Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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因果

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: cause and effect

Senses:

  • Causality. The teaching of the law of cause and effect is one of the most fundamental threads of Buddhist discourse. The special Buddhist sense of the term, as compared with cause and effect as understood by modern science, is that it extends fully into the psychological/spiritual dimension of existence, as well as the physical. In Buddhism, most discussions that deal with cause and effect do so from the perspective of karmic moral quality. In this sense, the notion of cause and effect is essentially synonymous with that of karma. Buddhism also takes a distinctive approach to the matter of individuated causality by asserting that causes and effects span across separate lifetimes, a notion examined in detail by the Yogâcāra school, which explained individuated causality as operating through the ālayavijñāna 阿賴耶識 (Skt. hetu-phala; Tib. rgyu dang 'bras bu).

    In Buddhism, it is also important to understand that the law of cause and effect is flawless—nothing gets by. If there is a cause there must be an effect and vice versa (Skt. karma, phuala-hetu). All phenomena in existence (dharmas) arise, change and cease according to the law of cause and effect. Also, as Joanna Macy explains, most Western, and some Eastern understandings of causality are linear, as distinguished from the Buddhist causality which is based on dependent arising, and thus complex, akin to the understandings of General Systems Theory.

    [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, Nakamura,YBh-Ind, JEBD, Yokoi, Iwanami]
  • The practices of the bodhisattva are the cause, becoming a Buddha is the effect. [Charles Muller]
  • (Skt., kārya-kāraṇa; kārya-kāraṇatā, kārya-kāraṇa-bhāva, phala-sad-bhāva, sahetuka, hetu-prabhava, hetu-phala-bhāva, hetu-hetumat)

    References:

    Macy, Joanna. 1991. Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems. Albany, New York:  State University of New York Press. Suny Series, Buddhist Studies.

    [Charles Muller; source(s): Hirakawa]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 53

    Bulgyo sajeon 728a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 55a

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 47

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 129a/141

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 260

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 69d

    Fo Guang Dictionary 2293

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0284

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)176a

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 93-1

    Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 1993-09-01

    Updated: 2021-06-19