Chain Reaction

In addition to the topics already covered (Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Five Precepts, etc.)  another one of the early Buddhist teachings was the twelve-linked chain of causation, and Shakyamuni is thought to have taught this twelve step program to explain the causal relationship between ignorance and the sufferings of aging and death.

Shakyamuni introduces these twelve links in the Assutava Sutra :

"When this exists, that comes to be. With the arising of this, that arises." 

These twelve links are:

(1)  ignorance, which results in
(2)  action, which causes
(3)  consciousness or the function to discern, which causes
(4)  name and form (or spiritual and material objects of discernment) which consist of 
(5)  the six sense organs, which interpret
(6)  contact , which arouses
(7)  sensation (visual, aural, intellectual, etc.), which leads to
(8)  desire (or cravings for sights, sounds, smells, ideas, etc.) which precedes
(9)  attachment, which causes
(10) existence (a karmic force of becoming), which manifests in
(11)  birth (a new status/position, a born again identity, etc.) which begins the process of 
(12) aging and death.

These twelve links can be viewed pessimistically as "the way things are" and that we are doomed to a perpetual existence stuck in this cycle of suffering, or it can be interpreted optimistically, reasoning that through wisdom, ignorance (the source of our delusion) can be eliminated freeing us from this chain of suffering and leading to Shakyamuni's initial teachings on nirvana.  Returning to the Assutava Sutra:

"When this does not exist, that does not come to be. With the cessation of this, that ceases."

The Great Commentary on the Abhidharma, a text of the Sarvāstivāda school, views the twelve-linked chain of causation as operating over the three existences of life, such that "aging and death" in this life are the results of causes formed in a previous life:

1	IGNORANCE	CAUSES CREATED IN THE PAST
2	ACTION
3	CONSCIOUSNESS	EFFECTS MANIFESTED IN THE PRESENT
4	NAME AND FORM
5	SIX SENSE ORGANS
6	CONTACT
7	SENSATION
8	DESIRE	CAUSES CREATED IN THE PRESENT
9	ATTACHMENT
10	EXISTENCE
11	BIRTH	EFFECTS MANIFESTED IN THE FUTURE
12	AGING AND DEATH

From a Nichiren Buddhist perspective, we can see that the cause of all our suffering is ignorance, and especially ignorance of the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra, and therefore, the only way to break this chain and achieve our own emancipation is through our faith in the Lotus Sutra and our practice of Nichiren Buddhism.  In the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni also reveals for the first time, the rarest and most-difficult-to-understand Law, the true entity of all phenomena ...

Identity, Death & Rebirth

In his excellent book "The Reluctant Buddhist", writer and TV presenter, William Woollard, clearly explains the difficult concepts of identity, death and rebirth in Buddhism:

"Memory is clearly crucially important to our sense of self.  It represents the accumulation of experience and knowledge that defines us.  It describes to us the route we have followed and explains why we are at this point in our life journey....

Put simply, it is memory that ensures that no matter how radical the physical and mental changes that take place in our lives as we make the transition from nine to ninety, we continue to know that we are the same person....

We must try to understand the distinction between life entity on the one hand, which Buddhism teaches is eternal, and individual identity on the other, which Buddhism teaches is short lived...

Put at its simplest, this mean that William's unique and essential identity, my appearance and my character, are temporary.  The person whom I know myself to be, no matter what changes take place in my appearance and personality as I journey through three score years and ten, is attached to this unique individual.  It is built up of the memories and the experiences, the causes and effects, that I have accumulated through this life.  It is as temporary as this life itself is.  It dies with William at the point of death.

The life entity on the other hand, or the parcel of universal life energy that now informs William's life, sometimes called the innate self, lying below self knowledge, will, when William's unique identity comes to an end, pass into a period of "neither existence nor non existence"  Then, at some time in the future, when the conditions are right, it will become manifest again in another unique individual identity.  That individual identity will also develop his or her own unique and essential sense of self, which again will be purely temporary, and die when that individual identity comes to the end of his or her life.  It will not be WIlliam 2.

In this sense then, the raw life force, goes on from lifetime to lifetime.  It is neither created not destroyed. It exists before each birth, and continues to exist after each death.  In each period of existence, Buddhism teaches, it gathers a new accumulation of causes and effects.

That accumulated cargo of causes and effects carried within the eighth consciousness (nine consciousnesses), lies below the level of the waking mind, so that each successive life form involve, each identity if you wish, will have no conscious awareness and no memory of it.  Nonetheless, Buddhism teaches that those accumulated causes and effects lying in the alaya consciousness, will have a profound effect on the actions, the thoughts and words and deeds of the life entity in the next period of existence.  This is the basis, in Buddhist teachings for so many differences in circumstances between individuals, and for many of the inexplicable effects that occue during our lives.  They are effects related to distant causes attaching to the life entity.

However, within the span of each lifetime the change of identity is complete and total.  Each one is totally different from the previous one, and crucially, each one has no memory of what went before. ...

A metaphor that one might hang on to is that of waves formed on the great face of the ocean.  Picture a vast army of waves lifting and surging across the face of the ocean as far as the eye can see and beyond.  Each wave may resemble its neighbour, but close to, each one is going to be subtly different and unique, with its own individual features and contours.  Although it may seem to be just one of a vast army, each wave has been formed around its own unique parcel of energy that has lifted it up and brought it into existence.  The wave travels for a time and then slowly collapses and sinks back into the ocean from which it came.  The unique identity of the wave has gone.  The parcel of energy that formed it however, has sunk back into the vast body of energy… within the ocean.  It will remain there, unchanged, in a state that we might call latency.  And then, when the conditions are right, it will combine again with the components of the sea water to lift another wave, which will have its own unique shape and form and characteristics. And on and on, through all eternity.  The parcel of energy, the life entity, the innate self, remains the same from existence to existence.  Each successive wave, or form that it energises, is a different and wholly temporary identity.

...

Buddhism places our individual human lives right at the centre of the unending universal cycle that encompasses everything, the cycle of birth and growth and decline and death.  We acknowledge that all physical existence is temporary.  We accept that all energy in the universe, including the life energy that informs living things is eternal.  Buddhism places our cycles of birth and death firmly within that context."

(William Woollard, The Reluctant Buddhist p238-241)

William Woollard was initially very sceptical about Buddhism, especially its relevance to today's western society.  This book is a fascinating read and I would strongly recommend it to people wanted to understand Buddhism, especially Nichiren Buddhism, in more detail.  Here's a link for Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Reluctant-Buddhist-Personal-Buddhism/dp/1906210357/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341631017&sr=1-3

The Buddhism of Hope

“True cause” (honnin myo) means that we don’t need to waste time and energy regretting things that we can’t change in our past, but should focus on the actions we can actually take in the present to create positive effects in our future. 

In the Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra: volume VI (pp244 – 245), SGI Study Department leader, Katsuji Saito, and President Daisaku Ikeda have the following conversation about true cause and true effect:

Saito:  To continually go forward – this is the Buddhism of the True Cause Ikeda:  Now is eternity.  Right now is the beginning.  The past is gone.  The future has not yet arrived.  The present moment is all that exists. …      To view this present moment of life as the direct effect of some cause in the past is to think in terms of the true effect.  To think, in other words, “I did that, so this happened.”  But that perspective alone will not give rise to hope.  The key is to view one’s life at the present moment as the cause for creating future effects.  This is the true cause that reaches the very depths of one’s being.  It is not a superficial cause. … This Is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the eternal cosmic life, the great principle that moves the entire universe and sparks constant development.  … When we believe in the Gohonzon as the embodiment of that Law, chant the Mystic Law and take action, at that moment we are experiencing eternity. Saito:  So the point is that each moment is time without beginning and everything always starts from now. Ikeda:  This is faith based on the Buddhism of the true cause.  Faith means to have boundless hope.   No matter how bad our present circumstances might be, even If it seems we are fighting a losing battle, we must stand up determined not to be defeated and from there show actual proof of the limitless potential of the Mystic Law.  Is this not the true purpose of faith?

We don’t need to wait until New Year’s Day, next month or even next week, to make a resolution or determination, we simply have to make the decision to plant positive seeds TODAY, NOW, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, and in EVERY MOMENT, of our lives.

Einstein and Hitler

Hitler and the Psychiatrist

During World War I, the stressful conditions on the frontline (disease, death, explosions) took their toll on some people who suffered from a nervous breakdown called 'shell shock'.  This breakdown manifested itself in many different ways, but one of the symptoms was called 'hysterical blindness'.

Adolf Hitler suffered from this type of "blindness" which he thought was caused by a mustard gas attack, but tests showed there was no physical reason to explain his blindness and he was sent to see a psychiatrist called Dr. Forster.  After weeks of treatment with no success, the psychiatrist decided to issue Hitler with a challenge to try and make him snap out of this state.   Dr. Forster told Hitler that he believed he was born with a great destiny.  His mission was to save the German race and if he really focussed on this destiny, he'd be able to see a chair in the corner of the room.  Hitler focussed all of his thoughts on this mission and slowly the chair in the corner of the room came into focus and his sight was restored.

From that moment on, Hitler had a steadfast belief in his destiny.  Before meeting that psychiatrist he was just an ordinary soldier with no aspirations or leadership potential, but his newfound belief in his great mission caused him to lead a country into a direction that shaped the entire world both at that time and for generations to come.

As a footnote to this incident, Hitler later had Dr. Forster killed to try and hide this event that became the turning point in his life.

Einstein's Compass

When he was four, Albert Einstein was sick in bed, and his father gave him a compass to play with to occupy some time.  The compass fascinated him and he couldn't understand why no matter which way he turned it, the needle kept pointing in the same direction.  His previous experience was that things move when you move them and this unseen force controlling the needle baffled him.


This need to understand movement and motion remained with him throughout his life and later he went on to perform experiments and write papers that revolutionised scientific thinking.  Many of his findings, are still instrumental in Atomic and Quantum sciences today, and there are countless inventions and products that are either directly or indirectly due to the findings of Einstein.

"One Stone Will Create A Thousand Ripples"

In both of these cases, we can see that the smallest of actions by one person (Dr. Forster's words of encouragement and Einstein's father's gift of a compass) can have an influence far beyond what you may think is possible. 

When we talk to people about Nichiren Buddhism or treat people with compassion (or even harshly)we have no idea how we may affect their future lives or the lives of countless others.  Every action we take (cause) plants a seed of effect in our lives and the lives of the people we interact with, which will manifest itself in any of a thousand ways in the present or the distant future. 

The two examples of Hitler and Einstein come from "The Winner's Bible" by Dr. Kerry Spackman