THE LAW OF THE TWELVE CAUSES: INNER CAUSATION. Next we shall consider the Law of the Twelve Causes in terms of the growth and changes of a person's mind.

Ignorance, the first link of the inner causation of this law, is not to have a right view of life or the world, or to disregard the right view even when one knows it. Because of being ignorant, one repeatedly does things that depart from the truth (the universal law): these are actions. In this case, "actions" must be interpreted not only as one's own actions but as the accumulation of all the actions that one has experienced since the distant past, as explained in the discussion of karma.

Consciousness is the fundamental power or function by which a person discerns things. All the states of this power or function are decided by the accumulation of one's experiences and deeds of the past, that is, by the karma that one has produced.

As mentioned before, name and form mean mental functions and matter, respectively. The former refers to an immaterial being, the soul or spirit, and the latter to a material being, the human body. Taking thetwo together, "name and form" refer to our existence. It is through consciousness that we are enabled to have a faint idea of our existence. If there is no consciousness, we do not understand our existence. The expression "Consciousness causes name and form" in the Lotus Sutra expresses this.

The six entrances mean the function of the six sense organs: eyes (sight), ears (hearing), nose (smell), tongue (taste), body (touch), and the mind, by which we perceive the existence of the things sensed through these five organs.

Though we are aware of our own existence (name and form) through consciousness, it is still too vague an awareness to constitute true knowledge. But then the five functions of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch develop, and at the same time the mind, by which we perceive the existence of things sensed through these functions, matures. At this point we first gain the power to discern things clearly. This stage is called contact.

There are two major interpretations of this stage. Some are of the opinion that this is the stage before we have feelings of like or dislike and is called contact because our minds merely come in contact with things. Others say that contact means the stage when consciousness, name and form, and the six entrances have reached a relationship conducive to the clear-cut development of the function of our mind. Setting aside such scholastic opinions, it is enough for us to understand that contact indicates the stage at which our mind can clearly discern things. With such mental development, feelings of pain, pleasure, like, and dislike are produced. This is sensation.

When such feelings appear, desire for things arises spontaneously. The desire referred to here means attachment, whose meaning is little different from that of love as this word is commonly used. In other words, this is a state of mind that has preferences and that clings to what it likes. When we have desire for something, we try to hold onto it. Conversely, we try to avoid what we consider unpleasant or undesirable. This state of mind is called clinging.

Clinging leads to various feelings, ideas, and assertions. This is existence, which means the discriminating mind. Due to this discriminating mind, opposition and struggle occur among people, and human life as suffering unfolds before one. Such human life is called birth. Leading such a life of suffering, old age comes before one knows it, and finally one encounters death.

A person's life develops in this way, so that the basic cause of a life of suffering is fundamental ignorance. Suffering occurs because one does not know the law applicable to all things and does not have a right view of the world and of life; even when one is aware of it, one disregards it. Only if people can rid themselves of this ignorance and set their minds in the direction of the law will their deeds (practice) be correctly directed. When his mind is set on the right track, his sufferings in this world disappear, and eventually they will attain peace of mind. This is the conclusion reached through the Law of the Twelve Causes.

In short, the Law of the Twelve Causes teaches that one is born as an ordinary human being because of one's ignorance in one's previous life. The Law also teaches that if we eradicate our ignorance in the present world, the essential form of our lives as they were meant to be will be revealed in our future lives. Here we should not limit the meaning of "future life" to life when we are reborn after death but should regard it rather as the life before us in the future. If we abandon fundamental ignorance and set our minds in the direction of the Law, bright and serene future lives will open up before us. To the extent that we do not do this, our lives will be accompanied by suffering, however rich we may be and however much honor we may gain, and our minds will continue to revolve in the track of the six worlds of illusion.

In this case, the six worlds refers to the six kinds of mental states: "hell," the state in which our minds are consumed by anger; "hungry spirits," the state in which a host of desires arise in our minds; "animals," the state that lacks wisdom and is unreasoning; "demons," the state of being self-centered in everything, having only one's own interest; "human beings," the stage of control the above four evil states to some degree, although not released from them; and "heaven," the state of temporary joy.

Through the Law of the Twelve Causes, we have considered the vertical development of life (our ancestors, ourselves, and our descendants; or ourselves in a previous life, in the present world, and in the world to come). However, the fact is, the mind and human life do not comprise merely such vertical relationships. Both are also greatly influenced by horizontal relationships, that is, by complex connections with the whole of society.

The idea of the ten worlds, the six worlds of ordinary people and the four worlds of saints (the worlds of sravakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas), thus develops into the teaching of the Three Thousand Realms in One Mind (ichinen-sanzen).