Cause And Effect

The Buddha’s teachings emphasize cause and effect because the second noble truth of the Four Noble Truths states: everything has a cause. Nothing just takes place; there is a cause so there is an effect. If we want to have a good effect, we must create a good cause. Most of people focus on the effect, they are not aware of the cause. They only want to receive good effects. It is impossible to receive good effect without creating good cause. Not having known cause and effect is problematic as we can misunderstand what bring us success and happiness (effect). This is the world of cause and effect; if we misunderstand it, this misunderstanding will cause a lot of problems in our life. For it is said, “If you misunderstand one thing, a thousand bad things will follow you”.

There is an example, based on a story from the Book of Han Fei Jue, which can further our understanding about cause and effect. Here is the story:

In the town of Zong, there was a good restaurant where the price of food was reasonable, the food was nice, the service was good and the restaurant was in a good location. But there were few customers. The owner was curious to know why the customers did not come to his restaurant and was worried about his business. One day he went to see an old wise man in the town and asked him about this. The old wise man asked him, “Do you have a fierce dog?” He said, “Yes sir, I have one dog, but it is nothing to do with him, is it?” The old wise man said, “Really, it is. Because the dog scares your customers, so no one wants to eat at your restaurant”.

It is certainly true – as the old wise man says in the story- there is a cause which gives rise to the effect. Therefore, we should ignore nothing, even the tiniest thing. This tiny thing could be the cause of some really big problem in life. Bear in mind that this world is the world of cause and effect. The effect arises from the cause and the cause gives rise to the effect. Don’t look only at the effect! We must be mindful of the cause as well! Otherwise, we will not know how to solve our problem which will never end if we do not solve its cause.

True or not? I shall leave you to think about it.