Dalai Lama Quote of the Week - Cause and Effect

THE BUDDHISM OF TIBET
by the Dalai Lama,
translated and edited by
Jeffrey Hopkins
more...

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week

...Nagarjuna says in his Fundamental Text Called 'Wisdom':

There is never production
Anywhere of any phenomenon
From itself, from others,
From both, or without cause.

Though it is widely known [and conventionally correct] that causes do produce effects, let us analyse these effects. If the produced effect inherently existed, how could it be correct for what already exists to be produced newly? For, causes are not needed to create it anew. In general, causes conventionally do newly create that which has not been produced or which is non-existent at the time of its causes. However, if the non-produced were inherently true as non-produced, it would be no different from being utterly non-existent; therefore, how could it be fit for production by causes? As Nagarjuna says in his Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness:

Because it exists, the existent is not produced;
Because it does not exist, the non-existent is not produced.

In short, once the existence of something is necessarily dependent on causes and conditions and on others, then it is contradictory for it to exist independently. For, independence and dependence on others are contradictory.

--from The Buddhism of Tibet by the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications

Tags: Buddhism, karma, Nagarjuna, Dalai Lama, Snow Lion Publications, Dharma quote, The Buddhism of Tibet, cause and effect