世界上最大的仇怨，莫過於殺生。所謂「殺人償命，欠債還錢」，你殺人之父兄，人必殺你的父兄。這樣互相殘殺，永無止境。就因為殺生太多的緣故，所以果報來得很快，所謂「現世現報。」

The greatest source of enmity in the world comes from killing. As it’s said,

If you kill someone, you must pay with
     your life.
If you owe a debt, you must repay
     the money.

If you kill someone’s father or brother, then your own father or brother will be killed by others. Such mutual killing goes on and on without end. Because too many lives have been taken, the retribution comes very fast; this is known as “getting one’s retribution in this very life.”

現在的人，為什麼生一些奇怪的病症？一言以蔽之，就是從殺生而來的。你殺了眾生，眾生就來向你討命債。這種怪病，醫生也束手無策。那該怎麼辦呢？這就要真心懺悔，改過自新，多做利益眾生的功德，才能消除宿現業。若是不這樣去做，恐怕不容易好的。這是真理，並非迷信。

Why do people nowadays have so many strange illnesses? To put it simply, such illnesses come from killing. When you kill living beings, they come back to demand your life as repayment. There’s nothing the doctors can do to treat the strange illnesses that result. Then what should you do? You should repent with a true heart, reform and renew yourself, and do create more merit and virtue to benefit living beings so that the karma from past and present lives can be eradicated. If you don’t do that, I’m afraid getting well won’t be easy. This is the truth; it’s not a superstition.

一九八四年四月十五日開示