There is a famous saying in Buddhism: “All things in the past are like yesterday’s death, and all things in the future are like today’s birth.” We have been indebted to countless sentient beings for countless kalpas because of the three poisons. If we don’t know how to let go of our troubles and practice Buddhism to escape the six realms, and collect debts from each other in life and death, when will the cycle of revenge end?
Section Chief Shen is an old cadre on the line of the Public Security Station. He has always been rigorous and meticulous in his work. He has made contributions in several major cases, but his career success cannot bring him joy because the troubles at home have broken his heart.
Old Shen’s family has two sons. The eldest son doesn’t drink, but he beats people when he drinks, making the family restless. The second son often asks his parents for money, sometimes 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, and all the money is used for gambling. After losing the bet, he comes back to ask his parents for more. This is a hardship for the two old people. They cry every day, and Old Shen is even more miserable in his heart, and life is worse than death.
In order to get inner comfort, they deliberately adopted a girl, hoping to get a little warmth from it.
The two old people didn’t understand why they gave birth to such an unfilial and unpromising son. Facing the two old people crying helplessly and puzzled, I deeply felt that the retribution of good and evil was really like a shadow. Now, the seeds of past sins have blossomed and borne fruit. It’s really miserable!
In ancient times, there was a poor man who was penniless and helpless. He lay on the roadside and groaned helplessly because of illness. He looked like he was about to starve to death. Coincidentally, a woman passed by here and saw such a poor man. She immediately felt pity and took out half of her savings and gave it to the poor man. The poor man was very grateful at the time and vowed to repay the life-saving grace and promised to pay it back to the benefactor when he had money. As a result, the poor man used the money to do some small business, married and had children, and his life gradually became more comfortable, but he forgot the benefactor.
And this benefactor, because he took out half of his savings to help the poor, was suspected and reprimanded by his family after returning home, and spent his whole life in pain and sorrow-this benefactor is the second son of the Shen family now.
After the poor man gradually became rich, he went out with his wife to buy things one day. When they passed by the river, they saw an old man fall into the water. Instead of saving him, the couple watched the old man sink and drown, and took the old man’s package floating on the water for themselves. The old man who drowned later became the eldest son of the Shen family.
The poor couple is the current Mr. and Mrs. Shen. The debt they owed in the past will be repaid double in this life. The two sons are here to collect the debt. If the two elders do not repent, practice, and do great merits, they will be tortured to death by their two sons one day in the future.
When Mr. Shen learned the reason, he was terrified and vowed to repent well and practice Buddhism, hoping that the Buddha’s blessing can resolve the grudges and let him spend a comfortable old age.
Tip: The Mahaparinirvana Sutra says: “Suffering is the aspect of oppression, accumulation is the aspect of growth, extinction is the aspect of extinction, and the path is the aspect of Mahayana.” “The result of leakage is called suffering, the cause of leakage is called accumulation, the result of no leakage is called extinction, and the cause of no leakage is called the path.” There are many people who have taken human lives and violated the law because of greed. Greed is a sword of life and death hanging over our heads, and the retribution is extremely tragic. We must understand the cause and the effect, and we must not act rashly. Plant good causes and get good results, and plant bad causes and get bad results. On the journey of life, we must always be alert to ourselves, pure and kind, and not have any fluke mentality. Cause and effect are not wrong at all.
