A 27- or 27-year-old woman’s deafness waxed and waned. The hospital examination said there was nothing wrong with her, but she couldn’t hear clearly and didn’t know what was going on.
The master asked her: “What kind of job do you do? Why are the holes in your ears filled with coins?”
The woman was confused for a moment and couldn’t answer. I explained to her that the money should not belong to you, but you took advantage of it and took it as your own. Your deafness is caused by embezzlement of small money, not by actual money in your ears. Think about it, is this happening? She immediately replied that she did. She worked as a cashier in a petroleum sales department. When checking out every day, she would often get a few extra cents, which were only about 10 or 20 cents. These were all left by customers who did not want cents. She took the bus to and from get off work and used the money as car payment. She thought this was not corruption. I told her, this is not corruption, but it is greed, right? She nodded sheepishly.
The master asked her: “Will you still be greedy for these small money in the future?”
She said simply: “This is called taking advantage of a small amount and suffering a big loss. I will never be greedy again!”
“That’s good!”
Before the master finished speaking, she looked very surprised: “My ears are much clearer now!”
But the master said: “The cents in the ears are gone, but there are still small ham sausages in them. What’s going on?”
The woman opened her mouth wide in surprise: “Oh my god! How can you see everything! Sometimes you may give customers less change, but a few dollars more when you check out at night. We will buy this money at noon the next day Some ham sausage and an extra vegetable! Is this considered my sin?”
“You are the cashier, so you shouldn’t have miscalculated the account! Besides, the extra money should be handed over to the public, and should not be ‘divide privately’. Isn’t it your decision?”
“You’re right.” She nodded repeatedly, “People say ‘God has eyes’, and it turns out God really has eyes! From now on, I will never do anything like this to take advantage of others.”
“Keep your word!”
“Master, my ears are completely healed!” She suddenly stood up with joy, “Did you give me the power?”
I replied on behalf of Master: “The power of your confession and vow just now is stronger than the influence of all external forces.”
She was extremely happy, and then said thoughtfully: “My eyes have been feeling terrible these past few years. When I opened them, I didn’t find any blisters, but my inner eyelids were always very red. Did I do something wrong?” Retribution for deeds?”
“It’s good that you can reflect consciously now! There is a lot of washing powder in your eyelids.” Master answered almost without thinking.
“Oh, I know! We sell petroleum products. Because soap can’t wash away oil stains, we always need to wash our hands with washing powder every day at work. Our petroleum sales department is not busy with business. We women, in our free time, I washed my own work clothes, and later I even took the laundry at home to the store to wash, which not only saved me time doing housework after work, but also saved the washing powder and water at home.”
“By doing this, you are embezzling the country’s property and your time working for the country. It is equivalent to receiving wages that you should not receive, right?”
She nodded, “How come I never thought of this as a crime before? Doesn’t this make me a bad person?” There were tears in her eyes.
I couldn’t help but interject: “I was just like you when I didn’t understand Buddhism. The Ksitigarbha Sutra says that every thought of people in our world is neither karma nor sin. There are many sentient beings born in the desire realm. At least they all have habits of greed, anger, and ignorance. For example, you are sick because of greed, ignorance of the law, and ignorance of reason. As soon as you repent, won’t your illness be cured?”
Master added compassionately: “In the future, we must read more scriptures to increase our wisdom, make more contributions at work, and find ways to make up for the embezzled property to the work unit.”
When the woman left, she felt that her eyes were much better, and her heart was filled with respect and yearning for Buddhism.
This example of cause and effect has benefited me a lot. It seems that I am helping others, but in fact these things that happened to them have deeply educated me. When I looked at my past, I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of repentance. Because I am older than her, I have been creating karma for a longer time, I am also more greedy than her, and I have done more wrong things. This woman has a cheerful personality without losing her innocence, but I have a bad temper and am very foolish, full of greed, anger, and delusion. If I don’t practice cultivation quickly, my future will be bleak.
These stories of cause and effect that happen around me encourage me to keep improving. Time is not waiting for me!
