Linked chains of causes and effects, are often taken for granted, as part of the reality of our physical world. We usually operate with the understanding that everything which happens, has a reason and a consequence.

Often quick to take credit for our personal accomplishments, and prone to guilt and self-condemnation for our perceived flaws or failures, we generally approach our world with the concept that most events have traceable and dependable causes and consequences. But how accurate is this?

In our complex lives in this world, all the positive and negative events that occur, have numerous possible known and unknown causes, and everything that happens, can influence the course of several known and unknown potential events.

Our body-mind is an open system, there is a constant exchange of information and energy with the surrounding world. In this dynamic equilibrium, everything is flowing in and out, interconnected and interdependent. The causes for an event in our lives at any given moment, are many more than we can comprehend.

Statistically, we may be convinced of an association, and yet, each cause and effect has its individual trajectory, which is beyond the grip of any probability estimates.

Things that are influencing a thought crossing our mind, can be beyond our awareness or immediate understanding. What we end up doing in response to this thought, is equally subject to numerous influences and conditioning. Every such response can have countless potential causes and effects. This applies to each thought that appears to us!

On closely examining everything that we think or do, we invariably come to a potential contribution from many causes, leading to each effect. The effects observed could be the results ranging from none to all of these collective possible causes, but we cannot be sure!

The limited number of potential causes for each effect, and the limited potential effects of each cause, are not nearly as limited as we may believe on a first casual glance.

If we simply allow ourselves to look beyond our immediate restricted view- a few known causes, can be seen to expand exponentially into a huge range of unpredictability, spilling out far beyond our naive estimates of potential causes and their direct effects.

On closer scrutiny, we may realize that every cause and effect chain, is only a potential, only one possibility out of the many and is entangled endlessly, often inseparably, with a lot of other causes and effects. Any set of connections in the elaborate network of causes and effects, is only an inference and cannot be proven beyond doubt.

There are numerous influences and conditions that need to be met, operating in specific order or a synchronous sequence, for anything to happen exactly as it does!

This understanding is the key, that frees us from the idea that anyone is specifically responsible for anything that happens. We cannot hold anyone or anything known, as absolutely responsible, for how things turn out to be-  in our lives or in the world.

What we see as its cause, is only an end point, in a long inscrutable series of events, leading up to that particular effect.

It implies that we cannot legitimately credit or accuse anyone, with the reasons for the good or the bad that happens. This understanding frees us from our own pretension, arrogance and pride but also unburdens us from blame, grudge and remorse.

Loosening the restrictive ties of judgement, this liberates our attitudes to operate with more empathy, generosity and compassion towards others. This also erases the whole vicious cycle of finding a cause for “why” we think or behave in the way we do, and how that affects everything else.

We can find reasons that may explain why things happen a particular way including why we behave the way we do. But our elucidations cover only some of the many possible potential causes, none of which alone may be the actual cause of the effects we are trying to explain.

When we try to justify a particular thought, reaction or attitude, based upon our past experiences- it may be that we are entirely deceiving ourselves with its explanation. There may not be a single direct cause and a legitimate influence that led up to it, as we sincerely believe.

The process of psychotherapy relies on gaining clarity on some potential causes to explain the effects of our current attitudes or behavior.

Besides some clarity, that finding a few possible causes and assigning to them the blame for suffering in the present moment, may bestow-  this approach cannot offer a persistent relief. In the end, it can explore only a few potential causes and therefore, may only offer a limited closure.

Despite the unfathomable nature of our complex mechanism, we develop a habit to react and behave in ways that are somewhat consistent and predictable. These habits are made of repeated unconscious responses, a general stream of attitudes somewhat specific to our body-mind, that give us a vague sense of being sensible, reliable and logical. But are these  impressions true?

We are complex psychological beings who retain every blow and jolt in our psyche, our brains are thinking machines which habitually regurgitate similar thought patterns over and over again. We do not want to forget! We cherish our memories holding closely the long gone hurt, abuse, sorrows and pleasures. We allow our memories to constantly contaminate every new moment which life brings.

We hold on to the past, not because it is impossible to release it, but because we derive our sense of identity from it. It is easier to let go, if we can understand the futility of reinforcing the chains of causes and effects.

We need to see, that every now is fresh. Each now that comes before us, is free of all past, clean from all corruption of time and completely causeless. We ourselves are new in each here and now! There is no cause in the universe, which can force us to cling to our old attitude in this new now.

Yet, we easily get dragged into our old patterns, because we are used to them. The familiar habits feel comfortable, because they do not insist on a constant alertness from us. It is easier to slip into established patterns, than to challenge them. We remain careless and unconscious, as they do not demand our attentive presence and awareness.

We often go on repeating the same mistakes, running into same situations, facing similar problems over and over again, strengthening our dysfunctional patterns, until we get truly fed up and our body-mind screams, “ENOUGH”!

When that happens, we start to notice our mechanism, we start to really see, trying to observe and understand our automatic reactions, our habitual responses, we start waking up from our slumber.

We begin to crave a fundamental transformation in our outlook and find ourselves eager to explore a new approach to life. Sensing a shift, a deep longing to change, we are drawn towards a fresh aliveness. This need comes from our true inner self.

We have a perfect pure centre inside, inbuilt within each body-mind. This is the awareness and alert presence that we really are, the peaceful home we are always seeking- through everything else that we continue striving for externally.

This place inside each one of us, is our virgin ground, a fountain of our causeless happiness, untouched by anything. Nothing that can ever happen in the world of countless causes and effects, can tamper with its perfect harmony and tranquility.

This is our core that calmly carries on, operating in absolute stillness and silence, deep underneath all the chaotic noise of our worldly lives. This is the intact centre of our whole wisdom, from where we can always respond to every situation, appropriately.

Who we really are, our reality- is a causeless timeless eternity, always in the pure perfection of now, free from the imprints of all the past and future. In this present moment of now, we are free from all that has happened, all that has been done or left undone. This is a new moment to start fresh, and every new moment is such!

Living from this alert presence in the now, this inner space of awareness, we find ourselves released from the endless jumbled entanglement of all the causes and effects.

This is our freedom from psychological time. Chronological time will continue, and so will the events of the world, but we can remain fresh and new in the now-  forever free from the heavy weight of cumbersome causes and their effects.