Is the evil retribution for violating precepts stipulated by the Buddha or determined by the law of cause and effect?

To answer this question, one needs to understand the starting point and principles behind the Buddha's (Bhagavān) establishment of the precepts, and why these precepts were established. If these precepts had not been established, would there be no cause and effect and no karmic retribution in the absence of precept-violating behavior? For example, the karma of killing a person constitutes a violation of the precepts; if killing were not a violation of the precepts, would one still fall into hell to undergo retribution? Clearly, the law of cause and effect exists naturally regardless of whether there are precepts or not. Even if killing were not a violation of the precepts, one would still fall into hell to undergo evil retribution. Undergoing evil retribution, or even good retribution, is not something prescribed or blessed by the Buddha; it is determined by the law of cause and effect of the tathāgatagarbha.

The reason the Buddha established these precepts was to let sentient beings know which things can be done and which things cannot be done, and what karmic retribution one will receive for doing what deeds, thereby regulating the mental conduct of sentient beings so that they create fewer or no unwholesome karmic deeds, in order to avoid evil retribution. Establishing precepts for sentient beings to observe is for the purpose of avoiding evil retribution. Even without the constraint of precepts, at every moment of each being's mental conduct, the tathāgatagarbha is recording and collecting karmic seeds. When the karmic seeds mature, karmic conditions will appear, and evil retribution will accordingly manifest. Therefore, everyone should consider: is it better to receive the precepts and have constraints, or not to receive the precepts and have no constraints? Sentient beings all have more unwholesomeness than goodness. Without constraints, acting at will, they will inevitably follow their unwholesome habits to create unwholesome karma; evil retribution will then be unavoidable, and they will inevitably become frequent visitors to the three evil paths.

By observing each person's bodily, verbal, and mental actions, one will find that the habits of the three evil paths are numerous and very obvious, yet the person himself is unaware of them and often presumes himself to be right. Some people, because they lack good habits of cultivation, upon seeing that my conduct is completely opposite to their own, will unconsciously instruct me on my cultivation and way of doing things, not knowing that it is precisely they themselves who are inverted, and they also hope that I will invert myself to be like them. If such people became familiar with the Buddha, they would likewise point fingers at the Buddha and instruct him on his cultivation.

If no Buddha had appeared in the world, there would be no precepts, but karmic retribution would still exist, and ordinary beings would only fall into the endless cycle of creating karma and receiving retribution, not knowing how to escape it. Therefore, the precepts are extremely important; without observing the precepts, one's cultivation cannot make much progress.