Relative, Entangled Evolution

Karma, in this teaching, is described as a process by which things are built relative to, or in opposition to, one another. Within the dimension of time that the mind can perceive, everything is constructed as a constantly changing flow, and it is this relative entanglement that produces all the cause-and-effect processes the mind can observe: from the simplest to the most complex.

The doorbell example

Any unit, particle, being, or thought that exists anywhere in the universe is constantly affected by everything similar around it, in an unbroken process that has been running since the universe began. Within this process, when a thought arises in a being, its selfless (anatta) nature is hard to grasp, and the being becomes confused, imagining every thought as 'me' or 'mine', outside the framework of the universal law of dependent origination.

The teaching illustrates this with an everyday scene: a family sitting together happily in the living room when the doorbell suddenly rings. Each person's mind jumps to a different thought: one guesses it's a friend, another guesses it's the electricity bill or a letter, another can't guess at all, and someone else feels a flash of irritation at having their pleasant conversation interrupted. Then the door opens, and it turns out to be a food delivery, already paid for, a favourite dish, delighting everyone, yet also raising the question of who ordered it. A phone call follows: an old school friend, visiting from abroad on urgent business, calling before flying back out, recalling how their friendship began on the very first day of school when they shared their lunch.

Tracing the causes back and back

Looked at this way, how many separate causes had to align just for that doorbell to ring at that moment? Trace it further back and there is no natural stopping point: the grandmother who cooked that dish because the child's mother was unwell that day; the technology that made the phone call and the food order possible, and everything that had to come together to build that technology in the first place.

We can trace the causes and effects behind any single moment only as far as our memory, our attention, and our awareness can reach: covering a certain area, to a certain depth. As we extend that area and depth, the web of connected natural elements grows correspondingly larger. Any one unit within this relative, entangled evolution can, in principle, affect the entire system, which is exactly what makes this process not something that simply happens on its own.

Why this can only be understood from within ignorance

The teaching turns to the well-known formula of dependent origination: 'with ignorance as condition, formations arise...', and points out that this entire chain can only be understood by someone standing within ignorance (avidya) in the first place. Consciousness, formations, and everything else in the chain become visible only from inside not-knowing; understanding the chain is therefore not the same as science or true knowledge (vidya) in the fullest sense: it is simply mapping the confusion, not stepping outside it.

Even a stream-enterer's process of dependent origination differs from an ordinary person's, because reaching the path has already affected their sense of self and, through that, the whole system; their path-vision has settled into a largely fixed direction. And while a single person's dependent origination can be described simply, in terms of what they know, imagine, and feel, once many such people interact, further layers of interdependence form between them, widening the field and deepening it the further it is examined.

The teaching's conclusion is practical rather than merely descriptive: the goal is not to remain someone acted upon by dependent origination, but to become someone who acts upon it, and the way there is the Middle Way. Recognising that dependent origination is rooted in ignorance is itself the necessary first step, even though naming the problem is not the same as being freed from it.