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Update: 11/04/2015
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Based on the spirit of Cause-Effect Law and Karma,\r\neverything we have nowadays because seeds have been sown in past generations,\r\nwithout being in this generation. For instance, almost all of people want to\r\nget good things such as happiness, wealth, beauty, success, luck, etc, but they\r\ndo not occur immediately. Sometimes we wish for many things, but we attain one\r\nthing; however, we wish for nothing, but blessings will come. Therefore, it\r\nshows that all success, failure, possession or loss in the current life, which\r\nis the result’s deliberately or inadvertently having sowed in the past. If we\r\nformerly sow lemons’ seed, sour lemons will be harvested. Conversely, when\r\nmangoes’ seeds were sowed, we have some sweet mangoes now.
In reality, many people still wonder and do not deeply\r\nexplain the law of cause and effect, because they simply look at things in one\r\naspect of life without knowing that all phenomena in the world are closely\r\ncorrelated during all three life spans – past, present and future. Some people\r\nwho have bad personalities and do evil deeds are always rich and lucky.
On the other hand, those who are good and gentle still live\r\nin poverty and suffer many accidents. Therefore, some people who do not master\r\nthe Dharma probably suspect the practical causality and the Karma so as not to\r\ncontinue learning anymore. That immediate causality is seen, but constant flow\r\nof causality of all three life spans is not seen is a skewed and shortsighted\r\nknowledge.
It is like a person who had worked for ten years and saved\r\nan amount of money in bank. In the eleventh year, although he did not go to\r\nwork and wasted money for playing, his cabinet was still stored much money.\r\nOthers witnessed this and wondered why he did nothing but still owned much\r\nmoney for conspicuous consumption. They could not know about his accumulated\r\nmoney during past ten years.
In contrast, a person who had also worked for ten years not\r\nonly did a job, but also two or three jobs and earned much money. Nevertheless,\r\nhe spent such all his money which was earned simultaneously that he was\r\nindebted. By the eleventh year, foreseeing the dangerous conspicuous consumption,\r\nhe tried his best to work in order to make up for that of the past year.\r\nDespite of working hard, his family budget was not enough money, and his life\r\nwas always more difficult and more debt was piled up. This caused him wonder\r\nthat the cause and effect law was unfair, and then he had a dissatisfied mind.\r\nThey could not see his suffering was due to excessively spending in the\r\nprevious lives and he only accumulated money just at the beginning.
Likewise, the cultivation and blessing must be\r\npracticed and accumulated for a long time, which is enjoyed later. Some people\r\nused to practice charity and serving the Buddha, etc in past lives; hence, they\r\nneither practice charity nor make a good deed in this life, but still get an\r\neasy and blissful life because of their blessing which were accumulated\r\npreviously. However, despite the blessing as slit sand, "A fool and his\r\nmoney are soon partedâ€. Spending blessing until it is empty one day will make them\r\nsuffer misery. Thus, people should regret to waste blessing, and should not\r\nenjoy the achievement created. Sowing past cause, and harvesting present\r\nresult. Sowing present cause will enjoy a good future result.
If you want to know the past cause,
See present effect.
Sowing present cause,
That is the future effect.
Because understanding the causality in three lives, we\r\nneither resent Gods nor become tired of this due to a lack of knowledge so as\r\nto give up the religion. The Buddhist needs the same insight.
Furthermore, although the causality differs more or less,\r\ndeeds created never lose in a large amount of lives. Sowing present cause maybe\r\nreceive in following lives. Sometimes cause and effect is in valid in the\r\npresent. For example, we yell at someone, and they immediately brawl\r\nagain, even violently respond on arms and legs. It is called immediate\r\nretributions.
Once upon time, when the Buddha was alive, there was an old\r\nman who knew that the Buddha would go into Nirvana soon begged for being a\r\nmonk. Honorable One Sariputta who used his supernatural power to observe his\r\nbackground and conditioning environment knew that this man had not shown any\r\ngood deeds in eight ten thousand of kalpas on; therefore, he refused.
Listening to the old man’s begging and weeping sound,\r\nin the monastery, the Buddha came out and approved of the proposal. At cross\r\npurposes, Sariputta asked Buddha about that. He explained: "Even though\r\nall of the Sravaka and Arhat are enlightened with the supernatural\r\npowers, you just see back a limit on eight eons because of your\r\nlimited stage of attainment.
Before eight eons ago, this old man sews a good seed. He was\r\na woodcutter and encountered a tiger in forest. In that case, he quickly\r\nclimbed up a tree to escape from it. The tiger roared, jumped up from the\r\nground and tried to catch a pray. In the frightening time, he had blurted\r\n"Namo Buddhaâ€. The tiger heard this saying, turned tail, walked away and\r\nhe was let free. It was a saying that was a good cause, which followed him to\r\nthis life and The Buddha allowed him to be a monk. In a short time, from his\r\npersistence and effort, he was enlightened Arhat by The Buddha’s\r\nintelligent, skillful and genius teaching.
Those are future retributions which prove that believing\r\ncausality does not lose despite he had been experiencing in a very long time.\r\nThe Sutta read: "Supposing in the hundreds of thousands of living\r\nbeings, good or bad deeds are not lost. When there are enough cause and\r\ncondition, the retribution of Karma naturally appears".
The Buddha said: “Karma is originated from thoughtâ€.\r\nWe hate someone at the first meet. Although we do not say, they also know\r\nbecause of our unfriendly glance. The bad thought will survive and be nurtured\r\nin our mind until one day we will display in words and actions. We have simply\r\ntalked about coarse fraction, next taking into subtle fraction, evil deeds are\r\ngerminated in mind and they create a bad magnetic field, despite of mysterious\r\nhiding, which is still obviously noticed by a sensitive person. Therefore, in\r\nour daily life, our speech, actions and thought that are important should be\r\nconsidered because all of them have the causality apparently.
"The cause and effect is like a body and its\r\nshadow, like the voice and its echoes". Sowing good cause will harvest\r\ngood effect, and vice versa, whether our lives being rich or poor, happy or\r\nsad, healthy or sick, etc. depend on ourselves. Thus, everyone should know how\r\nto cultivate for the body, speech and mind being controlled and selected.\r\nTrying to sow good seeds so as to harvest beautiful, delicious fruits and\r\nalso use it as a nice benefit to the people around, which is deserve\r\nunderstanding the causal principles of Buddhism.
Thich Minh Thanh.
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Translated into English by On Thi Ngoc Thao.