Frequently it is necessary to remind ourselves that in Buddhism there is no punishment for not doing your practice. In the ten aspects we read rewards and retribution and it would be an easy mistake to think there is punishment in Buddhism.
The fact is this phrase only refers to how we might consider the effects of our causes, the primary cause and the environmental cause. If there is no cause made then there is a consequent absence of effect. So if you skip your practice there is simply an absence of a cause, not the creation of a bad cause. That would fly in the face of the laws of cause and effect. You simply can not get a bad effect from no cause.
Now as to the nature of reward and retribution. The impact of the effects you experience from the causes you make are in fact the result of a cause you make. If you perceive something as wholly bad or negative that is ultimately your cause, or the cause you are making as a result of the effect you experience.
Every effect is an opportunity to make further causes. This where karma comes in, or the proper understanding of karma. Your nature, or your tendency to respond to the effects you experience sets the stage for you to continue to experience effects of similar types. For example if you are by nature currently an high anger type person then it is more likely that you will see an opportunity to become angry in most of the effects that happen in your life. It will be easier for you to become angry than it will for you to see good or value in effects of your life.
So because your nature tends to anger, your causes also tend to anger and generate the kinds of causes that will tend to repeat the cycle. It isn’t so much that your karma is to be angry, rather it is your karma to act angry and generate effects matching your causes.
Whether an effect is a reward or retribution depends solely upon you. If say something that we would consider bad happens to you, what is critical is what you do as a result of that effect. If you continue to make causes similar to the ones that resulted in this present effect then you could conceivably say they are retributions. If however you say, man that sucked I don’t want that to happen again, and then examined what caused it and determine not to repeat that cause then even a seemingly bad effect becomes a reward.
The reward is the lesson to not repeat a cause that harms you or inclines you to hate, or anger, or suffering. And sometimes what can seem to be a reward is actually a retribution. This is especially the case if we become complacent in happiness or good fortune and fail to continue to make appropriate causes to ensure those things continue. Then even good fortune becomes bad.
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This is not simply the power of positive thinking or happy-go-lucky. No, this is about deeply considering one’s situation and one’s participation in life. Not having money to buy food sucks, and this isn’t about somehow contriving a way to put a positive spin on an empty stomach. Rather it is an invitation, if you will, to consider the situation as painful and something worthy of changing if possible. An empty stomach hurts regardless what religion you practice, and Buddhism doesn’t automatically make air into food.
Buddhism is about examining our experiences and seeking to understand why they are that way, what can be done to either mitigate or change or eliminate the effects by making new causes. There isn’t some magic that takes place which replaces the necessity of making new causes. Buddhism is not a short cut to wealth, fame, ease, and luxury. Buddhism is a religion of hard work, honest evaluation of one’s life, sincere effort to make necessary changes, and the dedication to carry out these for the duration of one’s life continually.
The reward or retribution depends not on just how you view a circumstance, it is about what you do with that circumstance. First you are a human-being, and then you must be a human-doing.
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