I know some people (including the AF people?) think that non-dual perception is an illusion or mis-perception of 'reality'. 

But, the Buddhist take on causality simply is true in a way that the 'egoic' perspective on life isn't isn't it?  

For example, say you win at the 'egoic' game of life and die with a Mercedes parked in the driveway. You gain admiration (and envy?) from other people and probably experience life with higher levels of 'happy' brain chemicals. But, and this is crucial right? - no one is keeping score on this? Literally nobody is keeping score? 

From the Buddhist perspective, all we leave behind us are the causal ripples created by our words and deeds - right?

If someone rapes a woman - and puts her off men for life, and she dies childless and alone - that suffering is their karma right? 

The Buddha, on the other hand, left behind him a huge causal wake reducing suffering which rings on to this day (and god knows what might happen if the current mindfulness fad keeps growing?)

Kenneth Folk, in setting up a website and curing people from depression, leaves behind him a smaller causal wake. etc

Is this all we can ever do? Is this more true than the 'egoic' way of seeing things? 

Or is this more complicated for people who believe in the rebirth thing? 

Thanks 

Hi Peace Park,

It's a popular misconception that the Buddha ascribed everything that humans experienced to karma. Karma in the Buddha's teaching was one of about four or five factors, including the weather and a person's health, that have causal influence on human experience. The idea that karma is some mysterious force governing all of human experience arose later, when more and more religious elements were incorporated into the teaching. And although the Buddha taught rebirth, it was not central to his teaching.

The cause and effect of Buddha's teaching has to do with the way we cause suffering for ourselves and others. Technically, it is called the Twelve Links of Dependent Arising, or the Twelve Nidanas. These are a linked chain of psychophysical factors, some of which evolve unavoidably out of our existence as physical beings and others of which our mind creates in response to these unavoidable factors in order to reinforce our feelings of having a self that is an independent thing. It's possible to see these factors at work, both within meditation and without, but it involves setting your intention to make that your practice.

My experience is that the Buddha's teachings on causality are right on. But it's important to note that these teachings apply to a specific collection of causal factors, those involving the creation of suffering. There are many other cause-effect relationships that have nothing to do with the creation of suffering.

This is something you can see for yourself. Sit down, look into the three marks of existence and ask yourself: Are anicca, anatta and dukkha really characteristics of the way I perceive/think and interpret the perceived/though? 

That is as good an asnwer as you are ever like to get, as there can be no objective analysis of that question.

Another, related question might be: irrespectively of whether the 3C and non-duality are true, is spending a great deal of time looking into them a good idea? In this context, I think desirable is a more useful question to ask than true.