Just as each person has unique features,
he or she also has unique causes and effects and an individual
set of debts incurred in past lives. Some people have such heavy
debts that they cannot repay them in one lifetime. Their debts
(their karmic hindrances) keep getting higher and deeper with
each passing day. Debts are slapped on top of debts until they
can never extricate themselves.
Why is this? In previous lives they were
loan sharks; they lent money to people at exorbitant interest
rates. In their insatiable greed, they thought they were getting
a bargain, but in fact they were taking a loss. Their karmic
hindrances became heavier and heavier until they finally became
stuck.
Some owe the debt of being a father or a
mother; others owe the debt of being a husband or a wife; others
owe the debt of being a son or a daughter. There is a Chinese
phrase, "the debt of being parents in the account-book of human
relations." Our fate in this lifetime is determined by various
causes and conditions. Ordinary people do not realize that
everything is a result of cause and effect and that there is no
escape from fixed karma. Sometimes they refuse to acknowledge
their debts and pay up. Such unreasonable behavior leads to all
sorts of problems in this world: You have your problems, and I
have mine. Each person has his or her own set of causes and
effects involving a mixture of good and bad deeds.
Once in a while, we may encounter
Buddhism and understand a little bit of its principles. One day
we may understand, but the next day we become muddled again. The
day after that we try to understand again, but the following day
we are confused again. There is an equal balance of wisdom and
delusion. On days of wisdom, we want to cultivate; on confused
days, we don't. Most of the time we are confused, and we spend
very little time cultivating. The fruits of our cultivation are
far too few to make up for the merit we lose. Our wisdom
diminishes and our delusion increases day by day. Driven by
ignorance, we do many foolish things. Our confused thoughts lead
to confused actions. The greed, anger, and delusion in our minds
causes us to commit acts of killing, stealing, and lust. These
confused accounts can never be straightened out.
As a result there is disharmony within
families: fathers can't get along with their sons, mothers can't
get along with their daughters, husbands and wives don't get
along, and brothers and sisters are in disharmony. However,
instead of acknowledging the problems and accepting
responsibility, each person feels wronged. Actually, all of this
is the law of cause and effect at work. Everything in the
present is an effect resulting from causes planted in the past.
So what is there to feel resentful about? There is a proverb:
「是故知命者，不立巖牆之下，不怨天、不尤人，下學而上達。」
One who understands fate will not stand beside a crumbling
wall. He neither complains to heaven nor blames other
people. His subordinates learn from him, And his superiors know
him.
First of all, we should understand cause and effect. We should
plant pure causes and stop planting confused ones. We should
advance upon the Way and retreat from what is not the Way. We
should not confuse good and evil, right and wrong. If we can
distinguish black from white and false from true, then we have
the chance to return to the source and recover the pure, bright
essence of our wonderful, true, and inherent nature.
