What about physical phenomena? Purely physical phenomena, such as clouds crossing the sky, are products of causes and conditions and causes and consequences, yet they do not seem to have anything to do with karma. Karma seems to refer only to those actions connected with sentient beings.

SHIH-FU:

The fact that this world exists ─ or the fact that we think that this world exists ─ is because of the karma of sentient beings. Everything occurs because of sentient beings' karma. There are no purely physical phenomena.

STUDENT:

This reminds me of relativity, both in the Einsteinian sense, and also in a more general sense. In other words, this is this because that is that. Nothing exists on its own, or can come into existence by itself. All phenomena are dependent upon causes and conditions, causes and consequences, and the force of karma of sentient beings. Is this correct?

SHIH-FU:

Yes, that is correct. As I said before, causes and conditions work in both a temporal and spatial sense. Einstein said that things move only in relation to other things. Buddhism has no problem with this statement. If something is moving, it is because it has been influenced by other phenomena, both in a temporal sense and in a spatial sense. And it in turn affects other things, both in a temporal sense and in a spatial sense.

STUDENT:

I believe I heard you once say that causes and conditions are empty, but causes and consequences are not. What is meant by this?

SHIH-FU: