Causality
The Endless Further Nov 09
2014
Many of you are familiar with the
Tao Te
Ching, the ancient
Chinese Taoist (Dao) text attributed to Lao Tzu that I have
quoted from often. And you may also know the
Chuang Tzu, a work
from the 3rd century BCE named after its purported author, from the
stories I have adapted. Some of the stories in that work can also
found another text, the Lieh
Tzu (Liezi),
considered to be the third of the great Chinese philosophical
works.
Lieh
Tzu or “Master Lie,”
like the Chuang
Tzu, is a collection of
anecdotes and philosophical reflections from a sage who may or may
not have actually lived, in this case sometime during the fourth
century BCE.
Here is a brief story from
the “Causality” chapter. The Kuan-yin here is not the same Kuan-yin
who is the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Compassion. And by the way, in
ancient China Tzu (Zi) was a honorific title, given to a man after
his death, indicating that he was a great philosopher or sage. And
it is not the same character as in Shih Tzu, the toy
dog.
Lieh Tzu decided to learn the
way of archery, and when he was able to hit the target, he asked
Kuan Yin Tzu to appraise his shooting.
“Do you know why your arrow
hit the target?” said Kuan Yin Tzu.
“No, I do not,” Lieh Tzu
replied.
“’Then you are not yet very
good, are you?”
Lieh Tzu left and continued to
hone his skill with the bow and arrow. After three years, he
returned to Kuan Yin Tzu and demonstrated his
progress.
Kuan Yin Tzu again asked, “Do
you know why your arrow hit the target?”
“’Yes, I do’ said Lieh
Tzu.
“So then, all is well. Hold
onto that knowledge, and do not let it slip.”
“The balance between mind and
body is found within oneself. Once you understand the causal
process which makes you hit the target, you will be able to
determine how destiny unfolds, and when you release your arrow, you
will rarely miss.”
This principle applies not
only to archery, but also to the affairs of government and to
personal conduct. Therefore, the Sage examines not just the bare
facts of continuation and decay, but also the causes that produce
them.
We don’t try to understand
causality so that we can find a way to manipulate the causal
process, for example, learn how to make a particular cause in order
to produce a specific effect. It’s something more intuitive,
something that is more the fruit of meditation as opposed to
knowledge gained from reading and listening. It’s about recognizing
that nearly all the suffering we experience has as its inner cause
a wrong attitude toward the world.
We can always correct that
attitude. Because there is causality, there is change, and because
there is change there is also continuation and decay, birth and
death.
Shunryu Suzuki said, “The
teaching of the cause of suffering and the teaching that everything
changes are thus two sides of one coin.” Understanding this,
understanding causality, then, is a crucial cause for freeing
ourselves from attachments and finding harmony with the universal
order.