No Causation

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Of course, everything is inter-linked. And therefore everything has numberless causes. The entire universe contributes to the least thing. A thing is as it is, because the world is as it is. You see, you deal in gold ornaments and I -- in gold. Between the different ornaments there is no causal relation. When you re-melt an ornament to make another, there is no causal relation between the two. The common factor is gold. But you cannot say gold is the cause. It cannot be called a cause, for it causes nothing by itself. It is reflected in the mind as "I am", as the ornament's particular name and shape. Yet all is only gold. In the same way reality makes everything possible and yet nothing that makes a thing what it is, its name and form, comes from reality.

But why worry so much about causation? What do causes matter, when things themselves are transient? Let come what comes and let go what goes -- why catch hold of things and enquire about their causes?

Q. From the relative point of view, everything must have a cause.

Of what use is the relative view to you? You are able to look from the absolute point of view -- why go back to the relative? Are you afraid of the absolute?

....

Q. From what point of view you deny causation? From the relative -- the universe is the cause of everything. From the absolute -- there is no thing at all.

From which state are you asking?

Q. From the daily waking state, in which alone all these discussions take place.

In the waking state all these problems arise, for such is its nature. But you are not always in that state. What good can you do in a state into which you fall and from which you emerge, helplessly. In what way does it help you to know that things are causally related -- as they may appear to be in your waking state?

Q. The world and the waking state emerge and subside together.

When the mind is still, absolutely silent, the waking state is no more.