Examining the Causes and Effects That Exist in Our Lives in the Present

Ikeda Sensei gave the following speech at an SGI general meeting, Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 14, 1992. It can be found in The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 2, revised edition, chapter 17, installment 2, pp. 214–15.

Ikeda Sensei says that when we elevate our present state of life, past negative causes are transformed into positive causes. He says that we should not be held back by the past, that we can, in fact, transform even the past. Our efforts in human revolution always begin with challenging ourselves from this moment on.

Nichiren Daishonin writes, “There can be no discontinuity between the three existences of past, present, and future” (“The True Aspect of All Phenomena,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 386). The past, present and future are not separate from one another but continuous and connected through the law of cause and effect.

In “The Opening of the Eyes,” Nichiren Daishonin cites a sutra passage that states: “If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present. And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present” (WND-1, 279).

Buddhism teaches that our life now, at this present moment, contains all causes from the past and all the results or effects that will manifest in the future. This simultaneity of cause and effect means that eternity is encapsulated in the present moment. The teaching of the Mystic Law, the reality of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, clearly elucidates this wondrous Law of life and the universe.