There is a family of three in Luoyang City, Henan Province. The male owner is honest and responsible, the female owner is hardworking and capable, and the seventeen-year-old daughter is beautiful and lovely. Logically speaking, this should be a happy and comfortable small family, but as the old saying goes, “Every family has its own troubles.” By chance, the hostess confided to me the troubles she had been having for many years.
Both she and her husband were from rural areas and had no relationship before marriage. During the blind date, she felt that the man was taciturn and reserved in his behavior. She thought that such a man must be honest and reliable, so she agreed to the marriage. After getting married, she discovered that her husband had many bad habits that she couldn’t tolerate. For example: when eating noodles, she said that if she ate noodles, the neighbors upstairs and downstairs could hear the popping sound in her mouth; when eating, her nose had crossed the “river” and she still ate without raising her head. Correct. Regardless of whether there are guests present or not, if he wants to fart, he has no intention of avoiding it. He goes so far as to “fart loudly” without any scruples, which makes everyone present extremely embarrassed, but he himself is completely unaware of it. No matter how hard she tried to persuade her in private, her husband was just like a lump on the elm, and he still went his own way. Because of these seemingly trivial things, the couple was infuriated. She felt that her husband was willing to be the laughing stock of others after dinner, which was really shameless and shameless, making both herself and her daughter ashamed to see others. For this reason, she had made several attempts to divorce, but was dissuaded by her relatives and friends. However, whenever she saw her husband, she felt “congested” in her heart. Her daughter, because she has lacked her father’s love since she was a child (never taking her out to play or hug her), has a lot of opinions about her father, rarely communicates with him verbally, and is like a stranger. Now, the mother and daughter who were talking and laughing immediately stopped talking as soon as he entered the door.
Since she converted to Buddhism, her daughter and she have given up eating meat. She insists on attending morning and evening classes every day, reciting sutras and reciting mantras. Because her daughter goes to school, she recites the Great Compassion Mantra on her way back and forth every day. It can be said that she is quite diligent. She can be open-minded and let go of many things, but she gets angry whenever she mentions her husband. I originally hoped to alleviate the pain of this marriage through my own practice, but unexpectedly, since becoming a vegetarian, I can no longer even smell the smell of my husband. They simply live in separate houses and ignore each other. So far, they have been separated for three years, and they are just waiting for the divorce next year as soon as their daughter goes to college. Because she spends every day in trouble and pain, she now suffers from frequent headaches and many other diseases.
Looking at this woman who was crying while talking, she was only in her forties, but she was tortured by an unfortunate marriage and was haggard and riddled with diseases. I knew that this was a collection of bad karma in the past life, which I, an ordinary person, could not help resolve, so I called the old monk Miaofa. After a brief pause, the master told me about the karma between this female lay monk and her husband in the previous life.
In one of her past lives, the female lay practitioner was a poor man who made a living by collecting herbs in the mountains and forests. One day he came to the drug store in the town at the foot of the mountain to sell medicinal materials. The young man who collected medicinal materials in the store said to him: I heard that there is a thousand-year-old elm tree in the mountains, and its bark can be used as medicine. Because the mountains are high and the roads are dangerous, no one wants to go there. , if you can collect the bark of this thousand-year-old elm tree, I will definitely give you a good price. The herb collector was very happy after hearing this, thinking that after making money this time, he could find a wife.
After some preparations, rock climbing and wading, he finally found this old elm tree that could not be hugged by three people. He was so overjoyed that he picked up the ax and chopped off the bark. Because he was very tired from going up the mountain, he chopped his ax into the tree after cutting for a while, climbed to the fork of the big tree and fell asleep. While sleeping, he dreamed of a young man wearing a green shirt kneeling in front of him and crying, saying that he was this old elm tree and had been practicing here for thousands of years. He would become an immortal in three years. If the bark of the tree is stripped off, all previous efforts will be wasted. If you ask him to come back to collect the bark in three years, you will definitely repay him when you become an immortal. After saying that, they kowtowed one by one. The herb collector shouted loudly in his dream: “No, no, no! I’m in a hurry to get a wife, I can’t wait three years!” When he woke up from the dream, where was the young man in green shirt? The herb picker finally walked into the drug store carrying a heavy load of elm bark. The little boy was overjoyed and was busy checking and weighing the goods. The illiterate herb collector said, “I’ve worked so hard, so don’t let me lose my weight!” The boy replied casually, “Don’t worry, if I lose your weight, I will be your son in the next life!”
This female lay practitioner is the medicine gatherer, and her husband is the thousand-year-old elm tree that was stripped of its skin. As the old saying goes: “A man needs face, but a tree needs bark.” Didn’t the female lay practitioner say that her husband was “an elm lump” or “shameless and skinless”? She really got it right. A person’s temper and habits are closely related to his past life experiences and encounters.
The little boy at the drug store did deduct the money from the herbal picker, but instead of treating him as a son, he became a daughter. Because it was precisely because of the little boy’s guidance and inducement that the Taoist career of the Millennium Elm was destroyed, and the little boy was the “culprit” for the destruction of the Millennium Elm. So in this life, the little boy is reincarnated as the daughter of this fateful family. The female body suffers more than the male body. What’s more, she is still a daughter who cannot get her father’s love. Doesn’t it mean the suffering is even worse! This is also the reason why their father-daughter relationship is cold and unusual.
After understanding the cause and effect of the past and present lives, the female lay practitioner and her daughter should sincerely repent of their sins in the past life, and also repent of their resentment toward their husband and father in this life respectively. (The reason why he is so unreasonable today is all because of their mother and daughter’s previous lives. The consequences of your actions.) Then recite “Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’s Original Vow Sutra” forty-nine times for the old elm tree devoutly. During the introduction, their families will definitely improve their relationship and enjoy family happiness again.
Perhaps it was the connection between the female laywoman and her daughter who had been chanting sutras and chanting mantras for three years, eating fast and chanting Buddha’s name. Perhaps the opportunity was ripe. When I relayed the instructions of the old monk Miaofa exactly as they were, mother and daughter felt like they had just woken up from a dream and accepted them with joy. . Especially her daughter, who was surprised and happy, said to her mother: “Mom, you have been angry with your father for more than ten years, blaming him for being shameless. It turns out that you yourself stripped off my father’s face!” This sentence made everyone present laugh.
Half a month later, the female lay practitioner called from Luoyang to report the good news. She said that her headaches were completely cured and her other illnesses were much milder. She could now recite the Ksitigarbha Sutra every two hours and her husband had also changed. She decided to continue reciting the Ksitigarbha Sutra forty-nine times, once a day, dedicating it to all sentient beings in the Dharma Realm, hoping that all sentient beings in the Dharma Realm could hear the Ksitigarbha Sutra and benefit from its understanding. After hearing this, I was really happy for her and wished them a harmonious and happy Buddhist family soon!
