| The Mechanics of Life: The Ten Factors
All life follows the construct of the Ten Factors, which are Appearance, Nature, Entity, Power, Influence, Inherent Cause, Conditioning, Latent Effect, Manifest Effect, and Consistency from Beginning to End.
The three factors of appearance, nature, and entity are the substance of all phenomena. The six factors of power, influence, inherent cause, conditioning, latent effect, and manifest effect are the functions of all phenomena.
Of the first three factors, Appearance and Nature refer to the individual, and for the purposes of this paper, the nature is assumed to be temporary existence. If the entity has the appearance of a dog, it also has the nature of a dog. The Entity is a bit more complex in that it is the repository of karma, so that a single entity can pass between death and rebirth in order that the karmic retribution follows in succeeding lifetimes. Entity is defined as "With the aggregates of self and these ten spiritual realms being combined together as matter and mind there is the entity."
The next two factors, Power and Influence, refer not only to the power and influence an entity displays in its environment over other entities, but also the power and influence the entity has over its own environment. The President of the United States has power and influence far exceeding that of most people, however, it is power and influence that is displayed within the environment. Power and influence displayed over the environment refers to the strength and purity of the mind, which then is reflected by that persons environment.
A definition of power and influence over the environment can be found in the Vimilakirti sutra: "The purity of his buddha-field (environment) reflects the purity of living beings; the purity of the living beings reflects the purity of his gnosis; the purity of his gnosis reflects the purity of his doctrine; the purity of his doctrine reflects the purity of his transcendental practice; and the purity of his transcendental practice reflects the purity of his own mind."
Nichiren is more succinct, saying "If the minds of the people are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds."
The next five factors (cause, conditioning, effect, manifest effect, and consistency from beginning to end) represent the actual mechanics of life and are extremely difficult to understand. To understand them you must first understand the principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect, in that the effect is also the next cause forming a chain. This is a principle that is revealed in Quantum Physics. You'll also need to understand the doctrine of Dependent Co-arising which conveys to us "the sense of the inter-relatedness of all phenomena and the means whereby it comes into being and passes away. It explains how, through a process of cause and effect, events within the cycle of birth and death arise and pass away. This inter-relatedness corresponds directly to all living beings and all phenomena." To be blunt, we are dependent on each other to actuate our karma both good and bad, and even such events as weather (phenomena) have an effect upon us. Indeed, Hurricane Katrina had a devastating effect upon the gulf coast and the people that lived there.
The cause is the beginning, however as mentioned earlier, the cause and effect is a chain or sequence. We all make causes, good, bad or benign during the course of our lives and mental causes like negativism or positivism also generate an effect; so that causation is not limited to physical activity alone; brain waves are measurable. As an example, everyone has been in a room where the 'vibe' is bad. This is usually caused by someone that is emitting a negativity that everyone can feel. Hence, a persons negative or positive thoughts are also manifested in that persons environment. When a person emits negativity the environment responds in kind feeding them with everything they need to sustain that negativity. This also works in reverse when it is a basis of positivity.
The conditioning or relation between a cause and an effect occurs simultaneously with the effect. If you ever said "I'll never do that again", you have experienced the conditioning that occurs within the sphere of causation. This conditioning is a normal part of our lives and amounts to who we think we are, and how we act. It is the basis of our conditioned response to our environment.
The latent effect is of course the manifestation of the cause, however, the effect cannot manifest unless the conditions are present. In other words, you cannot slip on the ice if there is no ice. The conditions must be present in order for an effect to manifest, and that leads to a time variation between the actual cause and the effect. This is the main reason why people cannot see the relationship between what they sow and what they reap.
The manifest effect is something that happens well after the original cause and effect, and may be the culmination of many causes and effects. The manifest effect is something that you can look back on and say "If this didn't happen then that wouldn't have happened."
The consistency from beginning to end is a must. There can be no inconsistency in causation. Whether or not we can see the relation is moot. This consistency also is the basis for rebirth, in that cause and effect cannot end. Death is not an end to causation! If you make the cause then you must see the retribution for that cause. This is why people are born into various conditions from hell to enlightenment. This is why some people are born with disease. DNA and Genetics are conditions, and the conditions must be present for an effect to manifest.
Causality should also be viewed as a cycle, and in fact many indigenous peoples do refer to life as the Great Cycle. People, as a course of their daily lives, are caught up in many different cycles, whether they be large or small, and this is where the inter-relatedness of life comes into play. The example of the Hatfield's and McCoy's comes to mind.
It is this inter-relatedness that is the basis for the retribution we experience as the cycle of cause and effect is played out world wide. The people of the Marshall Islands are connected to everyone else in the fact that their retribution comes about through global warming (flooding their land), which we in the western world are contributing to with our lavish lifestyles.
Next up: The Mutual Possession of the Ten Worlds |
