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CHAPTER IX.
Examination of the Relation between Actions and their Results: Action and Reaction.
COMMENTARY.
The Author now proceeds to examine the doctrine of Relation between Actions and their Results, the Law of Action and Reaction, mentioned in the Introductory verses; and starts off with an objection from the standpoint of that doctrine, against the Doctrine of Perpetual Flux
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TEXT (476).
"IF ALL THINGS ARE OBSESSED BY non-permanence, IN THE FORM OF MOMENTARINESS', THEN HOW CAN THERE BE ANY RELATION
BETWEEN ACTION AND ITS RESULT (REACTION), OR
BETWEEN THE CAUSE AND ITS EFFECT AND SO FORTH?"-(476)
COMMENTARY.
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The Text speaks of non-permanence in the form of momentariness', with a view to exclude that non-permanence' which does not consist in momentariness; the meaning being if things are held by you to be obsessed by that non-permanence which belongs to momentary things-then, how could there be any such relations as the one subsisting between Actions and their Results and so forth, which are recognised among men and in the scriptures ?-The expression and so forth is meant to include the means of cognising the cause and its effect, the Recognition following after Apprehension, the longing for one thing aroused by the seeing of another thing, the notion of Bondage and Liberation, Remembrance, Decision following after Doubt, seeking for something kept by oneself, the cessation of curiosity for things already seen and such other hosts of grounds for objection raised by the evil-minded.-What is meant is that if a doctrine is contrary to notions current among people and recognised by the scriptures, it can never secure acceptance; hence the Doctrine of Perpetual Flux' is open to the objection that it is annulled by universally accepted notions. For instance,
