Buddhism has nothing to do with fatalism, for it does not admit the existence of anything like destiny or the decree of fate. According to Buddhism all living beings have assumed the present life as the result of self-creation, and are, even at present, in the midst of creating themselves. In other words, every being is a stage of dynamic becoming. Although the grade and form of life vary in each birth, one should not think of the strict distinction of time as past or future. In truth there is present only. That is to say, we have a long continuity of existence, birth and death being simply the rise and fall of the waves in the ocean of life. Birth and death are not the predestined fate of a living being but a ‘corollary of action (karma),’ as it has been called by some. One who acts must sooner or later reap the effect; while experiencing an effect, one is sowing seeds anew, thus causing the next wave of life to be high or low according to the nature of one’s preceding actions.

Although the idea of the interdependence and simultaneous rise of all things is called the Theory of Universal Causation, the nature of the rise being universal, it is rather a philosophy of the totality of all existence than a philosophy of origination.

According to this theory, four states of the universe are to be distinguished: (1) the real, or the world of actual life—the factual world; (2) the ideal, or the world of law or principle; (3) the ideal realized, or the world in which the principle is applied in actual life, or the fact and the principle harmonized; (4) the real harmonized, or the world in which actuality attains harmony in itself. The first, second and third states are easily understood, for those are the ideas often discussed by thinking men. But the fourth may be somewhat difficult to understand, because in these individualistic modern times it is usually thought that one individual is inevitably opposed to another, that classes in a society are opposed among themselves, that a business concern is in competition with another.

The idea of Universal Principle, on the other hand, demonstrates that all things in the real world ought to have harmony among themselves, and it advances the following reasons : (1) Because of the simultaneous rise of all things; (2) Because of the mutual permeation of the influence of all things; (3) Because of the necessity of reciprocal identification between all beings (mutual self-negation to agree with each other) for the realization of harmony; (4) Because of the necessity of unity, or harmony, between the leaders and the followers for the attainment of a purpose; (5) Because all things have their origin in ideation—therefore a similar ideal ought to be expected of all; (6) Because all things are the result of causation and therefore are mutually dependent; (7) Because all things are indeterminate or indefinite in character but mutually complementary —therefore they are free to exist in harmony with all things; (8) Because of the fact that all beings have the nature of Buddha dormant in them; (9) Because of the fact that all beings, from the highest to the lowest, are parts of one and the same Mandala (circle) ; (10) Because of mutual reflection of all activities—as in a room surrounded by mirrors, the movement of one image causes the movement of the thousand reflections. Buddhist writers enumerate twenty reasons, but for our purpose the above ten will suffice.

The universe (all things) is the dynamic manifestation or expression of the static principle. All things are mutually dependent, mutually permeating without giving any hindrance to one another, Dharma-dhatu means ‘the elements of the principle’ and has the two aspects of (1) the state of Thusness or noumenon and (2) the world of phenomenal manifestation. In this Causation Theory it is usually used in the latter sense, but in speaking of the ideal world as realized, the former sense is to be applied.

Buddhism holds that nothing was created singly or individually. All things in the universe – matter and mind – arose simultaneously, all things in it depending upon one another, the influence of each mutually permeating and thereby making a universal symphony of harmonious totality. If one item were lacking, the universe would not be complete; without the rest, one item cannot be. When the whole cosmos arrives at a harmony of perfection, it is called the ‘Universe One and True,’ or the ‘Lotus Store.’ In this ideal universe all beings will be in perfect harmony, each finding no obstruction in the existence and activity of another.

Thusness, or suchness, is the only term which can be used to express the ultimate indefinable, the unnamable reality. It is otherwise called the Matrix of Thus-come. Thus-come is Buddha-nature hidden in ordinary human nature. ‘Thus-come’ is a designation of the Buddha employed by himself instead of ‘I’ or ‘we,’ but not without special meaning. …

Now, Thusness or the Matrix of Thus-come or Thus-gone means the true state of all things in the universe, the source of an Enlightened One, the basis of enlightenment. When static, it is Enlightenment itself (with no relation to time or space); but when dynamic, it is in human form assuming an ordinary way and feature of life. Thusness and the Matrix of Thus-come are practically one and the same—the ultimate truth. In Mahayana the ultimate truth is called Suchness or Thusness. …

Thusness in its static sense is spaceless, timeless, all equal, without beginning or end, formless, colorless, because the thing itself without its manifestation cannot be sensed or described. Thusness in its dynamic sense can assume any form; when driven by a pure cause it takes a lofty form; when driven by a tainted cause it takes a depraved form. Thusness, therefore, is of two states. The one is the Thusness itself; the other is its manifestation, its state of life and death.

There are therefore three series of causations to be considered: (a) Causation by Action-influence as depicted in the Wheel of Life;
(b) To explain the origin of action, Causation by Ideation-store; (c) To explain the origin of the ideation-store, Causation by Thusness. The ideation-store of a human being is determined by his nature as a human being and this nature is a particular dynamic form of Thusness. One should not ask where Thusness or the Matrix of Thus-come originates, because it is the noumenon, the ultimate indescribable Thusness.

The Buddhist ideation theory divides the mind into eight faculties: the eye-sense. the ear-sense, the nose-sense, the tongue-sense, the body-sense, the sense-center (the 6th, mano-vijnana), the individualizing thought-center of egotism (the 7th, manas-vijnana), and the storing-center of ideation (the 8th, alaya-vijnana)—ldeation store.

Of these eight faculties the seventh and the eighth require explanation. The seventh, the Individualizing Center of Egotism is the center where all the selfish ideas, egotistic opinions, arrogance, selflove, illusions and delusions arise. The eighth, the Storing Center of Ideation, is where the ‘seeds’ of all manifestations are deposited and later expressed in manifestations. Buddhism holds that the origin of all things and events is the effect of ideation. … Every seed lies in the Storing Center and when it sprouts out into the object world, a reflection returns as a new seed. That is, the mind reaches out into the outer world and, perceiving objects, puts new ideas into the mind-store. Again, this new seed sprouts out to reflect back a still newer seed. Thus the seeds accumulate and all are stored there together. When they are latent, we call them seeds, but when active we call them manifestations. The old seeds, the manifestations and the new seeds are mutually dependent upon each other, forming a cycle which forever repeats the same process. This is called the Chain Of Causations by Ideation.

That which makes the seed or subconscious thought sprout out into actual manifestation, that is, the motive force which makes the chain of causation move, is nothing but ideation. It is easy to see from this theory of Causation by Ideation that Delusion, Action and Suffering originate from mind-action, or ideation.

The Storing Center of Ideation is carried across rebirth to determine what the next form of life will be. This Storing Center might be regarded as similar to the soul in other forms of religion. According to the Buddhist doctrine, however, what is reborn is not the soul, but is the result of the actions performed in the preceding life. In Buddhism the existence of the soul is denied.

Of the Twelve Stages of Causation, Blindness, Desire and Cleaving are called Delusions, while Will to Live and Formation of Being are called Effect-causing Actions. The rest of the cycle—the five effects in the Present and the two in the Future—are called Suffering or the effects which result in Suffering.

Delusion is the illness of the mind while Effect-causing Action is its physical manifestation, and the result is Suffering. For instance, one may be angry in mind and act accordingly, striking or killing, and later suffer retribution. From the suffering of retribution one will get into more delusions and act and suffer, thus repeating the same wandering again and again. Such is the Chain of Causation by Action-influence.

There are two ways of viewing the process of becoming. The order of cause and effect is usually regarded as arising in sequence in relation to time. However, when all the factors of the Twelve Divisioned Cycle of Causation are considered as belonging to one being, we see that it possesses all at the same time. (One does not abandon the Six Organs of Senses to gain Contact.) Therefore we may regard all factors as mutually interdependent as if in a ring, developing simultaneously, none being purely a cause nor purely an effect.

Sometimes action is divided into two kinds, ‘drawing action’ and ‘fulfilling action.’ Drawing action causes a being to be born as a man, as a deva, or as a beast; no other force can draw a living being into a particular form of life. After the kind of life has been determined, the fulfilling action completes the formal quality of the living being so that it will be a thorough specimen of the kind.

There are two kinds of action-influence: individual action-influence and common action-influence. Individual action-influence creates the individual being. Common action-influence creates the universe itself. This is the meaning of the words ‘individual effect’ and ‘common effect’ as used in Buddhism.

Often samsara (‘constant flow’) is translated as ‘transmigration of soul,’ but that is a very misleading translation, for the idea is not that a soul lives after the death of the body and moves into another body. Samsara means the creation of a new life by the influence of the actions of the former living being. In the first place, Buddhism denies the existence of the soul. Life is like the waves on water; the vibration of one particle causes the vibration of the next particle and thus the waves are transmitted a long distance. One wave is one life, and the series of lives is samsara. In Buddhism the series of lives do not go on infinitely as in a straight line. They turn in a circle and repeat the circle over and over again. The Wheel of Life is a small circle of one life, while the great circle (the series of the Wheel of Life) is samsara.

Since this self-creation is regulated by the actions of the individual being, it does not depend upon the authority of another—for instance, God. Nor is there any confusion among the action-influence of different individuals. ‘Self-acted, self-rewarded,’ ‘For a good cause, a good result; for an evil cause, an evil result,’—these are the rules.

According to Buddhism, human beings and all living things are self-created or self-creating. The universe is not homocentric; it is a co-creation of all beings. Buddhism does not believe that all things came from one cause, but holds that everything is inevitably created out of more than two causes.

The creations or becomings of the antecedent causes continue in time-series—past, present and future—like a chain. This chain is divided into twelve divisions and is called the Twelve Divisioned Cycle of Causations and Becomings. Since these divisions are interdependent, they are called Dependent Production or Chain of Causation. The formula of this theory is as follows: From the existence of this, that becomes; from the happening of this, that happens. From the non-existence of this, that does not become; from the non-existence of this, that does not happen.