Be active and go easy-积极而随缘

Robot Monk Xian'er

Be active and go easy

To work hard on the cause and go easy with the effect. The former is meant to change what can be changed while the latter is to let go what can’t be changed. If we don’t work hard on the cause,we are being inactive; if we hold too tight to the effect, we suffer. To be active but not to hold too tight is taking the middle way, wise and easy.

The Buddhist doctrine of cause and effect is far from fatalism. Fatalism and the negation of cause and effect are two extremes. The former overemphasizes past karmas while the latter totally neglects them. Both are wrong views. The Buddhist law of cause and effect is the middle way. It believes that the happenings of our life “is not bound by this life but is related to this life”. What we are experiencing now is not the effect of only this life but is not unrelated to this life. We can change our destiny by seizing the present moment.

Fatalism overemphasizes the effect of past karmas on this life while neglecting the effect of our effort in this life. To truly believe in the law of cause and effect is to accept the destiny and then to work actively to change it for the better.

To view our present actions with fatalism is wrong. The law of cause and effect is a dynamic continuum. It is not absolute or rigid. Each thought that flashes in our mind and every of our action are adding new causes which in turn bring up different effects. The key to the practice of the law of cause and effect lies in what we are doing right now. Are we nurturing a virtuous thought? Are we conducting good deeds? Are we speaking kind words?

积极而随缘

因上努力，果上随缘。因上努力，就是改变自己能改变的；果上随缘，就是放下自己不能改变的。因上不努力，就是一味消极；果上不随缘，只会平添痛苦。积极而随缘，才是中道的心态，智慧的心态，轻松的心态。

佛法的因果观绝不等于宿命论。宿命论与否定因果，是两个极端，前者过于强调宿业，后者完全忽视宿业，都是偏见。佛法的因果观是中道，它认为人生遭遇“不即此生，不离此生”，眼前的境遇不仅仅是此生的业，但也不离此生的业，我们可以通过把握当下而改变命运。

宿命论过分强调宿业在今生的感果，而忽视了今生的努力对命运的作用；深信业果是在接受命运的基础上，进一步去积极种因来改善命运。

不应以宿命论的观点来对待当下的行为，那是错误的。业果是连续、变化的，不是绝对、僵化的，我们所起的每一个心念、所做的每一个行动都在不断增加新的因缘，从而影响果相的呈现。如理学习业果，最重要的关键是在每一个当下自己都要起好心、做好事、说善语。