Chan Meditation | Deep Faith in Cause and Effect

Chan meditation is the proper practice and the direct path for those who cultivate the Way. Yet speaking of it is easy: it only takes a single pure thought, constant self-reflection and inner illumination, and keeping a clear, luminous awareness in each moment. In conduct, one simply lets things unfold as they will. When restlessness and delusive stirrings grow too strong, focusing on a koan can open the way to awakening, cut the root of birth and death, and bring freedom and liberation.

But since beginningless time we have been dying and being reborn endlessly within the three realms, drifting without pause. Even when our practice rests on faith and resolve, we still face afflictions, habitual tendencies, karmic obstacles, and all manner of hindrances. Without supportive practices to work against them, we may speak of an ideal in which a thought is noticed as soon as it arises, vanishes as soon as it is noticed, and in time one forgets conditions altogether, settling into a single seamless whole. Yet when karmic obstacles appear, we can find ourselves swept along by them. Time slips away, years pass idly, we yield easily to corrupting influences, the Way is hard to bring to completion, and a whole life may be wasted—what a pity!

Even if we speak of practicing Chan, and mind, body, and conduct truly intend it, and we do spend most of our time investigating—and even seek some insight—from the standpoint of effort and cultivation, there is still merit whether awakening comes or not. Yet from the standpoint of seeing one's nature and becoming a Buddha, the life has been spent in vain. Why does this happen so often? Many Chan practitioners fail because they never cultivate the supportive practices that uphold the main path. So let us consider the attitude practitioners should take, both in understanding and in action.

(1) Believing in Karma and No-Self

All Buddhas teach according to the two truths: the ultimate truth and the conventional truth. "Truth" here means what is real and unfailing. The scriptures tell us that the conventional truth shows all worldly phenomena to be merely apparent, arising from the coming together of causes and conditions, while the ultimate truth shows that, in the highest sense, everything is empty.

On the conventional level, whatever arises from causes and conditions comes into being through karma—karma created individually and karma created in common with others. Practitioners must hold fast to the certainty of cause and effect: good causes and good karma unfailingly yield good results and good reward; bad causes and bad deeds unfailingly yield bad results and bad reward. Wherever there is a cause, a result must follow. As the Sutra of Cause and Effect says: "If you wish to know past causes, look at their present effects; if you wish to know future effects, look at their present causes." The Nirvana Sutra says: "The retribution of good and evil follows one like a shadow; the cause and effect of the three times never cease. If this life is spent in vain, there will be no chance for regret later." The Upasaka Precept Sutra says: "If a good man does not understand such karmic conditions, he will wander through birth and death for countless eons. Even if he is born in the realm of neither perception nor non-perception, his lifespan of eighty thousand kalpas will end, and when his merit is exhausted he will fall into the three evil realms. The Buddha told the good man: All painting and drawing are not superior to the mind; the mind paints afflictions, afflictions paint karma, and karma paints the body."

These teachings show that our body, the world we depend on, everything—all of it is the fruit of our own actions, self-made and self-received, with cause and effect unmistakably clear. So the Tathāgata said in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Kṣudraka and other vinaya texts: "Even after hundreds of thousands of kalpas, the karma one has created does not vanish; when conditions meet, the fruit is reaped by oneself." If we hold the principle of cause and effect as our guiding conviction, then in any setting we can keep our body upright and our mind correct, refrain from harming others for our own gain, and make sure that in body, speech, and mind—in words, thoughts, and deeds—we refrain from evil, practice good, and purify intention. Then adverse conditions, karmic obstacles, and all hindrances to the true path will grow fewer, and may in time disappear altogether.

The Abhidharma-samuccaya says: "Karma can adorn the world, leading beings to various realms; therefore one should contemplate karma and seek liberation from the world." To hold deep, unwavering faith that all things are determined by karmic results, the most important thing is to put this conviction into actual practice in our bodily, verbal, and mental acts. Whatever we do, we do not go against the law of cause and effect, and the benefits come naturally, allowing the Chan path to move forward unhindered. With firm conviction in cause and effect, in time we will naturally reach the state Bodhidharma described: "Neither seeing evil and feeling aversion, nor seeing good and striving toward it." This is what the Chan school calls the view of cause and effect.