What and how we will be in the future depends on what we do now. Every single act and thought plays a role in shaping our existence, in both life and death. The law of causality permeates and molds the great eternal flow of cosmic life.

What, then, are the practical implications of this philosophy? How should it affect our conduct and our outlook?

In the first place it provides us with the courage to challenge both life and death. It enables us to see death not as some terrifying unknown but as a normal phase of existence that alternates with life in an eternal cycle.


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Buddhism stresses the importance of the present and the future.

Second, it teaches us to treasure the life we are now living and to try to make it as worthwhile as possible. If we believe in our hearts our present behavior creates and determines our future existences, we will strive to cultivate ourselves and make the most of what each day offers.

Third, it teaches us that the only way to fulfill the potential of the human race is to live just, kind, benevolent and compassionate lives. We are helped by being aware that each activity in which we engage can be the source of growth and self-reformation. It is comforting to know that the seeds of good fortune we amass by means of our conduct are undiminished by death, integral with life itself and enhance our eternal self.

Finally, this way of thinking enables us to control and subdue our instinctive desires, redirecting them in such a way as to elevate our state of being. We learn to avoid the pitfalls of hedonism and pessimism, to find joy and truth in compassion rather than in an ephemeral hope for rebirth in some other world.

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Buddhism stresses the importance of the present and the future.


Present effects are due to karmic causes from the past. However, future effects arise from the causes we make in the present. It is always the present that counts. It is what we do in the present moment that decides our future; our past causes do not govern our future as well. Nichiren Buddhism emphasizes that no matter what kind of karmic causes we have made in the past, through the causes we make in the present we can achieve a brilliant future !

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