The buddhist teachings are really extensive and so they form a truly great ocean of teachings. However, while all these teachings comprise an orderly ideological outline, they were explained according one’s ability to accept them, and fitting to one’s patience. For example, the teaching of cause and effect is a teachinh that lets one see the self of the past, present and future. Moreover, the Prajna ideology is a teaching that gives one the wisdom to be able to live with the truth, while the Saddharmapundarika and the Avatamsaka ideologies are teachings that guide us so that we can live as bodhisattvas and buddhas ourselves.
That which is most fundamental among these diverse buddhist ideologies and teachings, is the ideology of cause and effect, and that of karma and samsara. The Buddha did not accept as buddhist disciples those who did not believe in cause and effect or samsara in past lives either. Considering this alone, one can see that the teaching of cause and effect is the basic ideology of Buddhism. ”Cause and effect” means that the law of cause and effect forms a chain of innumerable causes and effects and controls our lives. So within Buddhism it is said that if one wants to know the self of the past, one has to look at the present self, and if onw wants to know the self of the future, one has to look at the deeds that the present self is doing. That is to say, that ”cause and effect” is a teaching that signifies that ones life and destiny is determined depending the deeds that one has done. So ”cause and effect” is the teaching that one is precisely able to guess the future by looking at the past and knowing the present. So Buddhism begins with the realization of cause and effect.
If this is true, then what is the power that puts the law of cause and effect in motion? It is precisely karma. ”Karma” means all the deeds that I do with my body, speech and mind. When I do a good deed, it becomes good karma, and when I do a bad deed, it becomes bad karma. The relation between relatives, and the relation between societies, and the relation between a nation and the world, is determined depending on precisely this karma. A sutra that clearly demonstrates the teaching of cause and effect, which is so fundamental to Buddhism, is precisely the Kshitigarbha Sutra, and the faith that most believes in the law of cause and effect and stresses true deeds and practices, is precisely the Kshitigarbha Faith. Consequently, we should reflect on our selves anew, through the teachings of the Kshitigarbha Sutra and the Kshitigarbha Faith, and step onto the path of true deeds of faith.
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