All Dharmas Are Empty; Is Cause and Effect Empty?

Causality is also one of the myriad dharmas, a transient phenomenon characterized by arising and ceasing. Regardless of its form, causality can change, arise, and perish; it possesses the nature of arising, ceasing, and transformation. Therefore, causality is illusory and empty. For instance, experiencing the retribution of suffering, the retribution of pleasure, the retribution of neither suffering nor pleasure, or the retribution of rebirth within the six realms—once these karmic results are exhausted, they cease. The karmic seeds stored within the Tathāgatagarbha then vanish. Anything that arises and ceases is illusory and unreal; hence, it is empty.

Causality is created and endured by the sentient being's body of five aggregates, which itself is empty and illusory. The karmic causes created are thus characterized by arising and ceasing—empty and illusory. The karmic results endured are likewise empty and illusory. Causality is a mere semblance within the phenomenal realm of conventional dharma, arising and ceasing dependent on the sentient being's Tathāgatagarbha. Within worldly and transcendental dharmas, only the eighth consciousness, the Tathāgatagarbha, is non-empty, neither arising nor ceasing, unchanging, and indestructible. All else possesses the characteristics of arising, abiding, changing, and perishing; thus, all is illusory and empty.

Once karmic retribution is exhausted, it ceases to persist. Other causes and effects then arise and manifest. Causality, being characterized by arising, ceasing, transformation, and unreality, is therefore empty. Causality is a dharma born subsequently; it can also vanish and cease, hence it is empty. At the very moment causality manifests, it is empty and illusory—it is the Tathāgatagarbha that actualizes the law of causality. Superficially, it appears to exist, but in essence, it is non-existent. Sentient beings create karma illusorily, endure retribution illusorily, and suffer in vain. They never realize the illusory nature of suffering itself, let alone understand that creating the causes of suffering is fundamentally illusory. They fail to recognize the unreality of the karmic results of suffering or that creating actions leading to suffering inevitably yields painful consequences. Not knowing the cause of suffering, not knowing the origin of suffering, not knowing the cessation of suffering, and not knowing the path to the cessation of suffering—sentient beings thus cycle endlessly through birth and death for countless lifetimes. Only when this cycle has run its course can they awaken and begin to cautiously cultivate their actions.