Is the evil retribution for violating the precepts stipulated by the Buddha, or determined by the law of cause and effect?

To understand this question, one needs to know the starting point and principles behind the precepts established by the World-Honored One, and why these precepts were established. If these precepts had not been established, would there be no cause and effect and no karmic retribution in the absence of precept-breaking behavior? For example, the karma of killing belongs to precept-breaking conduct; if killing did not violate a precept, would one still fall into hell to undergo retribution? Clearly, the law of cause and effect exists naturally regardless of whether there are precepts or not. Even if killing were not a precept-breaking act, one would still fall into hell to undergo evil retribution. Receiving evil retribution, or even good retribution, is not something decreed or willed by the Buddha; it is determined by the law of cause and effect of the tathāgatagarbha.

The reason the Buddha established these precepts was to let sentient beings know which things can be done and which cannot, and what retribution one will receive for doing what, thereby regulating the mental conduct of sentient beings so that they create less evil karma, or none at all, and thus avoid evil retribution. Establishing precepts for sentient beings to observe is precisely to avoid evil retribution. Even without the constraint of precepts, at every moment of each being's mental conduct, the tathāgatagarbha is recording and collecting karmic seeds. When those karmic seeds mature, the karmic conditions will appear, and evil retribution will accordingly manifest. Therefore, everyone should consider: is it better to receive the precepts and have constraints, or not to receive them and have no constraints? Sentient beings all have more evil than good. Without constraints, acting at will, they will inevitably follow their evil habits to create evil karma, and evil retribution will be unavoidable; they will also inevitably become frequent visitors to the three evil paths.

By observing each person's bodily, verbal, and mental actions, one will find that the habits of the three evil paths are extremely numerous and very evident, yet the person is unaware of them and often remains self-righteous. Some people, lacking good habits of cultivation, upon seeing that my conduct is completely opposite to their own, will unconsciously instruct me on my cultivation and how to do things, not realizing that it is precisely they themselves who are inverted, and they also hope that I will invert myself to be just like them. If such people became familiar with the Buddha, they would likewise point fingers at the Buddha and instruct him on his cultivation.

If no Buddha had appeared in the world, there would be no precepts, but karmic retribution would still exist, and ordinary beings would only fall into an endless cycle of creating karma and receiving its retribution, not knowing how to escape it. Therefore, the precepts are extremely important. Without observing the precepts, one's cultivation cannot possibly make much progress.