Furthermore, if a cause really produces a result, is there contact or not when it is produced? For instance,
If you suggest that there is contact when a cause makes a result,
Then they’re a single force; the maker and result are not distinct.
If they’re apart, non-causes are not different from what is the cause.
Discarding these two options there’s no other notion possible. (6.169)
If the cause and result connect during production, as they connect they are one, just as there is no difference in the water when a river meets the ocean. And as one cannot then differentiate between them by saying, ‘This is the cause; that is the result,’ what is then produced by what? If they do not meet during production, just as other non-results are not produced when there is no meeting, its result should likewise not be produced when there is no meeting. But if there is production without contact, then anything can be produced.
For someone who claims that there are inherent causes and results, it is not possible to come up with a third option other than the product and the producer either being in contact or not, and the only conclusion must therefore be that there is no inherently real causal production.
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Chapter 1: Pramuditā
