A melon (seed) planted duly begetting its melon and a pea sown

duly begetting its peas, the governing of cause and effect is a matter

of spontaneity. In the same token, an industrious farmer reaps a good

harvest, a hardworking worker turns out marketable products, a diligent

trader doesn' t stop buying and selling, and a progressive student

collects favorable results—all of them actualities.

Cause and effect through three lifetimes, as conveyed in the sutras,

cover a much longer, further time span. However limited the present

lifetime is, happenings in past and future lifetimes are as real as they

are beyond sights and sounds. A certain cause in place duly begetting

its result, we only have to act accordingly: sow many causes of virtue to

reap as many fruits, and start no evil causes to be free from like results.