Have you ever thought about it carefully: in this world, why are some people born in rich families and others born in poor families? Some babies are cute at birth, while others are ugly. Why are some people born chubby, while others are thin and sick? ..... Why is this? As the saying goes, "Dragon begets dragon, phoenix begets phoenix." If heredity can explain these problems, why do some mediocre parents give birth to smart and lovely babies, while some intellectuals give birth to stupid children instead? If nutrition can solve health problems, why are there many rich people who are skinny and sick all their lives? Haven't they eaten nutrition?
If hard work will definitely make you rich, then why do some people work hard all their lives, but they are still poor and rent a house from others? However, those children born in wealthy families are born in privileged positions, and they cannot enjoy all the property for life. If we discuss the above problems in depth, we can easily find that there is a mysterious and incredible factor. For example, why can't you choose your birthplace, family, parents and brothers freely? This irresistible factor and force is generally called "fate". Buddhists call it "past karma"-meaning the influence of our past actions on body, language and mind. Confucius once said, "If you don't know your destiny, you don't think you are a gentleman." The word "fate" actually refers to "cause and effect" or "karma". Because you don't know the cause and effect of three, you can't understand the origin of fate, and you can't change or create it. If you don't understand the origin of fate, you will blame others, you can't be happy with it, and you will see wealth as a cloud. If you can't change your destiny, what's the use of more knowledge and insight?
The birth of fate is actually a causal phenomenon of three generations. Those who truly understand fate must believe in the existence of three causes and three effects. Philosophers with great wisdom have affirmed the existence of fate, because the transformation of fate is based on affirming fate. Only by knowing fate and what it is can we further transform fate. Now, let's quote some famous sentences as follows: "Man proposes, God disposes." ("The Analects of Confucius" "Life and death have a life, and wealth is in the sky." (The Analects of Confucius) "Some people are born with wealth, some people earn it by their own efforts, and some people are forced to get rich." (Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) "Even when we are not paying attention, fate still dominates us ..." (Nietzsche) "Everything has a time, and everything in the world has a time. There is a time to live, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pull out, a time to kill, a time to make up, a time to tear down, a time to build ... "(Ecclesiastes, Chapter III)" The differences between the rich and the poor, the rich and the poor, and the beauty and ugliness at birth are all caused by past actions. " (the first bhikkhu sutra)
Ordinary people's wealth, poverty, beauty and ugliness, early death, life and death are all fixed, which is actually the result of their past thoughts, languages and behaviors. The quieter the mind, the higher the wisdom. The higher the wisdom, the more you can understand fate and karma. The ability to understand past lives is called "fatalism" in Buddhist scriptures. There are two ways to get the incarnation of fate. Some people have done very good things in their last lives, and there is a natural fate in this life. This is called "reporting". Some people's fate comes from meditation in this life, which is called "meditation". It is recorded in the ten parts of Hua Yan Jing that the third generation of bodhisattvas can understand the past one, two and three generations ... eternal life, thousand generations ... infinite thousand generations. For example: the formation and destruction of the world, one's own name, family, diet, life span, emotions, figure, appearance, where one was born and where one died … can all be remembered. It is also recorded in the Buddhist scriptures that a troubled saint can know what happened in the past 84 thousand robbery (note 2), and a perfect Buddha can know the endless past, future and present. In other words, he can thoroughly understand infinite time and space. Understanding the infinite past is the potential of each of us. But the troubles in our hearts, such as greed, hatred, meanness and jealousy, have blocked this great potential. Therefore, in this world, in order to understand the past world, in addition to diligent practice, we must rely on the classics about fate left by ancient philosophers. A reliable fortune-telling method is much like an accurate instrument. Because sophisticated scientific instruments can measure the amount of oil under the land, and fortune-telling methods can measure all kinds of potentials and phenomena in a person's mind. A fortune teller is like an experienced farmer. Can the old farmer tell the seeds of Chinese cabbage or spinach at a glance? When will this seed germinate? When will it bloom? When will there be results? How long, how high and how thick can it be? What about color and appearance ... he knows it like the back of his hand. So is a real fortune teller. He can know when all kinds of seeds and past karma in a person's heart will take effect. When will the results be reported? Whether fortune telling works or not depends entirely on the spiritual accomplishment of the fortune teller and the reliability of the fortune telling classics he relies on. The more reliable and accurate the classics it is based on, the smarter and more reliable it will be. For example, following the orthodox methods such as Zhuge Liang, Li, Yuan Tiangang, Liu Bowen, etc. is certainly more reliable than the books written by ordinary people. At present, there are many fortune tellers with half a bucket of water who want to invent another method without knowing the ancient method, but of course the accuracy is much worse. I advise you to read more ancient classics, not books written or translated by modern people, because modern books are mostly written for fame and fortune, and it is difficult to write excellent things. If you want to know your own destiny, you should study more classics such as karma, karma and karma. Of course, its quality is first-class, and its accuracy is 100%. There is nothing to say, which is of great help to inspire wisdom and cultivate virtue.
Freedom lies in doing good and inner purity, and freedom must be based on the law of cause and effect. For example, farmers now have the freedom to decide whether to work in the fields. But whether he goes to the farm or not, he will be influenced by the law of causality. If he goes to farm, he will be influenced by the causal law of "as you sow, so you reap". If he doesn't farm, he is dominated by the causal law of "no pains, no gains". With the law of causality, we can be free; Without causality, freedom means nothing to us. For example, if "you can't plant beans" and "you can't get anything from farming", what good is it for farmers to sow in the fields? Therefore, freedom must not leave the law of cause and effect. If you plant a career of freedom, you will reap the fruits of freedom. People who imprison animals or deprive others of their freedom are uncomfortable in the afterlife. Therefore, our freedom in this life is influenced by the good and evil we created in the past. We planted a good marriage in our last life, and we are free and happy in this life. Therefore, in the twentieth volume of Mindfulness, it is said: "For good, you can be liberated, for evil, you can be bound." Understand this concept, and you will know that the freedom of ordinary people is limited and relative. Only a saint who "never oversteps the rules" can have absolute and unlimited freedom. In other words, people who "do good without good thoughts and do evil without delusion" are truly free. This state of absolute freedom is called "nirvana-like wood" or "liberation" in Buddhist scriptures. Buddha is very merciful. He made many commandments to help us gain more freedom, so the more we obey his commandments, the more free we will be. Discipline is not bondage, but freedom. Because there is no freedom if you don't obey the commandments. For example, people who kill and rob are hunted everywhere. What kind of freedom is that? Therefore, the book "The Wonderful Method of Holy Reading" says: "People who do evil are like silkworms." You must remember that only by doing good can you be free, and the freedom of the evildoer is like a castle in the air, which is not true at all. Commandments tell us to love and respect all sentient beings and not to disturb or disturb them. Many laymen don't understand the spirit of the precepts, and think it is "the ethical code of cannibalism", which is really a big mistake! I have been protected by the bodhisattva, and my troubles have been obviously reduced, because I used to only care about myself, but now I have to care about others everywhere. Since I was appointed, I have been filled with joy every day. Without gratitude, how can I miss these commandments?
Everyone is the master of his own destiny. In fact, it should be said that the heart is the real master of fate. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have classic records: the gods are investigating the facts of good and evil on earth. (Note 10) The Tibetan Bodhisattva had hoped that the Merit Sutra would more clearly reveal the date when the Heaven Emperor and the God cared for good and evil on earth.
This date is Ramadan in June (the 8th, 14th, 15th, 23rd, 29th and 30th of each month) and Ramadan in October (the 1st, 8th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 28th, 29th and 30th of each month). Don't underestimate these ten days! Doing good in these ten days is much more blessed than usual. Of course, doing evil in these ten days is worse than usual. Why? Let me give you a simple example: for example, the director of education is going to visit a middle school. Do you think that date is important to the school? Of course it matters. If you had behaved better that day, wouldn't it be twice the result with half the effort? Of course, the date when the Heaven Emperor and the God came to earth is particularly important to ordinary people. Unless you can't stand the delusion and do good deeds every day, you have to work harder and accumulate more virtues in these ten days. Of course, the usual good deeds are inevitable. Therefore, the copy of the book says: "People who sincerely do good often have ghosts and gods to help them!"
What we should pay attention to is that although ghosts and gods have magical powers to know people's life span, sin and happiness, they can't give birth to people, kill people, or make people rich or poor, die young and live long, because the wealth, dignity and early death in this life are all the actions of good and evil in previous lives. (See the fable for details) So the book says, "It is not God who makes people short-lived, but their own bad karma." (Note 11) Ananda asked the Buddha for good or ill luck, saying, "Those who do good will be rewarded naturally. This blessing is not given to him by ghosts and gods. "
Some people don't understand this truth. When they encounter hardships, they do not repent their karma and plant good causes. Instead, they turned to God for advice. Isn't this putting the cart before the horse? Therefore, Confucianism said, "You have sinned and prayed to God, and God can't help you."
I advise you to be a vegetarian and not kill chickens and ducks, so as not to kill bad karma, and you will be short-lived and sick in the next life. It is really not worthwhile to spend money! Although killing chickens and ducks to worship ghosts for happiness, it will occasionally have some effect. But I'm afraid you won't worship again, and evil spirits will get in your way. Some evil spirits even bother you often on purpose. I hope you will continue to worship it with meat.
Think about it: Heaven is selfless. It is blessed to worship wine and meat, but it is a curse not to worship. Is that still selfless? Therefore, the "Tai Shang Induction" said: "There is no way for happiness or misfortune, and people call it themselves." The King's Sutra of Medog said: "Sin is rewarded like a shadow. Doing good will be blessed, and doing evil will be harmed. "
It is of great help to social stability to believe in the existence of Heaven Emperor and that God is investigating human good and evil. People who truly believe in God will never do anything wrong. Almost all the bad things recorded in newspapers are done by people who don't believe in God. If he believes in God, how dare he do so? But now many intellectuals think that "heaven" is just a kind of reason, not a kind of god. As we all know, the concept of justice only has an effect on rational intellectuals, but it has no deterrent effect on villains. For example, if you see a villain trying to rape a woman, you say to the villain, "You can't go in, there is justice in it!" " I don't think he will listen to you. But if you tell him, "You can't go in there. She is burning incense and worshipping God in the house. " I think the villain will hesitate for at least a while.
Causal cycle is the law of the balance of the universe, which has produced various worlds, including the wheel of karma, the past life and the six divisions in the Elysium.
If it is accidental, could it be that it was born somewhere by accident? Why do so many things happen by accident in my memory? There is a good saying. An accident is an accident, and many accidents are inevitable. Everything we encounter has a cause and effect from birth to death, but some processes between cause and effect are too complicated to be discovered by our ordinary people's sensory conditions and wisdom.
For example:
When you prick your arm with a needle, you will feel pain immediately. This is a simple cause and effect, which can be seen immediately. The universe is a whole. If you stick a needle in your friend's arm, maybe decades later, you may have changed places and people, and it may not be that needle that hurts you. In this case, can you still know that pain is the result?
In most cases, cause and effect are like this, and even some reasons were produced a long time ago. Now that we have received the result, how can we be sure that it is not karma?
From small things to big things, simply think about it and you will understand this truth.
Feel the bliss of the six divisions in the wheel of karma or in the west, just like electromagnetic waves. Although we can't see them with naked eyes now, there are countless electromagnetic waves in the air all the time, including your cell phone signal. Imagine that if you want to contact a friend of yours, you can only dial his phone number. Dialing another friend's phone will never reach him (hehe, unless they are together).
Therefore, if you want to feel the bliss of the six divisions in the Karma Wheel or the West, your frequency should correspond to them. If you want to meet all beings in heaven, you should correspond to the frequency of heaven. If you want to meet all beings in hell, you have to correspond to the frequency of hell. If you want to see heaven, you should correspond to the frequency of heaven!
Many practitioners in history have seen it and confirmed the six divisions in the wheel of karma and bliss. If you want to see it, there is no other way but practice.