The material and immaterial world

In our physical world, things come into being by the combined force of causes and conditions. A sprout is able to arise because of a seed, water, sunshine, and rich garden soil. Without these elements, the sprout would not have the conditions it needs to germinate and poke through the earth. In the same way, things cease to exist when they meet with the circumstances and conditions for their ending. If matter could evolve free of causation, then either everything would exist eternally in the same state, as things would have no need for causes and conditions, or nothing would come into being at all, there being no way for anything to occur. Either a sprout would exist without the need for a seed or the sprout could not come into existence at all. Thus, we can appreciate that causation is a universal principle.

In Buddhism we talk of two types of causes. First there are the substantial ones. In the metaphor above, this would consist of the seed, which, with the cooperation of certain conditions, generates an effect that is in its own natural continuum, i.e., the sprout. The conditions that enable the seed to generate its sprout - water, sunlight, soil, and fertilizer - would be considered that sprout's cooperative causes or conditions. That things arise in dependence upon causes and conditions, whether substantial or cooperative, is not because of the force of people's actions of because of the extraordinary qualities of a Buddha. It is simply the way things are.