Context and premise: In this unprecedented current economic and political environment, I thought it would be valid to write an article on cause and effect. It is safe to assert that many of us have, at one point or another, found ourselves to be at the effect of someone or something. Concepts such as action-reaction, cause and effect and deed-consequences are embedded in our consciousness but seldom discussed as to their veracity and validity.
A context is the quality or atmosphere, that transparently contains, colors and shapes all our thoughts, feelings and actions. Water is the context for fish and air the context for bird. Man, having access to conscious existence can alter and shift the contexts or atmospheres of his experiences. Cause and effect are two distinct contexts. Cause is intimately connected to origination or beginning. Cause is in charge while effect is consequential. They are the two sides of the same coin; but only cause is completely active and encompasses the other. Cause literally “causes” effect. There must be a cause to see an effect.
Problems occur when we interchange or confuse cause and effect. Problems also arise when we do not realize that we can become cause at any moment and, therefore, restore control. It is the one ontological quality man possesses over the animal kingdom. Man recognizes cause! As an example, God as cause not effect. When God becomes effect man must be the cause. Same analogy can be made with life. Did life come first or did man? If man came first he must be the cause, and so on.
When we suffer from something we are certain there is a cause. All emotional suffering is therefore sourced in the chronic belief that we are at the effect of something beyond our control. Being at the effect is in essence being a victim, less than what I am, cursed, unlucky, a casualty, a prisoner, a mark, a sitting target, a fool, a wretch, etc.
Consequently, all forms of victimhood are under the absolute dominion of the powerful CONTEXT OF EFFECT. Space, movement and of course time is what makes things appear as having a cause and effect. If I kick a ball with my foot, the foot or the decision to kick is the cause; the ball or impact on the ball is the effect. If I get a cold there was a virus at cause. The cold is the effect.
We so believe in cause and effect that it is rarely questioned, scrutinized or seen for what it is. Being either at the effect or at cause in life is a decision we subconsciously make as children. It begins early on, typically as parents objectify their children as victims so they do not have to take responsibility for oppressive and repressive situations such as failed marriages, various difficulties and circumstances, professional or personal. To pity someone is to make them an effect or victim of someone or something. Abuse, drug or other addictions, economic hardship, divorce; molestation, rape, violence, dishonesty, treachery, absence of communication, etc. all potentially develop victims.
The key notion is not so much what happens to a person but the context that it creates and will, for the rest of their lives, act as a contextual force field that will transform all experiences into a “failure to be at cause”. Most individuals are not aware of what context operates in their lives: cause or effect. Each of these has qualities. I like to call them operating atmospheres. To use an extreme and not so pleasant example, helplessness, as an operating atmosphere makes everything in someone’s life look and feel helpless. The reality is the given operating context not the actual content. A person who has activated a winning operating atmosphere will see a lack of results as a formidable opportunity for growth and success, while someone else might end up feeling doomed and see no way out. Collectively, we also believe in disempowering operating atmospheres.
Being “at cause” is complete and responsible living. It is whole, highly creative and usually contains elements of playfulness. Most importantly, it is total at all times in all its appearances, intentions, feelings and actions.
Human beings are absolutely total and complete when they are born. All early expressions are whole, total and complete. A baby is fully responsible and at cause within its being. It has not learned to separate cause from effect. If it is feeling discomfort, the discomfort is total, as the entire being “becomes” the discomfort. Cause and effect are one.
Another good example is nature. In its organic expression, a tree is total so is a lion chasing a gazelle. Everything that happens in nature is undivided. Cause and effect are one or rather, undivided. The tree is total as it receives the wind through its leaves and branches. Cause and effect are one, whole, undivided and complete.
Ego is the idea that we have a separate self from nature, the world, and consequently, existence. This separate idea begins to run the show from the unique perspective that everything that happens is now divided into cause and effect. The wind in the leaves of the tree is now the cause and the bending branches the effect. Cause and effect are now artificially and psychologically divided. The dance of oneness is gone. Self-consciousness, which is the interruption of life free-flowing harmoniously, sets in.
When I divide anything, I must see all things as separate objects having an effect on other objects. The baby that feels discomfort and who was once one with it now separates itself from the discomfort. Discomfort (cause) is happening to it (effect).
Conscious living is the realization that we are cause and that all things are one from this unique perspective. When we are happy and joyful we have restored cause in our lives at that moment. Conversely, when we are sad we typically condemn the feeling and we separate ourselves into an effect. All experiences are total. Depression is the ultimate separation from cause. We are at cause not effect, but all causes carry effects. The subtlety is the illusion that cause and effect are two separate phenomena.
All issues of abandonment can be understood better through this paradigm shift in consciousness. In abandonment someone (cause) abandons someone else (effect), then the operating context or atmosphere, is activated. If my girlfriend breaks up with me or I lose my job, I can still be the cause not the effect, which will bring power and accountability to the foreground. The healing element here is that the two parts were never two separate parts that decided to join to begin with. The better a relationship, the more they are joined cause to cause, not cause to effect.
Philippe Benichou © 2010
