རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ།

Here are some types of causal mechanism or principle that can be traced in Tibetan Buddhist sources:

1. bskyed bya skyed byed kyi rgyu ’bras (MS, vol. 21, p. 389)

2. gsal bya gsal byed kyi rgyu ’bras

3. rnam par gzhag ’jog gi rgyu ’bras (MS, vol. 21, p. 389)

4. rjes su sgrub pa’i rgyu ’bras = rjes su ’brel pa’i rgyu ’bras (Jo bo’i gsung ’bum, p. 717) (contrasted with de facto no. 1). 

1. The principle of causality (or rather of conditionality) expressed by it is the one that operates between, for example, seed (sa bon) and its seeding (myu gu). Let me call the kind of cause involved here “material cause.”

2. The principle of causality (or rather of conditionality) presupposed here is one that operates, for example, between a vase in a dark room and the light that illumines/reveals it. Let me call the kind of cause involved here “revelatory cause.”

3. This is, so to speak, the principle of “relativity” that operates, for example, between relative terms and concepts such as between “long and short” (ring thung) and “mountain here and mountain there” (phar ri tshur ri). Let me call the kind of (mutual) cause involved here “designatory cause.”

4. Presumably the causal relationship presupposed here is the one between the to-be proven and the proof. Let me call the kind of cause involved here “validatory/verificatory (or logical) cause.”

This is just a food for thought!