A cause and its effect must be really distinct, since the same entity cannot simultaneously be both the ground of itself and the ground of another without a real relational difference.

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Relational difference(as a weaker kind of difference): A distinction that exists only in how two things relate to each other, rather than in their actual natures—like how 'taller than' only makes sense when comparing two people, not as an actual property of either one alone.
cause(Philosophical definition of causation requiring both sufficiency and necessity of the cause relative to its effect): An event or state of things such that (a) if it happens or exists, the effect must happen or exist even if no further conditions are fulfilled, and (b) the effect cannot happen or exist unless the cause happens or exists.
distinct(in formal systems): Different from each other; not the same thing.
effect(Correlate of 'cause' in the defined causal relation): An event or state of things that is caused — it must occur if the cause occurs, and cannot occur unless the cause occurs.

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