因果规律即缘起

These four types of karma are very important. To know what causality is, one must know how to differentiate the four and be thoroughly knowledgeable about them all. This understanding is essential to our practice as well.

这四种业很重要，要想认识因果，必须要分清这四种业，并对它有一个完整的认知和了解。这对我们的修行也至关重要。

How to validate the existence of causality? The Buddha once said that it is not so easy for an ordinary person to prove the existence of cause and effect, but not impossible. Buddhism holds the doctrine of dependent arising of all phenomena or compounded phenomena. What is dependent arising? It means that cause begets effect. All phenomena are the manifestations of dependent arising, the results of conditioned genesis. Suppose a person killed an animal. It caused great harm to that animal. How can there be no consequence for the person who had committed such grave karma? Like casually throwing a seed into the moist and warm soil, it will germinate on its own with no tending required. By the same token, in the phenomenal world, every cause must bear its own fruit with no exception.

因果是这样的，如何证明它的存在呢？佛曾讲过，一个普通的人想要证明因果的存在是比较不容易的，但也不是完全没有办法。佛教讲缘起现象，因缘和合。缘起是什么呢？缘起就是有了因就肯定有果，内外所有的事物，都是缘起的现象，因缘的结果。比如说一个人杀生，这对于被杀的众生是一个很大的伤害，此人造了这么严重的业，哪能没有果呢？如同在潮湿和温暖的土壤里随便丢一粒种子，即使不管它也会发芽。同样的，在世间的一切有为法中，没有任何因是不结果的。

Sometimes patients, after being diagnosed and given only one to three months to live, may continue living a healthy life three months later with the help of performing virtuous deeds such as liberating animals or undertaking a long life practice. When the patients go for check-up again, doctors find the symptoms all gone. This has happened in Tibet, China and other parts of the world. It is not hearsay or a fairytale but a fact, which somewhat validates the existence of causality.

我们在日常生活中常看到，有些病人被医生或有神通的人判定只能活一个月到两三个月，结果病人通过行善，如放生或修长寿法，在两三个月后，依然活着并且活得很好，当医生再检查时，发现病灶消失了，这种情况无论在藏地或汉地，甚至全世界都有发生，这既不是传说也不是神话，而是一个个活生生的事实，由此可以证明：因果是存在的。

The Buddha also proved the existence of causality in the sutras through the following example. It seems that some people can never become wealthy, no matter how hard they try. There is nothing wrong with the way they work or operate, but they remain poor their whole lives. Others enjoy fabulous wealth throughout their lives without having to work hard for it. The same also happens with people’s health and life span. We may think that these seemingly unreasonable outcomes are due to the variable external environment, but they are not. For example, once a Tibetan king, wanting to help the poor, divided all the wealth of the nobles evenly among the poor three times. However, after some time, everything went back to where it was—the poor remained poor, the nobles stayed noble and well-off. The king could do nothing more. Actually, not all those nobles were smart and capable, the poor foolish and lazy. Most likely, in this case, it could be the workings of cause and effect. Of course, the example is not saying that we are all destined to be rich or poor, so the rich would never need to work for anything and the poor would labor to no avail. Nevertheless, the law and the workings of cause and effect are present in this example.

佛在某些经典中，也通过下面的例子来证实过因果的存在：有些人一生无论怎样努力也发不了财，他的经营操作并没有问题，但终身受穷；有些人没怎么努力，却一生荣华富贵；还有诸如健康不健康，长寿不长寿都是这样。人们会认为这也许与环境有关，其实不是。例如，西藏历史上有个国王为了让穷人富起来，曾三次把西藏所有贵族的财产平分给老百姓，但是过了一段时间，情况又恢复原样，穷人还是穷人，贵族依然是贵族，国王也就没办法了。那些富裕之人并不全是聪明和能干的，那些不富有的人也并非愚蠢和懒惰，这多半也跟因果有关。当然，不是说这里所指的富和穷全都是命中注定的，富了就不用去干活，穷了也不必再努力，但从这些事件中，也基本上看得出因果的关系与规律。