假如你有观察的习惯，一定会发现一个非常有趣的规律。啥规律？你找不到任何一个独立存在的物体，也找不到任何一件独立存在的事情。这世上，没有无因之果，也没有无果之因。埋进地里的种子过早夭折，是因为没有得到播种人的悉心照顾，夭折了的它，就不再是种子，变成了土壤里的养分。
If you have the habit of observing, you will certainly discover an interesting rule. What rule? You will not be able to find any material thing that exists independently, and you will not be able to find any happening that exists independently. In this world, there are no effects without causes and there are no causes without effects. Seeds that are buried in the ground perish prematurely, because they did not get the careful attention of the person doing the sowing. Those that died prematurely are no longer seeds, but become part of the nutrients in the soil.
世界就是在这样的一环扣一环中不断流转、不断循环。所以，它并不像表面看起来的那样，由无数个独立的个体组成。有时候，一个看似不经意的选择，可能会将你人生的小舟，引向一个完全不同的港湾。这个规律被人们称为“多米诺骨牌效应”或者“蝴蝶效应”，佛家则称之为“因缘”。因缘的相续，是生命不断流转的原因，正是它，构成了一个又一个的变化。
The world constantly flows on like this, with one thing linked to another, endlessly cycling. Therefore, it is not as it superficially appears to be, composed of countless independent entities. Sometimes what seems to be an inadvertent choice may take the little boat of your life and lead it into a totally different harbor. People call this law “the domino effect” or“the butterfly effect.” Buddhists call it “causal conditioning.” The continuity of causal conditioning is the original causal basis of the continuous flowing changes of life: it is precisely this that creates each and every transformation.
有一句歌词里说道，“有缘千里来相会，无缘对面手难牵”，这恰好道出了世界的真相。啥真相？世间一切，合理也罢，不合理也罢，都是因缘聚合的结果。没有因缘的聚合，就没有现象的出现；相反，因缘一旦解体，现象也会随之消失。而且，这个现象的消失，又意味着另一个现象的诞生。因为，往往是一种因缘的消散，正好是另一种因缘的开始。这就是整个世界运作的规律。真正明白了“因缘”，也就明白了什么是无常。
There is a song lyric that says: “If there is a causal connection, they will come a thousand miles to meet. If there is no causal connection, they can be face to face and it will be hard to join hands.” This expresses the true character of the world very well. What true characteristic? Everything in the world, whether it is reasonable or it is unreasonable, is the result of the coming together of causal conditions. Without the coming together of causal conditions, then there would be no appearing of apparent forms. On the other hand, once causal conditions disintegrate, apparent forms disappear along with them. Moreover, this disappearing of an apparent form also implies the birth of another apparent form. This is because often it is the dissolution of one set of causal conditions that is the beginning of another set of causal conditions. This is the law of motion of the whole world. When we genuinely understand “causal conditions” then we understand what impermanence is.
我举个简单的例子，如果你不喜欢雨季，就会觉得下雨是一种滋扰，它给你带来了大量的麻烦，你的鞋总是被打湿，你洗的衣服老干不了。但是，假如有一天，你每天都能跟心爱的女孩打同一把伞，漫步在雨里，享受雨的浪漫，那你一定恨不得天天都下雨。
Let me take a simple example. If you do not like rainy weather, then you will feel that when it rains it is troublesome, and it will bring you a lot of annoyances: your shoes will always get wet, and the clothes you have washed cannot get dry. But if every day you are sharing an umbrella with your girlfriend and strolling along together in the rain, enjoying the romance of the rain, then you will surely not regret that it is raining every day.
所以说，你不用过于在意世界上的一切，因为无论你在不在意，它们都一定会变化。杰出的也许会堕落，平凡的或许会伟大，成功的也许会失败，失败的可能又会成功，这世上哪有什么必然？我们的情绪总像飓风中的海浪，此起彼伏，对他人的看法也随着见闻不断改变，又有什么不会过去？没必要为了眼前的逆境而辗转反侧，也不应该因一时的顺境而沾沾自喜。因缘的流转，意味着生命中有太多可能，而我们应该去做，且能够做到的，仅仅是清醒和珍惜。
Thus we say that you should not care too much about anything in the world, because no matter whether you care about it or not, everything will change sometime. What stands out may decline, what is ordinary may become great, what succeeds may fail, and what fails may succeed. How can there be anything certain in this world? Our emotions are always like waves in the wind: this one rises and that one falls. Our view of other people also constantly changes according to what we see and hear. Is there anything that will not pass away? We must not twist and turn because we see adversity before us, and we must not be overjoyed because of some temporary favorable circumstances. Flowing changing causal conditions imply that there are too many possibilities in life. So we must go act, and what can act effectively is just lucidity and a sense of reverence.
你知道，我们的每一种选择，每一个行为的后果，都是下一种选择、下一个行为的原因。露珠在阳光下蒸发了，变成水蒸气，升上天空，原来的树叶上没了它的踪影，天空中却多了一缕润湿；当无数的润湿遭遇了冷空气，或许又会成为云，恰逢适当的条件，再变成雨，回到地上。就是这样。因与果之间的循环，未曾有过一刻的断裂，这也是世界的运作、世间的变化不曾停顿的原因。于是，我们有了时光推移的幻觉，有了记忆的更替。
You know that the result of every choice we make, of every action we take, becomes the causal basis for the next choice and the next action. The dewdrop evaporates in the sunshine, and turns into water vapor, and rises into the sky. On the original leaf of the tree, there is no trace of it, while in the sky there is one more little bit of moisture. When countless bits of moisture encounters the cold air, they may turn into clouds, and if they happen to encounter the right conditions, they turn into rain and return to the earth. This is the way it is. There is a momentary disjuncture in the cycling between cause and effect: this too is the basic reason why the movement of the world, the changes in the world never cease. Thus we have the illusory awareness of the passage of time and we have memories replacing each other.
某个昏黄的午后，你站在洒满夕阳余晖的阳台上，回忆以往的点点滴滴。你或许会感到，过去的一切，所有的时光都像流水一样，昼夜不停地流淌、消逝着。一切事物、一切现象都如水泡一样，生的生，灭的灭。人类死掉一茬，生下一茬，生生死死，死死生生，就好像是水面上的光波一样，闪烁不停。
On a certain afternoon at dusk, you are standing on a balcony lit by the afterglow of the setting sun, and you remember little things from the past. You might feel that everything in the past, all of the time, is like flowing water. Days and nights flow along without stopping and disappear. All things, all apparent forms, are like bubbles in water: those being born are being born, and those being extinguished are being extinguished. A batch of humans die off, and a batch of humans are born, birth and death, death and birth, like ripples of light on the surface of the water, ceaselessly shimmering.
其实，世上万物都是这个样子。你观因缘时，种种现象一样要观，能观到这些现象，就意味着你产生了一种智慧。佛家有“十二因缘”的说法，它指的是从缘起到缘灭的十二个环节：
In reality, the myriad things in the world are all this way. When you observe causal conditions, you must observe all kinds of apparent forms this way. If you are able to observe these apparent forms, it implies that you have developed a kind of wisdom. In Buddhism, there is the teaching of the “twelve links of causation.” It points out the twelve links from causal origination to causal extinction:
第一是无明，即无知、愚昧，它是人受困于各种因缘的根本原因；
第二是行，即说了什么话、做了什么事、有了怎样的思维；
第三是识，即如何解读外缘，这跟一个人的心有关，是滋生行为的种子；
第四是名色，即与眼耳鼻舌身意无关的固有概念与观点等等；
第五是六入，即通过眼耳鼻舌身意这六根来获取外界信息，借以认知世界；
第六是触，即触觉，以及接触的瞬间所形成的感受；
第七是受，即承受、接受某种感受或者某种后果；
第八是爱，即贪恋，沉迷于一种感觉或情绪当中，不愿意放手；
第九是取，即追逐欲望，索取更多；
第十是有，即拥有或存在，这种拥有与存在是虚幻无常的，相当于和合作用的开始；
第十一是生，即一种虚幻无常的出现、诞生、产生；
第十二是老死，即构成事物、现象的因缘消散，事物、现象随之发生转变。
The first is ignorance: that is not knowing, stupidity; this is the basic reason that people get trapped in various kinds of causal conditions.
The second is action: that is whatever we say, whatever we do, whatever we think.
The third is consciousness: that is how we interpret external conditions; this is related to the mind of the individual person, and it feeds the seeds of action.
The fourth is name and form: that is, set concepts and viewpoints and so on not related to the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and conceptual mind.
Fifth is the six sense organs: that is, we get information about the external world through the six sense faculties eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and conceptual mind, and we use this to know the world.
Sixth is contact: that is aware of contact and the feelings that take shape instantaneously from contact.
Seventh is a sensation: this is getting sensation, receiving certain feelings, or certain results.
Eighth is craving: this is greedy desire, becoming besotted with certain feelings or emotions, and being unwilling to let go of it.
Ninth is attachment: this is pursuing desires and seeking more and more.
The tenth is being: this is possessing or existing; this kind of possessing or existing is empty and illusory and impermanent and corresponds to the beginning of the operation of [causal conditions] coming together.
The eleventh is birth: this is empty, illusory, impermanent appearance, birth, production.
Twelfth is old age and death: this means the changes that happen to things and events and apparent forms when the causal conditions that created them dissolve and scatter.
所谓“无明缘行，行缘识，识缘名色，名色缘六入，六入缘触，触缘受，受缘爱，爱缘取，取缘有，有缘生，生缘老死”。就是说，我们的无知导致了各种行为、语言与意识，这些东西会形成我们对整个世界的解读，久而久之，这种解读就会形成固有概念与偏见。当你通过眼耳鼻舌身意接触世界时，就会在固有概念与偏见的影响下，对世界产生偏见。你的偏见，又将影响你在接触事物时得到的感受，你贪恋这种感受的时候，就想要保住它，甚至想索取更多，然后你就会在欲望的推动下做出带有偏见的选择，选择将会产生一个结果，但是结果的产生同时又意味着它会随着以上因素的改变而发生改变。
It is said: “Ignorance conditions action, action conditions consciousness, consciousness conditions name and form, name and form condition the six sense organs, the six sense organs condition contact, contact conditions sensation, sensation conditions craving, craving conditions attachment, attachment conditions being, being conditions birth, and birth conditions old age and death.” This means that our ignorance brings about all sorts of actions, words, and states of consciousness, and these things form our understanding of the whole world. After a long time, this understanding becomes set concepts and biased perceptions. When you contact the world through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and conceptual mind, then you will be under the influence of set concepts and biased perceptions, and you will generate biased perceptions of the world. Your biased perceptions will influence the feelings you get when you come in contact with things and events. When you crave these feelings, then you want to hold onto them, and you even want to get more of them. So then, you will be impelled by desires to make choices that bring along the biased perceptions, and these choices will produce a result. But at the same time, this result is produced, it also implies that it will change, following changes in the foregoing causal elements.
这个过程，就像是一条沾满了汽油的棉线，当你点燃了“棉线”的源头，也就是用智慧看破无明的时候，火焰就会一直蔓延下去，把整条棉线都烧个精光。这时，你的心就从没完没了的轮回中解放了出来。所谓：“无明灭则行灭，行灭则识灭，识灭则名色灭，名色灭则六入灭，六入灭则触灭，触灭则受灭，受灭则爱灭，爱灭则取灭，取灭则有灭，有灭则生灭，生灭则老死灭。”
This process is like a cotton thread soaked in gasoline: once you light the end of the “cotton thread”, that is, use wisdom to see through ignorance, the flame will keep on spreading, and incinerate the whole thread till there is nothing left. At this point, your mind will be set free from endless cycling. As it is said: “When ignorance is extinguished, then action is extinguished; when action is extinguished, then consciousness is extinguished, when consciousness is extinguished, then name and form are extinguished; when name and form are extinguished, then the six sense organs are extinguished: when the six sense organs are extinguished, then contact is extinguished; when contact is extinguished, then the sensation is extinguished: when sensation is extinguished, then craving is extinguished; when the craving is extinguished, then the attachment is extinguished; when the attachment is extinguished, then being is extinguished; when being is extinguished, then birth is extinguished; when a birth is extinguished, then old age and death are extinguished.”
