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This cause was frequently likened to a seed, and just as some seeds result in a small quantity of fruit, and others in a great deal, so might certain Vipaka hetus have a great many results and others but few. In this way a single action in one life may have effects in several lives, but aggregate actions in several lives could not form a single group resulting in a single effect in one life. A single thought-moment may give rise to several subsequent thought-moments, but several thought-moments could not give rise to a single thought-moment. On the other hand, a number of different dharmas co-existing at any one specified time within the limits of one single human or other personality might form a group acting as a single Vipaka hetu resulting in some one (or more) effect. These causal dharmas might or might not be members of a single skandha. (Numerical details of possible combinations of dharmas, skandhas, etc., as causes and effects, will be found A.K. 6-126 ff.) From the foregoing remarks it will be seen that the hetus readily fall into a two-fold classification, one made according COSMIC DYNAMICS 199 to the dharmas which serve as causes, and the other according to the temporal relationships between the causes and their effects. This may be illustrated in the following way : — 1. Types of caus ality where all dharmas may act as causes. Types of caus ality where only mental dharmas can act as causes. 1. Types of causality where cause and effect are simul taneous. Types of causality where effects arise only after causes dis appear. Owing to the limited space at our disposal, it is impossible to deal at length with the Northern Buddhists' theory of causality and its relation to other causal theories, but it is important to notice how the non-substantialist position of Buddhism affected its theory of causality, contrasting it sharply with the causal theories of the substantialists. These latter philosophers, whether Occidental, like Aristotle, or Oriental, as in the case of the Vaisesika, Jain, or Samkhya systems, believed in a permanent substance behind attributes and modes, and as no phenomenon could exist without this substance behind it, this substance could be said to be the constant co-existing cause. In contrast to this, the Buddhists postulated but two types of causality, in which cause and effect were simultaneous, and in neither case were any of the causes permanent ; in fact, both cause and effect were of but momentary duration. In the other three cases of direct causality the effect could only come into being after the cause itself had disappeared. (Cf. on this point the A.K. argument with the Samkhyas, A.K. 11-26.) 200 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY III. The Five Phalas l As the result of the action and interaction of the four pratyayas and the six hetus, the universe comes into being. From the causal point of view every existing object can be said to be one of five kinds of effects. Every single object can come under more than one of these categories, since every phenomenon is the result of more than one cause. The five types of effects are : — 1. Adhipati phala, or aggregate effect. 2. Purusakara phala, or simultaneous effect. 3. Nisyanda phala, or uniformly continuous effect. 4. Vipaka phala, or heterogeneous effect. 5. Visamyoga phala, or emancipated effect. 1. Adhipati phala is a phenomenon regarded as the single effect of the general causal influence exerted by every dharma in the universe. Consequently, it is the effect of Karana hetu, and is thereby, at the same time, the result of Alambana, Samanantara, and Adhipati pratyayas (in those circum stances where such pratyayas apply), since these are but subdivisions of Karana hetu. Since such a resultant dharma is the effect of the activity of a large number of different causal dharmas, it is frequently called the aggregate effect. Since all things are influenced by all other things, it follows that all phenomena may be regarded as Adhipati phala, but the term is specifically applied to those phenomena whose origination cannot be accounted for by any other of the five hetu. This is a very important category, however, for the external universe is regarded as the Adhipati phala of the aggregate actions of the sentient beings of former times. (A.K. 6-196.) 2. PurusaJcdra phala literally means the effect of human actions. In its first sense it is taken metaphorically as meaning effects which are simultaneous with their causes, as when a man hammers out a horseshoe the shape assumed by the horseshoe is simultaneous with the energy exerted by the 1 For Sarv. A.K. 6-14 seq. ; N.A. 17-la. For Yog. V.M.S., f. 8, p. 346. COSMIC DYNAMICS 201 man. In this sense Purusakara phala is considered the effect of the causal influences of Sahabhu hetu and Samprayukta hetu, \vhere, however, not only is the cause and effect simultaneous, but the various units are so related that each may be said to be both the cause and effect of another. In addition to this specialized application of Purusakara phala, however, it is also used in the more literal sense of the effect brought about by sentient agency, or when one thing arises as the direct result of the action of another, either immediately or in quick succession, or even after the lapse of some time, as when the present harvest is regarded as the Purusakara phala of the sowing of the seed by the farmer in the previous year. In this way, when the result of a certain kind of mental activity leads to the arising of a higher stage of consciousness, it may be regarded as the Purusakara phala of the action of the preceding mental activity. Used in this sense, Purusakara phala is the result not only of Sahabhu and Samprayukta hetu, but also of the activity of Sabhaga, Sarvatraga, and Vipaka hetus, in addition, of course, to Karana hetu. Purusakara hetu is contrasted with Adhipati hetu by the directness or indirectness of the relationship between the causing agents and the result. The general condition of the material world is Adhipati phala, but any constructed material object produced by the action of a man A is a Purusakara phala as regards A, but an Adhipati phala as regards every other person (A.K. 6-21). 3. Nisyanda phala, or successive effect, is when one moment in an organism is regarded as the effect of the preceding moments ; at least, when the subsequent moments are regarded as being of the same nature as their antecedents. Thus, e.g., owing to the activity of Vipaka hetu or some other cause, A may be followed by some group of a quite different nature. In this case the new group would not be called a Nisyanda phala, but in almost all new groups there are certain dharmas which are effected as the result of the reproductive powers 202 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY of earlier homogeneous dharmas, and will thus come under our present category. This type of effect includes the results of the activity of both Sabhaga and Sarvatraga hetus. We have already seen the differences between these two causes, the latter being confined to those defiling influences which exert a productive influence over all non-meritorious Caitasikas of its own sphere, while the former merely represent the natural tendency of the Caitasikas of each sphere, nature, and section to reproduce itself. Hence certain groups of mentals may be the result of one or the other, some may be the results of both, and some may be the result of neither. (See the list A.K. 6-206.) 4. Vipaka phala, or heterogeneous effect, is obviously the result of the activity of Vipaka hetu. Where the effect is neither simultaneous with, nor immediately consequent upon, nor of the same nature as the cause, and yet is the result of personal activity, it is called Vipaka phala. Thus, at the moment of re-birth in one of the heavens or hells, the new Nama Kupa is called Vipaka phala. Consequently, the type of causality represented by Vipaka hetu and Vipaka phala is very broad. Nevertheless, it is limited in the following way. Vipaka hetu must be either definitely meritorious or definitely demeritorious, as we have already seen. Vipaka phala, on the other hand, can only belong to the category of unobstructing neutral. Being purely a result, it can belong to neither definite moral category.1 Again, Vipaka phala only applies to sentient beings. The whole state of the external world is said to be the result of karma. Why is it not included in the category of Vipaka phala ?