¡§When one¡¦s life span is
reduced, poverty will also strike. One often encounters adversity
and misery as well¡¨.
then our destiny remains unchanged. This is known
as predestination and is expressed in a proverb, ¡§Life is predestined,
one cannot alter it at all¡¨. However, if we practice great virtue,
this virtue will increase. Conversely, committing bad deeds will reduce
the good fortune, which we have accumulated in our previous lives.
Consequently, our good fortune varies daily according to our deeds.
(As an American proverb says, ¡§we create our destiny everyday we live¡¨.)
sentence to the ninth sentence ¡§when one¡¦s life span comes to
an end, one will perish¡¨ provide a detailed explanation of the
true reality. What is the meaning behind the word, ¡§reduced¡¨?
It refers to the result of addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division of merits and demerits accumulated from our good
and bad deeds. Although destiny exists as a result of our past
deeds, if we neither perform exemplary deeds nor commit flagrant
offenses in this lifetime,
Our destiny varies daily
according to our every thought, word and deed, but the degree of
change is not that substantial. Thus, our future can be predicted
quite precisely. This applies not only to the destiny of an individual,
but also to those of a family, community, country and the world.
Numerous prophets have predicted the good fortune and misfortune
of the world. So, we see that even it has a fixed destiny.
|Our destiny is neither
created by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas nor by spiritual beings.
Then, who created it? We did. The destiny of a family is the
result of the deeds and shared karma of its members. The destiny
of a country is the result of the shared karma of its citizens.
The destiny of a world is the result of the shared karma of
every person. We can tell the kind of retribution a person will
receive by observing his or her deeds. Good causes will reap
rewards and bad causes will reap retributions. This is the truth.
Beings, who appear in this world with pure virtues still cannot
escape cause and effect. Ancient teachings, the cause and effect
in attaining Buddhahood explained in the ¡§Lotus Sutra¡¨ and the Five
Kinds of Cause and Effect explained in the ¡§Flower Adornment Sutra¡¨
also do not deviate from the Law of Cause and Effect. Thus, Buddhism
teaches that ¡§all existing things are empty in nature except the
Law of Cause and Effect¡¨. Why? The interchange of cause and effect
is not empty in nature because it is continuous. A cause generates
an effect and an effect can become another cause and this change
continues in a perpetual cycle. Therefore, cause and effect is not
empty in nature. The reward and retribution, good luck and bad luck,
and good fortune and misfortune are changing constantly. This is
a true principle.
from Treatise on Response and Retribution