The Inevitable and Unerring Law of Cause and Effect

In the Dharma-Ending Age, sentient beings are restless in mind, yet some deliberately cater to this restlessness to please them. If one does not oppose the evil habits of sentient beings at all, how can these habits be reversed? How can sentient beings attain liberation?

Sentient beings are not only greedy but also foolish, desperately craving that bit of honey on the tip of a knife. What will they end up gaining? No one considers this. Most people focus only on the immediate, so-called benefits, yet they risk falling into the three evil paths. They appear bold, but this is actually due to their foolishness and short-sightedness, unable to consider the profound, long-term benefits of the future.

Most people actually act and plan for their own personal gain, yet their actions not only fail to bring them benefit but often cause them to lose what they already have. However, no one realizes this or sees it clearly. Why? Because ignorance and delusion, because afflictions obscure their vision, preventing them from seeing themselves clearly or discerning the true gains and losses, advantages and disadvantages.

Regarding cause and effect, many do not truly believe. They always harbor a sense of luck, thinking that karmic retribution will fall on others but not on themselves. Thus, for their own benefit, they warn others that if they do not follow their arrangements, they will surely suffer certain evil consequences. Yet they do not realize that their own evil retribution is imminent, and they are currently creating the causes for that very retribution.

When I first studied Buddhism and read the sutras, I came across some true stories about cause and effect. I came to believe that cause and effect are real and unfailing, and thus became careful in my actions, speech, and thoughts. But Buddhists today do not read the sutras at all; they do not know what the sutras teach. Consequently, their minds are blind, and they do not understand cause and effect.

With the internet now so developed, creating evil karma is far more convenient than before. With just a flick of the finger, evil karma spreads throughout the land, truly lamentable. No one is alert to the evil consequences that follow the movement of their fingers. The ignorant are fearless; their minds are blocked, blindly following others, unaware of good and evil, thus creating grave evil karma without remorse.

Some create evil karma because they are incited or instigated by others, unaware of the truth themselves. For example, someone might tell them, "Go ahead and do this, it’s fine. I will bear the karma for you; you will only receive good results, not evil." Thus, some whose minds are blind believe this person, thinking they can truly bear the karma for them. Little do they know that when karma arrives, each bears their own retribution; it cannot be transferred to another. Not even one's own parents can do anything about it.