Editing Causality (section)

=== Buddhist philosophy ===
{{See also|Pratītyasamutpāda}}

[[Karma]] is the causality principle focusing on 1) causes, 2) actions, 3) effects, where it is the mind's phenomena that guide the actions that the actor performs. Buddhism trains the actor's actions for continued and uncontrived virtuous outcomes aimed at reducing suffering. This follows the [[Subject–verb–object]] structure.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

The general or universal definition of pratityasamutpada (or "dependent origination" or "dependent arising" or "interdependent co-arising") is that everything arises in dependence upon multiple causes and conditions; nothing exists as a singular, independent entity. A traditional example in Buddhist texts is of three sticks standing upright and leaning against each other and supporting each other. If one stick is taken away, the other two will fall to the ground.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Macy |first1=Joanna |title=Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems |date=1991 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany |isbn=0-7914-0636-9 |page=56 |chapter=Dependent Co-Arising as Mutual Causality |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXMqPJ-_eY0C&pg=PA56}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tanaka |first1=Kenneth K. |title=Simultaneous Relation (''Sahabhū-hetu''): A Study in Buddhist Theory of Causation |journal=The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies |date=1985 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=94, 101 |url=https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8652}}</ref>

Causality in the [[Chittamatrin]] Buddhist school approach, [[Asanga]]'s ({{circa|400 CE}}) mind-only Buddhist school, asserts that objects cause consciousness in the mind's image. Because causes precede effects, which must be different entities, then subject and object are different. For this school, there are no objects which are entities external to a perceiving consciousness. The Chittamatrin and the [[Yogachara]] [[Svatantrika]] schools accept that there are no objects external to the observer's causality. This largely follows the [[Nikayas]] approach.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hopkins|first1=Jeffrey|title=Meditation on Emptiness|url=https://archive.org/details/meditationonempt01hopk|url-access=limited|date=15 June 1996|publisher=Wisdom Publications|isbn=978-0861711109|page=[https://archive.org/details/meditationonempt01hopk/page/n369 367]|edition=Rep Sub}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Lusthaus|first1=Dan|title=What is and isn't Yogācāra|url=http://www.acmuller.net/yogacara/articles/intro.html|website=Yogacara Buddhism Research Associations|publisher= Resources for East Asian Language and Thought, A. Charles Muller Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo [Site Established July 1995]|access-date=30 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Suk-Fun|first1=Ng|title=Time and causality in Yogācāra Buddhism|journal=The HKU Scholars Hub|date=2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Makeham|first1=John|title=Transforming Consciousness: Yogacara Thought in Modern China|date=1 April 2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199358137|page=253|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7UesAgAAQBAJ&q=yogacara%20causality&pg=PA253}}</ref>

The [[Vaibhashika]] ({{circa|500 CE}}) is an [[early Buddhist school]] which favors direct object contact and accepts simultaneous cause and effects. This is based in the consciousness example which says, intentions and feelings are mutually accompanying mental factors that support each other like poles in tripod. In contrast, simultaneous cause and effect rejectors say that if the effect already exists, then it cannot effect the same way again. How past, present and future are accepted is a basis for various Buddhist school's causality viewpoints.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hopkins|first1=Jeffrey|title=Meditation on Emptiness|url=https://archive.org/details/meditationonempt01hopk|url-access=limited|date=15 June 1996|publisher=Wisdom Publications|isbn=978-0861711109|page=[https://archive.org/details/meditationonempt01hopk/page/n341 339]|edition=Rep Sub}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Klien|first1=Anne Carolyn|title=Knowledge And Liberation: Tibetan Buddhist Epistemology In Support Of Transformative Religious Experience|date=1 January 1987|publisher=Snow Lion|isbn=978-1559391146|page=101|edition=2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o2SutnTaXXAC&q=vaibh%C4%81%E1%B9%A3ika%20simultaneous%20causality&pg=PA101|access-date=30 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bartley|first1=Christopher|title=An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Hindu and Buddhist Ideas from Original Sources|date=30 July 2015|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|edition=Kindle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rn-8BwAAQBAJ&q=vaibh%C4%81%E1%B9%A3ika%20simultaneous%20causality&pg=PT45|access-date=30 January 2016|isbn=9781472528513}}</ref>

All the classic Buddhist schools teach [[karma]]. "The law of karma is a special instance of the law of cause and effect, according to which all our actions of body, speech, and mind are causes and all our experiences are their effects."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Joyful Path of Good Fortune : The Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path to Enlightenment|last=Kelsang Gyatso|first=Geshe|date=1995|publisher=Tharpa|isbn=978-0948006463|edition=2nd ed rev|location=London|oclc=34411408}}</ref>