Not sure which sect to choose...

[LuisDantas]

@Evangelicalhumanist , please remember that this is the Buddhism DIR.

 

[buddhist]

And I must respectfully disagree with you. I know of no such Law of Cause and Effect. The guy who robs the Quickie Mart can walk outside and find a $10 bill on the sidewalk, while the Boy Scout who helps and old lady across the street can get hit and killed on the return trip.

Such laws only exist in the minds of those who pick and choose what causes and what effects to look at, and then how to arrange them so as to find the desired causality.

When I speak of the Law of Cause and Effect, I speak simply of the fact that we can expect effects from causes. Period.

The number of causes that feed into any particular effect is another story:

The thing about Kamma, is that there are innumerable causes that can join together to cause any effect. E.g. I plant (cause) a seed, I can reasonably expect a plant to sprout from it (effect). However, there are other additional causes that can combine together which modifies the resultant effect, e.g. mineral content of the soil, amount of sunlight, temperature, moisture, insects, etc.

Likewise, I cannot say that the one good deed of the boy scout will result in good results; it is likely, but there are other causes that can feed into the results he experiences. E.g. His heart's intentions, his thoughts at the moment, being distracted, greed, past kamma, etc. Same goes for the robber.

 

[crossfire]

And I must respectfully disagree with you. I know of no such Law of Cause and Effect. The guy who robs the Quickie Mart can walk outside and find a $10 bill on the sidewalk, while the Boy Scout who helps and old lady across the street can get hit and killed on the return trip.

Such laws only exist in the minds of those who pick and choose what causes and what effects to look at, and then how to arrange them so as to find the desired causality.

In all fairness, Buddha said that those who conjecture regarding the precise outworkings of karma are literally out of their minds.
Acintita Sutta: Unconjecturable