Deepening the Understanding of Karma

Many of us have heard about Karma making it a well used phrase in our everyday vocabulary. Karma is the understanding of the Law of Cause and Effect which function as a law in the Universe as clearly as the law of gravity. For some of us, we think of Karma as being immutable: no matter what you cannot change your life or what is happening to you. Richard Causton in his book, The Buddha In Daily Life, writes:

“Karma derives from the Sanskrit word meaning ‘action’, and refers to the fact that, due to the strict law of cause and effect, every action leads to a future action, in an unbroken chain throughout eternity.  We create karma through our every thought, word and deed, and our every thought, word and deed in turn expresses our karma.  Karma is not an outside force, therefore, but rather the effects of causes we ourselves have made in the past, which continue to have a profound influence on our present actions.” (p. 180)

From another view, we could say that karma is the fundamental tendency of our lives in any one moment. Let’s take some time to look at the four basic aspects of karma from the perspective of SGI Nichiren’s Buddhism as defined through the 10 factors.*

Four Aspects of Karma

Inherent Cause: This can be thought of as the belief or the original cause that is brought forward into our life from past events or from a past life. Yasuji Kirimura clarifies in his book: Fundamentals of Buddhism on p. 50: “[Inherent Cause is] the latent or potential cause which exists in the depths of human life in the state of ku (neither existence nor non-existence). Each internal cause simultaneously contains a potential effect.”

External Cause: When the conditions in a person’s life come together to form a stage, so to speak, upon which the inherent cause can play out.

In his book, LIFE: An Enigma, a Precious Jewel, Daisaku Ikeda writes:

“External Cause is the environmental condition activating the inherent cause. It is a sort of catalyst and causes the life-force to move smoothly in response to the inherent cause. Human life never exists in isolation from an environment. Every activity of life occurs as a result of some external stimulus. At the same time, the true cause is the inherent cause within the human being. (p. 154)

Latent Effect:  This can be explained as the potential effect or the ingrained effect; the thought, word, or action the person makes because of her/his own inherent cause. “Inherent cause is the tendency that has built up within us until the present moment, and the latent effect is the future direction of our lives at this same moment.” (Ikeda, p. 154)

Manifest Effect: Could be said to be the accumulation of causes as they manifest in the physical world. “The development of the manifest effect may be likened to a child’s growth. Children grow continuously by the second, day, month, and year, but we notice the growth only after a fairly long interval of time. In similar fashion, the manifest effect begins to make its appearance at the moment when the cause comes into existence, but some passage of time may be required before we perceive it.” (Ikeda, p. 55) These manifest effects can be seen in daily life such as happiness or unhappiness, joy or sorrow.

Inherent Cause, Latent Effect, and Manifest Effect are all happening at exactly the same time.  Sometimes this is difficult to comprehend because we, as humans, see time in a linear fashion.  Something happens – time passes – something else happens. However, time as applied to this principle is not linear. I like to think of Cause and Effect like a DVD. The whole movie is there in your hand all at the same time. However, as humans, the only way we can see and understand the movie is to put the disc into a DVD player and watch the movie frame by frame. “Whereas other systems usually connect cause and effect with the concepts of space and time, Buddhism teaches that both are immanent in human life and are coexistent and inseparable.” (Ikeda, p. 152)

Cause and Effect is like this. Inherent within every cause is already an effect. It simply takes time for us to see the observable effect manifest. In Nichiren’s Buddhism there is this concept of the simultaneity of cause and effect.

Within our life, we have these inherent causes and their corresponding effects. These are stored in what can be called our Karmic Storage. Causes can be thoughts, words, or actions. As we go through life, something in the environment happens, some kind of external scenario gets created that we, then, because of our inherent cause, have a latent effect that is in response to that so we can manifest some kind effect in response.

Perhaps I can elucidate this with a personal example. It is a little embarrassing but I think it will clarify this principle.

When I was in my early 20’s, I went out dancing with some friends. At one point in the evening, the DJ was taking requests. Normally, I am a fairly shy person when it comes to making requests of people, but I decided to shore up my courage and ask the DJ to play one of my favorite songs. I went up to the DJ station and asked rather meekly, “Do you have cocaine?”

He was rather taken aback and in a rude voice replied, “No”.

Not realizing what I had asked him, I walked away feeling rather dejected with the reinforced belief that, when you ask someone for something, they will turn you down and be rather unhappy that you had the audacity to ask them in the first place. The sound of his voice and his response exactly matched my belief.

Let’s tease this out a little bit more. At some time in my past, I observed or experienced a manifest effect of someone declining to honor a request and doing so in a rather rude way. Or, perhaps it is the way I have responded to the request of others sometime in my past. The reason doesn’t matter as much as the understanding that I have this inherent cause within me of believing people will respond to my requests in a rude and negative way.

Because of this internal belief, I asked the DJ for what I wanted in such an awkward way that I set myself up for being denied my request. The DJ’s response is the latent effect I received due to my inherent cause.

The manifest effect, then, is a reinforcement of my belief and my continuing to feel dejected at asking someone for something.

Through meditation by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, I was able to see the initial inherent cause and actually laugh to myself for asking a question that would naturally have a negative response. Of course the DJ is not going to give me cocaine. Even if he had it, cocaine being an illegal substance, he would not so readily hand over some to a woman he didn’t even know.

Now the work is up to me to do what can be called my Human Revolution so I can change the inherent cause of the belief and receive a kinder response to my requests. This, naturally, is the hardest part since it requires I take responsibility for what happened in my environment rather than blame the DJ for being a jerk. It also requires that I change at my very core the belief that people will not respond to me in a kind way. The next time I am dancing and the DJ askes for requests, I can confidently ask him if he has the Eric Clapton song titled, “Cocaine.” In this way, I am actually able to change my karma by choosing a different cause in the face of the environmental stage that was presented to me. By changing the inherent cause, we are able to simultaneously change the latent and manifest effects of our lives.

*The factors as postulated in the Lotus Sutra which states: “This reality [which can only be shared and understood between Buddhas] consists of the appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, internal cause, external cause, latent effect, manifest effect, and their consistency from beginning to end.”

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