The idea of cause, effect, and reincarnation

    Where does one go after death? Does a human have a soul? Is there heaven and hell? Is there an afterlife? This has always been a problem that humans cannot explain. Also, the destiny of a person's life: what kind of family he was born in, what kind of environment he was affected by, what kind of career he accomplished, why he was rich, why he was poor…...In the unseen world, there seems to be some kind of power, which are controlling our destiny in this life. According to Buddhist point of view, these phenomena can be explained by the idea of cause, effect, and  reincarnation. Cause and effect, in short, is “one harvests what one plants” (to plant melons will make you get melons;to plant beans will make you get beans). Your thoughts and actions in the past become the forces that affect your destiny now; all your current thoughts and actions will become the forces that affect your destiny in the future. This is called “karma” (retribution of cause and effect). If you do a good deed now, it will become a good effect when the karma of the deed is mature in the future; on the contrary, if you do an evil deed now, when the karma of the deed is mature in the future; It will become a bad influence. At the same time, if there is a good force affecting your current destiny, it is because you have planted good causes in the past, and now the karma (retribution) has matured and become good effect; if you are now affected by bad forces, That's because you have planted evil causes in the past, and now the results have matured and become evil effects. In other words, good is rewarded for good, and evil is rewarded for evil. For example, why can a person be rich and wealthy effortlessly? It may be because he did not greed for money in the past, he often helped the poor and gave money to those in need, so he now gets the result of not having to worry about lack of money; why a person is sick and has a short life span? That may be because he used to kill the lives of creatures and didn’t cherish the lives of creatures, so now he can’t enjoy his natural lifespan. According to this karma (retribution), if we hope to become rich in the future, we must not be greedy now and give more money to those in need; if we hope to live health and longevity in the future, we must take care of other lives now and not kill living animals, and when the karmas mature in the future, we can get healthy and longevity .

    Some people may suspect that there are some heinous bad guys in the world who are enjoying glory and wealth like a good guy. In this situation, Buddhism puts forward the view of reincarnation: this bad guy, the cause of the evil  things he did in this life is not yet mature. In the future, maybe in this life, maybe in the next life after his death, maybe even longer, when the cause is mature, he will certainly get the reward for doing bad things. As for why he enjoys the glory and wealth now, it is because he had done good deeds in the past life, and the effects of these good deeds have matured in this life, so there is good power to influence him. The so-called reincarnation means that we will have an afterlife after death, and there will be more than one afterlife, which will be mentioned later, and the cause we plant, whether it is good or evil, will follow us after death and be brought to the next life. And even in the next life, it will not end until the karma matures and the effect is received. Karma is very complicated.  Sometimes it is involved with other people. It is not all caused by one person. For example, a certain person sees that someone is about to kill a chicken and prevents it, and the effect maybe will mature in the future. At that time, the chicken may come to repay the gratitude in its future life, and when the certain person is about to be killed by others in the future, the chicken who has become a human will come out to prevent this from happening. In a more complicated situation, if many people plant the cause of evil together, the retribution will mature in the future according to the severity of the evil cause that each person has planted. For example, a butcher kills a pig raised by a farmer in the market. It is sold to ten people who buy pork. When the effect is mature in the future, the butcher will have to pay the retribution of killing the pig, the farmers will pay the retribution of raising the pig and selling the pig to the ten people, and the ten people who eat pork will share the effect of eating the pork. When the good intentions or actions are very strong, the good effects will mature quickly and intensely; when the evil ideas or evil actions are very strong, the evil effects will also mature quickly and intensely.

    The behaviors in the life of a person some are good and some are evil, and the karmas some are strong and some are weak. After a person dies, he will form another life again according to the good karmas and evil karmas he has created in his current life plus in his past lives; the new life will form by the causes that mature the first. If the bad karma matures first, and it is a very heavy bad karma, the person will be reborn in the realm of hell. When he is in hell, he will be suffering almost all the time without happiness. The second is being reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts, who will be always in a hungry state, and almost unable to find anything to eat. And, there is the animal realm, which is now called “Animalia”; they are classified into domestic animals, birds, fishes, insects…... according to their complicated past-life causes. All these three kinds of beings suffer because of more evil karmas than good karmas, which is called the three evil Realms. If there are more good karmas than bad karmas,  a person will be reborn in the three happier lives — human race, asura, and heavenly being according to their causes. But the important point is that no matter which life forms a person reborn in, maybe having a long life or a short life, he will certainly die at last. After death, he will be reborn in one kind of these six types of life according to the good karmas and evil karmas that he has not repaid. and then die again, and rebirth again......Like a wheel rotates endlessly; so it is called the Six Realms of Samsara. When we become a Buddha, we will get relieves — will not be reborn, will not die. (to be continued)