Each effect is produced from a specific potentiality in its preceding cause.

Nothing arises naturally, does it? Everything arises in dependence upon causes and conditions.  Each distinct effect has its own distinct cause, that is a specific potentiality existing within its preceding cause.  We don’t have to know what specific causes gave rise to specific things like a blue flower, but what is important is to know that everything arises in dependence upon causes and conditions, and is thus empty. 

Here again it is useful to consider what scientists say. In physics, there are two main schools: Newtonian physics and quantum physics. Newtonian physics says everything arises from very specific causes. Quantum physics says things arise independence upon being observed. At a deep level, these two forms of physics are still seem to be contradictory, yet there is an abundance of data which establishes the validity of each. The Holy Grail of physics is to find a way of uniting both Newtonian and quantum physics into one generalized theory of everything. Enormous super colliders have been built around the world to try answer these questions.

Interestingly, Newtonian physics is very similar to the laws of karma, namely everything has a distinct cause and effect. And quantum physics is very similar to the teachings on emptiness, namely things come into existence independence upon being observed by mind. We to tend to grasp at karma and emptiness as being contradictory. We think if things do not exist inherently then how can they possibly cause anything? There must be something there that pushes on something else to create an effect. If there is nothing there, then what causes any effect? This is why understanding the union of karma and emptiness is so important.  The final view that unites these two is the correct view of emptiness.  As long as these two views are seen as contradictory or incompatible, then our understanding is not correct or complete.

Shantideva unapologetically asserts a Newtonian view, namely every effect has a specific cause. It is true we observe all sorts of seemingly random things in daily life, but they seem to be random only because we are not aware of what their causes are.  It does not follow just because we do not know what the cause of something is that it does not have a cause. Our lack of understanding of their causes does not mean they do not have a cause, it simply means we do not know what those causes are. It is exactly the same with karma. There are all sorts of things that we cannot immediately understand the karmic cause of why it arose. But just because we do not understand what karma gave rise to the different appearance does not mean there was not an underlying karma that caused it. Only Buddhas are able to understand exactly the relationship and see the past karmic chains that lead to different effects. The fact that we cannot see it or understand it does not mean that there is not one there.

Likewise, scientists typically divide causes into necessary and sufficient causes. A necessary cause is something that must be for an object to arise, but the presence of a necessary cause does not guarantee about the phenomena will arise. That is why we need the sufficient causes that enable the phenomena to arise. A rainbow is a good example. Without water, a rainbow will not arise. The water is a necessary condition. But it is not sufficient. Without sunlight, the existence of rain alone will not produce a rainbow. In other words, a necessary cause is one where without that cause you cannot have the effect. A sufficient cause is one in which if you have that thing it is sufficient to create the effect. For example, decapitation is sufficient to cause death, but it is not necessary to cause death since many other things can also cause death.

In the Dharma, we divide cause causes differently.  There are two main types of cause: substantial causes and circumstantial causes. The substantial cause is the thing that transforms into the next thing. The circumstantial causes are the causes that bring about the transformation of the substantial cause from one thing into the next thing. For example, the substantial cause of an Oak tree is an acorn. The water, sunlight, and rich soil are the circumstantial causes which enable the transformation of the acorn into an Oak tree.  The circumstantial causes are the various things we would find in science for explaining why things are the way they are. 

While the conventional substantial cause of the Oak tree is the acorn, from a Buddhist perspective objects only come into existence if they are known by mind. Thus, the question is what gives rise to the mind that knows the Oak tree. From the side of the object, there is the substantial cause of the acorn being transformed by the circumstantial causes of water, sunlight, and rich soil. From the side of the mind, there is the substantial cause of the previous moment of mind being transformed by the circumstantial causes of, for example, being at a place in which you can observe an acorn transforming into an Oak tree and having a body with functioning eyes.  But such an analysis is not sufficient. We established earlier in the four close placements of mindfulness that objects and the minds that know them arise in mutual dependence upon one another. Simply looking at the substantial and the circumstantial causes on the side of the object and on the side of the mind is not complete because it still treats the object and the subject as being independent and distinct. In our previous analysis, we saw that mind and its object arise in mutual dependence upon one another. How exactly does this work? As explained before, the quality of the previous moment of mind activates a specific type of karmic seed. When this karmic seed ripens, it produces a subject-object pair of mind and its object that arise in mutual dependence upon one another. The minds generated in this subject-object pair then activate new karma giving rise to the next subject object pair known by the mind. In this way it continues indefinitely like a circle, or like an infinite spiral moving through time.  

If pressed, most of us would not be of the view that there is such a thing as production without cause. We are generally convinced by the idea that everything has a cause, even if we don’t know what that causes. Therefore, it is not that difficult to refute production without a cause.