| Selection - The Principle of Effect and Cause |
From future to present to past
(excerpt from chapter 1) |
The next difference I would like to point out is the way in which these two approaches view time. In the law of cause and effect, everything flows from past to present to future, while in the principle of effect and cause, it flows in the other direction—from future to present to past.
The law of cause and effect tells us that what happens in the present is determined by a cause generated in the past. That is, the overall flow is from past to present. For example, we might view our present illness as the result of a series of events linking back to a single cause in the past, thinking: Because of everything that happened in the past, it was determined that I would contract this illness. This present illness then becomes a new cause, and as the flow continues from present to future, it generates a future outcome. This is how time is viewed in the law of cause and effect.
With this way of thinking, we have no present or future means to do anything about this illness. All we can do is to silently accept our fate. This is because both our present and future are seen as the unavoidable consequences of our past. If we had made a different choice in the past, we might have been able to avoid the illness, but since we cannot go back and change what happened, we think that we cannot change the present, either. And if the present cannot be changed, neither can the future. This is to say that, under the law of cause and effect, we live as prisoners of the past, without any free will at all.
However, with the principle of effect and cause, our flow moves from future to present, and the starting point is when we ourselves create our own future ‘result.’ Let’s take the example of a river—it flows from upstream to downstream. Suppose you are standing in the river, and you pick up a leaf that has fallen near you and write your present hope or dream on that leaf. Then, you throw the leaf into the water. If you throw the leaf downstream, your hope or dream will never make its way back to you. The moment it leaves your hand, it quickly flows down the river—in other words, into the past. When you throw the leaf, you must be sure to throw it upstream, by imagining your vision and hope for the future. When you send your wish upstream—into the future—it will gradually flow down from there. And now, that leaf of hope that left your hand days, months, or years ago is finally passing in front of you. If you catch hold of it, the thing that you wished for will become a reality. |
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