The law of cause and effect spans many lives

In life, many karmic results lack the conditions to appear in the present life and must extend across many other lives. Above, for example, we spoke of a case in which a person killed a father and mother and so left children orphaned, yet the criminal himself was not orphaned in this life. That karmic result of being orphaned, the criminal will have to repay in another life. Or, in this life we often cheat and disappoint others. But at present, while our merit lasts, we are so successful that no one can cheat us, and so only in a later life will we be cheated in return. Or, in this life we help a great many people to see again, and give wheelchairs to the disabled so that they can get around. In this life we are not disabled and have no need of anyone giving us a wheelchair, but in a later life... we will be repaid. But repaid how? When we see a disabled person and buy a wheelchair to give them, what is the cause and effect? Cause and effect lies in this: the person found it hard to move about, we helped them move and get around easily, and in a later life we will have strong legs and easy means of getting around. So there are causes we think are ordinary, but when the karmic result bursts forth it is thousands upon thousands of times greater.

Buddhism has another concept: the cycle of rebirth. When our life in this world ends, it is not the end; we will take rebirth in another life. So there is a further law related to the law of cause and effect, namely the cycle of rebirth. The cycle of rebirth is the process of being reborn from one life into another.

However, the cycle of rebirth is not as simple as dying in this life and immediately taking birth in the next. When we die, our spirit, our consciousness, remains in the unseen realm for a time. Then, when the causes and conditions are complete and there is a father and a mother, we are born into that family to be reborn in another life. Until the conditions are complete, with exactly the right father and mother, we do not take rebirth.

For example, in a previous life we planted good causes, and in the next life we have the merit of wealthy parents. Our mother is very beautiful so that we inherit good looks; our father is very capable and holds power and rank; we are born the eldest child and later have a younger sibling. In our parents' families there are large clans, but our father is the eldest son. That is, the cause and effect we planted has fixed it so, and we must wait for exactly that cause and effect before we take rebirth. We can see that it is not that we die and are reborn at once; we must wait many years, sometimes even a hundred. Throughout that time, we are an authoritative spirit-consciousness, with a dwelling and with shrines where people worship us. When the right causes and conditions arrive, a talented young man and a beautiful young woman meet, fall in love and marry, with both clans wealthy. The mother is exceedingly beautiful, the father truly capable, with power and rank; they have just married and are beginning to have a child. Only then do we come to take rebirth, because the conditions and circumstances are right.

However, there are also people who, for some cause planted in the past that we do not know, are fixed in this life so that three days after birth the mother takes them and leaves them at the gate of a temple; the temple takes them in and raises them, and they grow up to become monastics. In this case too, cause and effect has fixed it, and one must wait for exactly the right circumstance: a naive girl is seduced by a man. She becomes pregnant and, ashamed before the village and her parents, runs away from home to another place. When she gives birth, she is helped by the people around her, and although she loves her child dearly, she cannot take the child home to raise. So when the child is only three days old she has no choice but to leave it at the temple gate. Cause and effect has fixed it so, and it waits for so many conditions to come together before the event happens.

While waiting to take rebirth, the spirit-consciousness stays temporarily in the unseen realm (our ancestors call it the soul, while Buddhism calls it consciousness). According to cause and effect, the consciousness must wait until the conditions are complete to take rebirth again, and until the time comes it has, according to its karma, a suitable place to stay. A soul with very heavy wrongdoing is punished in hell; one with less becomes a kind of hungry ghost wandering aimlessly. That is, when such a person has died, no one makes offerings of food to them and they have no proper dwelling; they must stay out in the fields or among bushes, and if some man who has been drinking passes by and vomits there, they can eat that food to get by, but they have no proper food. On Ullambana, when the temple makes food offerings to the spirits, they must fight for the food with other hungry ghosts. Although they are only a drifting, wandering, faint and shadowy soul, with no stomach, they are still tormented by hunger and thirst all year round. This is the hungry ghost; though its wrongdoing is lighter than that of beings who fall into hell, it is still wrongdoing. When these beings take rebirth they are rarely born as humans and instead become animals such as dogs or chickens... If a soul has more merit, it has a proper place to stay and is worshipped by its descendants at home, or is enshrined in the soul halls and ossuaries of temples. There the temple makes offerings of rice to it every day and chants Sutras for it to hear. While waiting to take rebirth, if it knows how to practise, going to the temple to do voluntary work, to look after the temple..., it also gains merit.

For example, while alive we often go to the temple to hear the Dharma and help with temple work every day, every week or on the fortnightly day of repentance... What we have done creates much merit, so cause and effect fixes it that we are reborn into a wealthy family. When the conditions have not yet come, after we die we go to live in the temple, our memorial tablet is placed in the soul hall, we are not hungry, and every day we hear the Sutras chanted... Although no one sees it, our soul still walks about the temple, guarding it so that no one steals. We can influence other people's minds so that they become gentle and do not damage the temple (because the dead influence the living through the mind). When the living see a few children playing noisily they may go and say, "Don't play around, children", to keep the temple quiet. But the dead do not speak in words that the children hear; they act directly on the mind. A child who comes to the temple wanting to be mischievous suddenly finds a thought arising in his mind that the temple is a pure place and should not be disturbed, and he thinks it is his own thought, never imagining it is the thought of a spirit enshrined in the temple. Such spirits look after the temple and go on creating merit in this way until the wealthy father and mother are in place, matching their own cause and effect, and only then do they leave the temple and go to that home to take rebirth. Born as a child in a wealthy family, as soon as they are grown they again go to the temple to keep creating merit and to practise.

Take those who have served the country: officers and generals, leaders who devote themselves wholeheartedly to the people and country, who take no bribes and are not greedy. When they go to the countryside and see roads that are hard to travel, wide rivers with no bridge so that villagers and children must row across in boats when the waves are big and the wind strong, endangering their lives..., they blame themselves and examine themselves. They decide to have roads, bridges and culverts built well so that everyone can travel easily, in order to limit sad and unnecessary deaths. Those officials who care for the people will, by cause and effect, be born in a later life into a place of great privilege, receive an education and succeed, and continue to be leaders. But while waiting for the causes and conditions to be complete for rebirth, they will be powerful spirits, with shrines and temples and with soldiers attending them, in the unseen realm. In ancient times, high officials and generals who had greatly served the country were made gods when they died, and sometimes we built solemn shrines to them. Today is no different: generals and officials who served the country, when they die, are also in some place with shrines and temples, with brilliant authority and soldiers to serve them, and when the conditions are complete for them to take rebirth again, their cause and effect will continue on a greater scale.

Those who spend their whole lives in practice, with exceedingly ethical and pure minds, and who do countless meritorious deeds for others, will, when they die, be born into the heavens, realms of nothing but joy and happiness. In the heavens, people live with one another by the mind, not by speech: each knows the other's mind, and all live very honestly, very happily and very kindly. Whatever a heavenly being wishes for is immediately granted. For example, if the devas like to live in the mountains, a mountain landscape appears at once for them to live in. Or if they like to live in a palace or want beautiful clothes... the palace and beautiful clothes appear at once. That is, whatever they wish for is met immediately. They live only in love; all is love.

Those who practise with refined and pure minds and do many good things that help the world will, when their lifespan ends, certainly be born in the heavens. An official who has served the people and country but is sometimes quick-tempered will, when he dies, become only a god, not a Saint. An official who has served the country and the people and lives gently and ethically, never raising his voice at anyone, will, when his lifespan ends, immediately become a Saint, and remain so until the conditions to become a human being appear and he takes rebirth again.

Taking rebirth

What is taking rebirth? When the conditions with the parents arrive, the child's consciousness (soul) often returns to that home to linger and play around the parents until the parents come together, but it has not yet taken rebirth. When the father's sperm enters the mother's body, the consciousness still has not taken rebirth. A few hours later, the father's sperm unites with the mother's egg and becomes an independent embryo with life, and at that moment the consciousness at once dissolves. The child's life is now that embryo itself. The child then forgets everything of the past and begins a new life as a tiny embryo, invisible to the naked eye, which can be seen only under a microscope magnifying several thousand times. And the person reborn comes precisely from that tiny embryo. The earlier consciousness dissolves, and everything from before is forgotten.

Our ancestors used to say that before rebirth the underworld messengers make one eat gruel of forgetfulness so as to forget the previous life, and therefore when we are born we remember nothing of our previous lives. But in fact it is not so. The truth is that the embryo is so tiny and has no brain yet, so it cannot record the data of the previous life, and that is why we cannot remember it. The embryo will grow as cause and effect determines, becoming, for example, good-looking, intelligent, healthy... When the child is born, the parents are surprised: "Oh! My child is so handsome." A few years later they discover how intelligent the child is, and a little later still the child becomes a sturdy, healthy young man, exactly as cause and effect determined.

In our new life there are two things. First, we receive the karmic results of the previous life. Second, we go on sowing karma for the next life. We are present in this life receiving the karmic results of the previous life and creating the cause of the next one. In this way we wander in the endless cycle of rebirth, taking birth from one life to the next.

We often think, perhaps in a previous life we forgot to create merit, so in this life we do not enjoy much merit, and sometimes we dream: "In this life I will create merit so that in the next I can enjoy more." That is only a very near-sighted view. When we understand deeply, we will see that human beings wander endlessly in a continuous cycle of rebirth, and even if in one life or another we are wealthy and honoured, even if we become a king at the very summit of glory, if we still have to keep going round in the cycle of rebirth, we will still feel immensely weary and burdened.

At that point, what do we truly long for? We will have a very proper, very meaningful longing: to find a way to stop this cycle of rebirth and to be truly liberated. Even if we are born as an official or a general, we still have to struggle, toil and calculate, so it is very easy to create karma. For as a general, our authority affects many people. A little anger creates terrible karma; one wrong decree and so many people suffer. It is truly hard work and not at all pleasant! So in the end we want, one day, to stop this cycle and be reborn no more. And in that realm of liberation, to protect and support beings so that they know to do good and avoid evil, create blessed merit, advance within the cycle of rebirth and finally put an end to the cycle of birth and death as well: that is the loftiest longing.

I bow to the Buddhas of the ten directions. Through countless lives in the cycle of rebirth, bitterness and weariness.

Now I offer my vow: I am resolved to return to liberation, resolved to leave delusion for awakening, and to liberate beings to repay the Buddha.

With a near longing, we only pray for merit in the next life and try to create merit. But once we understand deeply, we will think: "Living in this world, one must indeed create merit; it cannot be otherwise. But even with so much merit that one becomes a general, one is still weary and burdened, and a small slip creates wrongdoing; enough, I should stop." This is precisely the goal of Buddhism. The goal of Buddhism is that we look for the path of practice that stops the cycle of rebirth and brings true liberation.

To reach this goal, we must have the strength of spiritual practice so that we are not reborn. When there is no more cycle of rebirth, we become a transcendent Saint who protects beings so that they can go on to practise as we have. The place with no cycle of rebirth, the place of liberation and utmost peace and joy, is what Buddhism calls Nirvana.

Nirvana is a realm of extreme purity and transcendence that cannot be described in words, but it is a clarity that covers the whole universe, a loving heart that permeates all beings. Let us not think that Nirvana is something empty; to understand it so is contrary to Buddhism and is a wrong view that brings fault. We must understand that the Nirvana attained by the Buddhas and by the Arhat Saints is not emptiness but a clarity that covers this whole universe and a heart of great compassion and love that covers all beings. That is why, whenever we meet obstacles or reach a dead end and kneel down to pray to the Buddha with all our reverence, we always receive a response. For the Buddha in Nirvana still loves and protects us. He is not reborn, but he always loves, always knows clearly and always protects everyone. On one condition, however: when what we prayed for has been achieved, we must give thanks.

How must we give thanks, and by what means?

For example, the house we live in is suddenly cut across by a planning scheme and we must move elsewhere. Because our merit is slight, we are under pressure: the compensation is not enough to move the house. In our impasse, not knowing what to do, we go to the temple and pray: "I abide by the State's laws, but the compensation is so little that I cannot afford to rebuild a new house to be the family home, where we have a place to live, to worship and to practise. I humbly ask the Buddhas to protect me."

We pray with a sincere and earnest heart. When we return home, a senior official happens to pass by where we live, stops his car and asks what is wrong. Hearing the people's complaints, he asks:

Why is the compensation like this?

Well, because that is the price fixed by the regulations.

He says:

If the regulations do not give people enough to relocate their houses, that will not do; the compensation must be recalculated so that it is fair to the people. It cannot be done like this.

And suddenly we are out of trouble: we are fairly compensated, can build a house and have our prayer answered. Once our wish is granted, we must give thanks to the Buddha by doing some meritorious good deed. While the State is building the road where we live, we should set aside a few days of work to help build the road so that people can pass easily. Or, seeing the workers building the road, each morning we can cook sticky rice and sweet soup for them to eat so that they have the strength to work if they have missed their meal. Let us give thanks in that way, that is, by doing something for the public good to repay what we asked for. This is reasonable cause and effect. And in doing so, we also come to understand what the pure Nirvana of the Buddhas is.

The principle of the cycle of rebirth gives us the answer to why the fates of children differ from the moment they are born. Why is one child born healthy and another born frail? Why is one born into a wealthy family and another into a poor one? Why is there such injustice?

Without cause and effect and the cycle of rebirth, we would have no satisfactory answer. Some say it is because of Heaven, that is, whether someone is rich or poor is decreed by Heaven. There is no Heaven that is unjust and makes decrees as strange as that.

If it were a Heaven with power that loved people, it would have to be fair and love everyone equally; it could not make one child be born into a poor family and another into a rich one. Others say, "He is born into a poor family so that he is toughened." Then why toughen this child and not that one? So we affirm that there is no Heaven forcing children to be born one way or another; only the fair law of cause and effect governs everything. It is the law of cause and effect itself that causes that child to be born into this family and that other child into that family.

We do not hold any spirit responsible for any of our fates; we hold each person responsible. When a child is born into a poor family, we know that the child is somewhat lacking in merit, or somewhat lacking in merit in the early stage. We love the child by teaching him to create merit from a young age. Teach the child to love others, to help others, and to live honestly and without greed, and as the child grows, his life will change in a good direction. Right now he may study poorly, but if he knows how to create merit, diligently bows to the Buddha, values the monks and nuns, respects his teachers and helps his friends, then naturally in a few years he will do better at school; that is cause and effect. When we know the law of cause and effect, we can help our children and grandchildren a great deal, turning their lives from a bad direction into a better and more concrete one. This is something everyone is glad of.