8) Cause and Effect
The maxim that a person reaps what he has sown, belief in divine retribution, and the doctrine of karma, are diverse expressions of a common idea: that the world is governed by justice. Religions give various teachings regarding the specific manner in which justice is meted out, e.g. through one’s fate in this life, by reincarnation, or in the afterlife. Yet all agree that one way or another, justice will be served. It is inherent in the nature of the universe, as designed by a benevolent Creator, that good deeds be rewarded and evil deeds punished. This is the principle of cause and effect.
The principle of cause and effect bears the same ambiguous relationship to Ultimate Reality as divine law generally. In the eastern religions the principle of justice is inherent in the fabric of the cosmos and is therefore subordinate to the ultimate goal of liberation. Karma and the wheel of samsara display the operation of cause and effect, yet these are part of the hellishness of human existence and have nothing to do with the ultimate goal of Nirvana and Enlightenment, where the cycle of rebirth is broken. On the other hand, the monotheistic religions portray God as the divine Judge who visits punishments upon the guilty to maintain justice. Nevertheless, it is not the Heavenly Father’s purpose to act as a judge against His children; rather with love and truth He guides them on the path to salvation. Therefore, as Father Moon does, we can ascribe God’s judgments to the operation of His creation, a cosmos that is designed to administer justice through the operation of cosmic law.
The passages in this chapter describe two aspects of cause and effect. First is the aspect of justice: people reap what they sow. Father Moon draws instances of this principle not only in the lives of individuals, but also from the history of nations and races, who collectively have committed sins that must bear requital. Even though this world seems to tolerate injustice and permit wrongs to go unpunished, scriptures assert that the ultimate individual recompense is in the afterlife, where he or she is destined either for heaven or hell. Here Father Moon’s teachings give a deeper explanation for why sinners are destined for hell, not by the decree of any angelic judge but by the conditions they made for themselves during earthly life.
Second, there are passages on cause and effect as a universal principle that operates in the growth and completion of all beings. We learn that the effect is not separate from the cause; rather, they are closely tied together. The core Buddhist doctrine of Dependent Origination expresses the negative of this idea, as ignorance develops through a causal chain to the whole human condition of suffering (dhukka). A Taoist text puts it positively, that cause and effect form a circuit, the movement of Heaven. Father Moon teaches that God is immanent in the world, working everywhere as the cause and revealing Himself in human beings as the effect. Ultimately, God and humans, cause and effect, are to be united as the Alpha and the Omega—through love.