves the choice of goals, then the motivation that
prompts
these choices
and ways and methods of pursuit of these goals become very important.
If these motivations ignore
or violate any of
the facts listed above, they are bound
to increase
individual and social
suffering, and not the welfare they naively intended.
Hence what we believe will
contribute to our pleasure
sometimes could turn out to be
the cause of aggravated
long-term suffering.
To the Early Buddhist, ethics and morality
are not alien to, but indeed inherently immanent in
the mechanics of cause and
effect.
They are not commandments of one who is the creator,
and who functions
above this
realm of cause and effect. Nor have their
observance to be induced by
a system of
reward and punishment. The understanding that that
any action takes place within
the inescapable network of cause and
effect has turned
Buddhism away from the need
to look for an external source
of authority, or
reward and punishment administered
by an external "God-Almighty"-like authority.
Actions have
their inevitable consequences
as they are guided by the law
of cause & effect. Thus our motivations and actions will
have their effects on ourselves as well as the social and
even natural environment in which
we live. We cannot overlook
this effect, and therefore deny or neglect the
responsibility
to assure that our behaviour creates a minimum
harmless, conducive at best advantageous
effect
on ourselves as well as our social and natural environment.
Advances in science and technology are neither based on an
ethical analysis of motives,
nor a complete
analysis of the chain-reacted impact that these
technologies are likely
to
cause on the psyche
and environment. Just consider techs like: Painkillers and
phones..
The negative consequences of this absence
of mindfulness have now caught our attention.
What do we do?
Persist in the mindless pursuit of individual power and
material possessions,
unconcerned with its consequences
may run
the risk of a mental mass suicide of the species!
The
answer lies within us, within our minds. The any
Early Buddhist it is an aware mindfulness,
which is the crucial 1st basis on which to choose the
right Way that leads to freedom & peace.
Among the most powerful enemies of
mindfulness are
desire, greed, & the almighty spider ego,
that only seeks promote this false ego
at the cost of others, the society, and the environment.
The answer that Buddha Dhamma
clearly gives is mindfulness even to protect mindfulness
itself,
and the ethics & morality that this self-awareness makes imperative in
a cause
and effect web.
Edited excerpt
by Lama Doboom Tulku, Times of India, Dec 21, 2011
Causes, good as bad,
inevitably spread as effects, like rings in water!
More on Causality:
Dependent_Causation
Caused by
What,
The_Proximate_Cause,
Proximate_Causes,
Bound_to_Be,
