Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning an action and its visible and invisible effect. Dogen had a deep belief that any action can become a cause that brings forth an effect sooner or later.
The real issue here, to clarify birth and to clarify death, is the great matter of causes and effects in the buddha house.
Cause is not before and effect is not after. Cause is complete and effect is complete. Cause is all-inclusive, just as dharma is all-inclusive. Effect is all-inclusive, just as dharma is all-inclusive. Although effect is experienced, induced by cause, one is not before and the other is not after. We say that both before and after are all-inclusive.
From the present existence you reach an intermediary existence, and from an intermediary existence you reach a future existence, passing through moment by moment. In this way, beyond your intention, you pass through birth and death driven by your karma, without stopping even for a moment.
The World-Honored One said, “Effects of an action will never perish, even after one hundred and one thousand eons. One receives the results when the causes and conditions meet. Know that dark actions bring forth dark results, bright actions bring forth bright results, and mixed actions bring forth varied results. So refrain from taking dark and mixed actions and endeavor to take bright actions.”
There are no exceptions. Those who act in an unwholesome way decline, and those who act in a wholesome way thrive. There is not a hairbreadth of discrepancy. If cause and effect had been ignored or denied, buddhas would not have appeared and Bodhidharma would not have come from India; sentient beings would not have seen Buddha or heard the dharma.
Baizhang,100 Zen Master Dahui of Mount Baizhang, Hao Region, was the dharma heir of Mazu. His priest name is Huaihai. When Baizhang gave teachings to the assembly, an old man would often appear and listen to his dharma talks. The old man usually left after the talks, but one day he remained behind.
Baizhang asked, “Who are you?” The old man said, “I am not actually a human being. In ancient times, at the time of Kashyapa Buddha, I lived and taught on this mountain. One day a student asked, ‘Does a person who has cultivated great practice still fall into cause and effect?’ I said to him, ‘No, such a person does not fall into cause and effect.’ Because of this I was reborn as a wild fox for five hundred lifetimes. Venerable Master, please say a turning word and free me from this body of a wild fox.” Then he asked Baizhang, “Does a person who has cultivated great practice still fall into cause and effect?”
Baizhang said, “Do not ignore cause and effect.”
Immediately the old man had great realization.
The most serious mistake made by those who study Zen in China is to believe that a person who practices completely does not fall into cause and effect.
Immediately clarify all causes and all effects if you want to make the aspiration for enlightenment your priority, and so respond to the boundless gift of buddha ancestors.
Reflect quietly and rejoice that although we live in the last five hundred years [of the three periods of five hundred years after the time of Shakyamuni Buddha] in a faraway island of a remote country, as our wholesome karma from the past has not decayed, we have authentically received the awesome procedure of ancient buddhas, practice it, and realize it without staining it.
Ignoring causation invites disaster. Past sages clarified cause and effect, but students have become confused in recent times. Those of you who have a pure aspiration for enlightenment and want to study buddha dharma for the sake of buddha dharma should clarify causation as past sages did.
Venerable Kumaralabha,101 the Nineteenth Ancestor, journeyed to central India, where he met a seeker called Jayata,102 who asked him, “My parents follow the path of the three treasures, but they have been sick, and nothing they do goes well. Our next-door neighbors have been engaged in the low practice of slaughtering animals, yet they are healthy and content. How come they are happy while we are so unfortunate?”
Kumaralabha said, “Why should you doubt? The results from our wholesome and unwholesome actions take effect in the three periods. But people only see that the peaceful die young and the violent live long, or that the unrighteous prosper and the righteous decline. They deny the law of cause and effect and say that our sins and good deeds are without consequences. They do not know that the shadows and echoes follow our actions without a hairbreadth’s gap. The results of our actions don’t get worn away even in one hundred, one thousand, or ten thousand eons.”
Hearing these words, Jayata was freed from his doubt.
What Kumaralabha meant by the results from our wholesome and unwholesome actions take effect in the three periods is:
One: the result received in this lifetime.
Two: the result received in the next lifetime.
Three: the result received in a lifetime after the next.
These are called the three periods. From the beginning of learning the way of buddha ancestors, we study and clarify the principle of the effects of karma in the three periods. If we don’t, many of us will make a mistake and fall into crooked views. Not only do we fall into crooked views, we get into unwholesome realms and experience suffering for a long time. When we do not maintain wholesome roots, we lose a great deal of merit and are obstructed for a long time from the path of enlightenment. Would this not be regrettable?