Master ChangZhen must understand cause and effect when studying Buddhism.

Causality belongs to the basic theory of Buddhism and is also the core of Buddhism. If you don't understand cause and effect, you can't really understand Buddhism. Therefore, understanding cause and effect is an important prerequisite for learning Buddhism. The following are divided into four questions:

First, the law of causality and its importance

Cause and effect, also known as karma, cause, effect and reward. Industry: Sanskrit transliteration, meaning creation and activity. Refers to all physical and mental activities, including body, mouth and mind. Including good karma, bad karma and unemployment. This invisible and intangible industry is very powerful. It can be said that our life is dominated by karma. Karma is the reason. Cause is cause, also called karma. Fruit is the result. Karma is karma and reward. Fate is the condition. Karma combines to produce karma. The Buddhist scriptures have long made it very clear: "If you rob a thousand times, you will never lose your power (if you lose it, you will not see it), and your karma will meet you. 」

Every time we do something, say a word or even have an idea, we are planting karma and creating karma. According to the kind of good cause or evil cause, that is, the difference between good karma and evil karma, you will get different returns. To sum up, good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil. Specifically, what kind of good cause, what kind of blessing; No matter what the evil cause is, there is a certain degree of retribution. This is an objective law, called the law of cause and effect.

Karma is closely related to the cycle of life and death. Our life is born with it, dead with it, born with it, dead with it, and dead with it, that is, from cause to effect, from effect to cause, it constantly forms an endless cycle. Where does our life come from? Where did you die? Are at the mercy of karma. Karma is like seeds and information, stored in the eighth consciousness. The eighth consciousness, also called "tacit knowledge", stores information, like a "spiritual belt", which brings the good and evil that a person did in his last life to this world; And bring the good and bad karma created in this life to future generations, and so on. Our body is called the body, and the subject who accepts the result is the eighth knowledge. Ode to the Eight Knowledge Rules says that the eighth knowledge is: "Go first and then master". It came to be reborn before my parents gave birth to me, so it came first. After death, the pulse and breathing stopped, and the eighth consciousness did not leave. Don't leave until the whole body is cold. So it is "after going". Being a master means that it dominates everything, and the cerebral cortex is also its tool. Once you leave the human body, the cerebral cortex is intact, but it doesn't work. The book Experience after Death written by American doctor Moody (published by Heilongjiang Education Press 1989) recorded the self-reports of 150 patients who came back from the dead. Most of them said that they stood beside their bodies and saw their relatives crying. When they speak, their relatives can't hear them. When they go to hold the hands of their relatives, others don't feel it. This proves that Buddhism believes that the eighth consciousness can leave the body and become the reincarnation of the female body.

Where to go after death? This is dominated by karma. What karma? It is the cause of good and evil. Therefore, ten good and ten evil are the reasons for the formation of the six major divisions of the industry, and the six major divisions of the industry are the result of ten good and ten evil.

What is goodness? It is good for people. In fact, benefiting people means that everyone has benefited, or it can be said that benefiting people is self-interest.

What is evil? It is evil to hurt others. To harm others is to harm oneself, and to harm others will eventually harm oneself. Starting from harming others, it will inevitably end in harming yourself.

According to Buddhist scriptures, there are ten kinds of good and evil, each of which is divided into upper, middle and lower levels, which is called ten good and ten evil. The ten evils are: killing; 2. stealing; Three evils (belonging to three occupations); Four lies; Five or two tongues; Six evils; Qi (belonging to the four industries of mouth); Eight greed; Chen Jiu; Ten idiots; (belonging to the tertiary industry in Italy). On the other hand, it is ten good things: release and protect students, not kill them; Give without stealing; Third, practicing Sanskrit without evil (pure practice); Fourth, tell the truth and don't lie; 5. Speak interlanguage without two tongues; 6. Speak soft words without swearing; 7. Speak plain (honest and simple) language, not ambiguous language; Eight is not greedy but not clean; Nine, cultivate the concept of compassion without anger; Do not foolishly practice the concept of karma.

These ten good and ten evil are divided into three categories, that is, three grades. The Buddhist scriptures say: I have achieved a paradise of life with top grades and ten good deeds; Human nature of life with ten excellent qualities; Ten good lives, Asura Road (one of the eight dragons, with blessings and magical powers; But fierce and aggressive). Those who commit the top ten villains fall into hell; Those who are heinous fall into the hungry ghost road; Those who are heinous are worse than animals. This is revealed by the Buddha's own eyes when observing the six major divisions of the wheel of karma. We must believe it absolutely. The law of cause and effect exists objectively, not created by Buddha to bind all beings, but discovered and revealed by Buddha to educate us. Buddha and Bodhisattva are also restricted by the law of causality. Therefore, the Buddhist scriptures say: "Bodhisattva is afraid of cause, and all beings are afraid of fruit. Master Yin Guangda, a senior monk in modern times, said: "All Buddhists become Tao, and all beings fall into three paths, without cause and without fruit. Master Xu Yun said, "Causality is something that all saints and mortals can't escape. Cause and effect can be divided into two categories: the fruits of buddhas and bodhisattvas, the pure fruits, the fruits of bodhisattvas and bodhicitta, so the pure fruits are obtained; What we create is the cause of pollution, and what we bear is the fruit of pollution. Master Xing Yun said, "Cause and effect are more accurate than computers. Because the computer will break down, there is nothing wrong with cause and effect. Therefore, people who really understand the law of causality will know that there are no unjust, false and wrong cases. Master Hanshan was wronged in those years, and others wanted to help him say that human relations are connected. He said, no, this is a reward! Cause and effect are like a "bug" on you, even worse than a "bug". Only when a "bug" is said can it be recorded. This "bug" can be accurately recorded even if you have a brain.

Second, causality runs through III.

The Nirvana Sutra says: "Good and evil are reported as shadows; Three generations of cause and effect, the cycle is not broken. " There will be no interruptions or mistakes. But some people think that everything in life is accidental and has no cause and effect. Some people doubt cause and effect when they see that good people get what they deserve and bad people get what they deserve. Some people say: if you die, you die. If you die, life is worthless; It is meaningless to learn Buddhism; And people who have been doing evil are too cheap. In the final analysis, it is because it is unreasonable, and cause and effect run through III. Buddhist scriptures say well:

If you want to know the recipients of previous lives because of this life (karma)

If you want to know the fruit of the afterlife, the author of this life is (karma)

This shows that all the good and evil results we get in this life are karma planted in previous lives. For example, if you are sick in this life, you must have had too much karma for killing in the past. And what you do in this life will be rewarded in the afterlife.

If you plant karma, you will get a reward, but there is a difference between early and late. Generally speaking, there are three situations:

1. now report: do good in this life and enjoy good news in this life; If you do evil in your life, you will be punished in your life.

For example, Sichuan Daily reported that the deputy manager of a company in Wanxian usually likes to help others and jumped into the water several times to save people. One day, he took a taxi home from work and passed a road. There are usually traffic jams, but today he passed smoothly. When I got to the river, I heard there were children? When he got into the water, he immediately stopped, jumped into the water and grabbed the girl, who turned out to be his own daughter. I felt someone at my feet, so I grabbed it and saw that it was his niece. He fainted after he rescued two girls from the shore. When the girl's mother and mother-in-law heard the news, they saw that the child was still alive and wanted to thank the rescuer. Looking back, they are their relatives. The newspaper commented: "There is no coincidence. From the Buddhist point of view, it is not coincidence, but is dominated by karma. Because he usually has many good causes and encounters good karma (karma refers to conditions, opportunities, etc. ); When good causes are combined with good karma, good results will be produced.

Another example published in Xinmin Evening News is that a middle-aged woman from a county in Jiangsu walked to the river with the same man and heard someone shouting "Help! This man is going to save lives. The lady said, "mind your own business, walking is very important to us." After a while, he will float by himself. A man next to him said angrily, "This woman has a bad heart! Later, the man went to rescue the man, a junior high school girl of 13 years old, who fell into the water by bike and died because she fell into the water for too long. Who is this girl? It turned out to be the woman's own daughter. All the onlookers said, "This is a real sight! This is the domination of bad karma, and the bad karma planted at ordinary times will inevitably lead to bad karma.

2. Life report: Do good and evil in this life, and enjoy good and bitter in the next life.

Parents accumulate virtue and their children enjoy happiness, which also belongs to this category. Take Tongrentang as an example to illustrate. Tongrentang has a history of more than 200 years. Its ancestors believed in Buddhism and wanted to do something to help the living, so they opened a Chinese medicine shop and made medicines seriously. A Chinese patent medicine needs high-temperature gold as raw material. He collected the gold jewelry of the women in his family for use. Relatives and friends laughed at him: "if you do business like this, you will lose all your money." Just write it in the advertisement, just use gold, the buyer can't see it. However, he said, "every time we do something, we plant good causes and will not get bad results." "Still insist on using gold. Sure enough, this medicine has a good effect and its business is booming. His family has been rich and prosperous for more than 200 years. After liberation, the public-private partnership, the last boss named Le Songsheng, gave all the means of production to the state without reservation and was appointed as the deputy mayor of Beijing. The main person in charge of Tongrentang headquarters is his relatives. He also donated all the secret recipes. His family advised him to leave some room for his future career. He disagreed, saying, "* * * is very powerful and can help thousands of people. This is a good cause, and it will naturally pay off. As a result, * * * gives him dividends, which also has good economic benefits. It shows that this capitalist knows what goes around comes around.

3. Post-reporting: If you do good or evil now, you won't report it until the second, third or even a thousand disasters.

For example, Wu Buddha in the Tang Dynasty was born in Sichuan and became a monk when he was young. Once, in a temple in Chang 'an, a monk was very ill and smelly. Many people were disgusted, but he went to recuperate. When the monk got well, he said to him when he parted, "If you have any disasters in the future, you can come to me on a mountain in Pengxian County, Sichuan Province. Later, he became a Buddhist, and foreign countries paid tribute to the agarwood wooden chair. The emperor dared not use it and offered it to the Buddhists of Wuda University. He got carried away and relaxed his practice, and was immediately rewarded with a sore face, which was very painful. So I went to Pengxian to find a monk. The monk said: You planted evil causes in the Han Dynasty hundreds of years ago, and now you have reported it. It turned out that he was a great official in the Western Han Dynasty, and his name was Yuan Ang. One of his colleagues is called Chao Cuo. At that time, the emperor wanted to reduce the strength of the princes. Chao Cuo suggested reducing the military strength of the governors, which led them to unite and besiege the central government. The emperor was frightened. Yuan Ang took the opportunity to suggest that killing Chao Cuo was not the emperor's intention, but Chao Cuo's idea. Chao's ghosts have always wanted revenge. But after Yuan's death, he became a monk in the next life and a monk in the tenth. Chao had no chance to retaliate until Yuan became a Buddhist, sitting in an agarwood chair and feeling proud. As soon as his practice retired, his protector left. In this way, Chao Cuo found a chance for revenge. At this time, enlightened Buddhists found a monk in Pengxian County and solved his grievances before they were saved. Later, the Buddhist enlightenment left a book "Confessions of Sanweishui Scenic Area". In the preface, he described how to treat facial ulcers with Sanweishui Scenic Area. This shows that the causal law (conditions) planted hundreds of years ago is mature and will inevitably be reported.

Although ordinary people can't see the latter two results, they should know that every cause has its consequences. From what you have suffered in this life, you can infer the antecedents; From what we are doing now, we can predict the consequences. We should believe: "Good and evil will eventually be rewarded, and we only strive for early rather than late. 」

Why do evil people get what they deserve? This is because his good roots in previous lives are profound, and now his good deeds mature first, so he enjoys the blessings first; If he doesn't do evil in his life, the blessing will be better. As for the bad karma he planted in this life, it will not disappear on its own. When the karma is ripe, there will be retribution.

Why are good people rewarded? This is because he committed a serious crime in his previous life, and now his bad karma matures first, so he gets what he deserves first. It's like planting several batches of fruit in an orchard. Although the first batch of varieties are not good, they mature first, of course, they bear fruit first and report first; Although the second batch is a good variety, it is mature and has not yet borne fruit. Naturally, it will be reported later. If he doesn't do good in this life, the evil will be worse; On the other hand, the good karma he planted in this life is not in vain, and will be rewarded accordingly in the future. Therefore, what goes around comes around first.

Third, change is about ideas.

Cause and effect are both regular and identifiable; But it is not rigid. This is different from the "iron plate number" of fortune telling and fortune telling. Everything is "doomed" and cannot be changed. This is a vulgar "fatalism". From the perspective of Buddhism and Buddhism causality, we are now receiving results all the time, and we will always be in the seed industry. Cause can be changed, but cause cannot be changed! Karma has changed, and karma will definitely change.

Buddhism fundamentally reveals the principle and origin of fortune telling, but it does not advocate fortune telling. Because this is a futile thing. The same is true of a person's life and fate, and so is not counting. Only by fundamentally changing the present karma can we change the future karma. In the Ming Dynasty, a gentleman named Kong told his fortune, which year he was admitted as a scholar and a juren, which year he became a magistrate, which year he died, and so on. Later, I met Zen master Yungu and told him: to change your destiny, you must rely on your mind and do more good deeds. Since then, Mr. Kong's calculation has completely failed. He can only be a magistrate of a county, and as a result, he was transferred to the central government to work; He can only live to be 53, but he lives to be 74. Without a son, he gave birth to two sons, both of whom became useful people. He summed up his life's experience in transforming his destiny and wrote the Four Commandments. Buddhist virtues speak highly of this book, which shows that fate can be changed.

What is the key to transformation? It is my own mind, because "everything is made by heart." The mind can make a career and change jobs, which is the truth of "changing from the heart". Master Huineng, the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty, said: "All blessings are inseparable from your own heart. You can find it from your heart, but you can't get it. So turn with your heart, turn with your heart, and let you stand on your own feet. Confucianism said, "No one can claim his own happiness or misfortune. It also illustrates this truth.

Fourth, Buddhists should treat cause and effect in this way.

1. In order to establish correct knowledge and opinions, we must be sure of causality.

Causality is the core of Buddhism. If you don't believe in cause and effect, you can't really understand Buddhism, let alone get the benefits of Buddhism. Master Xu Yun said, "The word' cause and effect' sums up what the Buddha said about Buddhism. Master Ding Yin, a contemporary eminent monk, said in his book "Introduction to Pumenpin": "In a word, what goes around comes around is nothing more than karma. Therefore, people who study Buddhism should be convinced of the causal law of good and evil in Buddhism and know that what they see is correct; Otherwise, if you don't believe in the causal law of good and evil, it is called knowing evil and seeing evil. " Visible, don't believe that the law of causality is evil to know Jaken, is stupid. "Observing Scripture for Five Days" lists "believing in cause and effect" as the proper business of cleaning industry. Virtual cloud mage pointed out that "believing in cause and effect" is the first condition for operating Tao (that is, learning from Buddhism and practicing). Only by being convinced of cause and effect can we consciously stop evil and good. This can not only change and eliminate the bad karma of the past, but also cultivate the good fortune of the present and the future.

2. We must act according to the law of cause and effect, and we can't confuse cause and effect.

The Buddhist scripture says, "Bodhisattva fears cause, while all beings fear fruit." Bodhisattva understands cause and effect, and knows that both evil causes will have retribution. Therefore, in words and deeds, even in thoughts, we should guard against planting wrong causes and avoid being punished. Ordinary people, however, are not afraid of cause and effect. They usually indulge in greed, murder and theft, act boldly and dare to do anything bad. Fear and regret are useless before what goes around comes around. We who study Buddhism should learn from Bodhisattva. On the one hand, we should purify our body and mind, standardize our behavior, stop evil and prevent evil from everywhere, and stop planting evil causes. On the one hand, always think of all sentient beings, do more things that are beneficial to people, and cultivate good karma. This is a bright road, and we should go on to benefit ourselves, our family and society. If you want to live and die, and you want pure land enlightenment, you must also start from here.

Generally speaking, the law of causality is the core of Buddhism. If you don't understand cause and effect, you won't understand Buddhism. If you don't believe in the law of causality, you won't get the benefits of Buddhism. Everyone should know the cause and effect, be convinced of the cause and effect, and act according to the law of cause and effect. There are many good causes now, and now and in the future, karma will be eliminated and blessings will be increased. If you plant Buddha now, you will get the fruit of your previous life in the future.