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Desa, or space. 7. Kala, or time. 8. Samkhya, or number. 9. Samagri, or inherence. 10. Bheda, non-inherence or separation. PART III COSMIC DYNAMICS I. THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF CAUSALITY Emphasis on Causality. One of the most important factors in Buddhist philosophy is its insistence upon the theory of causality or causal origination. It is repeatedly discussed in the sutras, frequently with especial reference to other opposing views of life. In this connexion a passage from the Anguttara Nikaya may be of interest. " There are, 0 monks, three views held by the heretics which, when followed by the learned, are calculated to land them in moral irresponsibility in spite of the perfection which they have attained. What are these three views ? Some Sramanas and Brahmins there are who maintain that whatever a man has in this life of pleasure or of pain or neither is purely due to predestination ; others say it is due to the will of God ; others that it is due to blind chance. " Now, 0 monks, when I find Sramanas and Brahmins holding or preaching such views I enquire of them whether they really believe in them. And when they answer in the affirmative, I say to them : ' Now, so then you must acknowledge that men become murderers, thieves, adulterers, liars, etc., on account of fate, God's will, or blind chance. Accordingly, all attempts at improvement or distinction between right and wrong become of no avail. Such being the case, the moral regeneration of the fallen becomes impossible.' This sort of reasoning must silence those who hold any of the three views mentioned above." The reasoning of the Buddha may be somewhat too pragmatic to please the purely logical, but it serves to bring out quite clearly the theory that things have their origin in cause and effect, and that so far as our own destiny is 164 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY concerned, we are responsible for the effects, inasmuch as we are responsible for their cause. Terms for Cause. The doctrine of causation then was, in the first place, associated with the doctrine of moral responsibility, but the doctrine was also connected with the two Buddhist marks of Impermanence and Anatman. Nothing is permanent or self- existent. All things in the universe are the ephemeral products of various causes and conditions.1 But while all branches of Buddhism are in agreement as to the validity of the causal law, on probably no point is there as much divergence as regards the interpretation of details. In the Nikayas we find only such phrases as " Because of the existence of this, that exists ; this arising that also arises." Nor is there any specific word which covers all forms of the causal law. We find only such words as ko Jietu, ko paccaya, " for this hetu (or cause), for this paccaya (or conditioning relationship)." These two words were destined to have a curious history.2 In Sthaviravadin Buddhism hetu came to have a very narrow significance, namely, to indicate the conditionment of certain states of consciousness by the three poisons, greed, hate, and ignorance. Hence those states of consciousness which are affected by these are called sahetuka, or possessed of hetu or cause. Paccaya, on the other hand, came to signify any form of causal relationship, or the various ways in which one thing could stand in relation to another. In fact, the last book of the Pali Abhidharma is concerned almost exclusively with the twenty-four paccayas or possible relationships between different phenomena. In the North, on the other hand, both by the Sarvastivadins and the Yogacarins,3 the two terms were used 1 Tika Nipata, 61. P.T.S. ed., vol. i, p. 173. 2 Passages to this effect are too numerous to mention. Cf., however, especially Pratltya-samutpada Sastra (-J- ^ @ j^ pjjj). 3 List of authorities will be found in section 3 below. COSMIC DYNAMICS 165 in a very different way. Here hetu means cause proper, or direct or primary cause, while pratyaya signifies general affecting conditions. In any particular causal nexus pratyaya means not the cause proper (which is hetu), but the additional circumstances under which a specified cause acted. Hetu then is primary cause, pratyaya is secondary cause, and the two together bring about phala or effect. Thus, for example, a seed is planted in the ground ; through the influence of the earth, sun, rain, etc., it grows and becomes a tree. The seed is hetu ; earth, sun, and rain, are pratyaya ; and the tree is the phala. Thus in contradistinction to the twenty-four paccayas of the South, we find in the North a list of six hetus, four pratyayas, and five phalas. With all branches of Buddhism the doctrine of causation is closely associated with the theory of Karma. Literally, karma means action or deed, and that is still its most important significance. Later, it came to have the added meaning of result of action — the reward of the good and the punishment of the bad. It is in this sense we frequently meet the expression " he has good (or bad) karma awaiting him ". Finally, it came to mean the whole law of causation when it has reference merely to moral retribution. In the early days, and in Sthaviravadin Buddhism, general causality and karma were very sharply distinguished. Karma was one of the many kinds of causes that may bring about a certain result. Thus, Nagasena explains to Milinda (M.P. I, 191, E. D.Ktr.) that though suffering may be caused by karma, yet it may also be due to other causes. Even the Buddha, free from all evil, suffered pain and illness, was injured by a stone, etc., not because of past misdeeds, but because of various external causes. " Suppose, 0 king, a clod of earth were to be thrown up in the air, and to fall again on the ground. Would it be in consequence of any act that it had previously done that it would fall ? " " No, sir. There is no reason in the broad earth by which 166 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY it could experience the result of either good or evil. It would be by reason of present cause, independent of karma, that the clod would fall again." " Well, 0 king, the Buddha should be regarded as the broad earth. As the clod would fall upon it irrespective of any act done by it. so also was it irrespective of any act done by him that the splinter of rock fell upon his foot." In like manner (cf. Phil. 149), though karma may cause the death of a man, the death may be due to one of several reasons. Milinda cites external causes and karma, while the Compendium of Philosophy gives (1) expiration of the span of life ; (2) expiration of karma ; (3) expiration of both ; (4) destructive karma. It should be noted, however, there was a constant tendency to increase the scope of karma. Thus, in the Katha Vatthu, one of the seven Abhidharma works of the Sthaviravadins, it is distinctly denied that matter can be due to karmaic causality, while in the Abhidhammattha Sangaha, the four things which are said to be the origins of material phenomena are : (1) karma ; (2) mind ; (3) physical change ; and (4) food (p. 161). In the Sarvastivadin works it is repeatedly said that the cause of the recreation of the universe is the aggregate effect of the karma of sentient beings in the past, while in the later Mahayana schools, where the basis of the whole universe is said to be mind, the appearance of the whole universe is due to karma and its correlates. Universality of Causal Law. Buddhists believe that their doctrine of cause and condition is universal as regards : (1) place ; (2) time ; and (3) object. (1) Causal law applies uniformly to all portions of the universe, both in the innumerable material worlds and also in the various heavens and hells. (2) Causal law applies to the three periods of time, past, present, and future. To a Buddhist this means, moreover, that the circle of causality is endless, that there was never COSMIC DYNAMICS 167 a beginning, and that there will never be an end. Hence they reject the belief in a first or ultimate cause. Vasubandhu has a long and very interesting passage in the Abhidharma Kosa denning the Buddhist position on this point (A.K. 7-6a). (3) It applies to all objects. The only exceptions are the Asamskrta dharmas, which are eternal and uncaused. All of the Samskrta dharmas, however, whether Rupa, Citta, Caitasika, or Citta- viprayukta, have only a dependent or conditioned existence, and are without any substantial existence of their own.