Notes Beside the Bamboo Window — Third Collection, Part 30

Karmic retribution falls into three kinds: the first is committing wrong in this life and receiving retribution within this same life; the second is committing wrong in this life and receiving retribution in the next life; the third is committing wrong in this life, not receiving retribution in the next life either, but receiving it only after many further lives have passed. The same holds true for good deeds as well. The pace of retribution, whether fast or slow, has its own particular causes and conditions in each case — but when ordinary people see a wicked person go unpunished, or even prosper further still, they grow indignant and resentful, simply because they do not understand this teaching of retribution unfolding across three periods of time. The latter two kinds of retribution lie beyond what people can actually witness, so it is retribution within this very life that draws the most attention.

Let me set down here several cases of retribution witnessed within this same life — things I saw with my own eyes, not stories passed along secondhand. One man habitually beat his maidservants and manservants, often several hundred blows at a time. One day he bound a servant's neck to one pillar and his feet to another, leaving him no room to move at all, and beat him without pause. The servant's own father, learning of this, flew into a rage and rushed to free him, telling him: "Leave at once — if your master accuses you of running away, I will accuse him of gross impropriety first." The servant thus managed to escape with his life. Later, this same cruel master ended up selling his own son to another family, and was himself reduced to serving as a gatekeeper in some official's household.

Another man spent his whole life flogging people as though he himself held official authority to punish criminals; he later suffered official corporal punishment himself, and died in prison. Another was the wife of a moderately prosperous household who spent money recklessly without limit; she later lost every one of her children, and in her old age, with no one to depend on, supported herself by mending other people's clothes. Another was the son of a high official, arrogant, extravagant, and dissolute, squandering wealth without any sense of shame; he later ended up trailing after wandering monks and beggars, scavenging for food from place to place. Another man slandered the celestial gods without any restraint whatsoever, and was later beaten by villagers until he fell ill and died. Another man hurled abuse at the Buddha and the sages, uttering words too vile for anyone to bear hearing, and not long afterward died away from home, never to be buried in his native place. Another man, enraged that his own mother would not turn over all her wealth to him, broke off the arm of the statue of Guanyin that she had long worshipped — he later fell from his horse near a lake embankment and broke his own arm, nearly dying of it.

Another man fathered seven daughters and seven sons; each time a daughter was born, he drowned her the moment she touched the ground. His seven sons, one after another, also died in turn, so that of his fourteen children not a single one survived, leaving only the old man and his wife to weep facing one another. And there were several monks as well, arrogant and self-satisfied, who reflexively condemned as wrong whatever their contemporaries said, going so far as to belittle even the ancient sages with baseless slander — all of these men died young, or died of some terrible illness. I set these cases down here simply to serve as a warning to the arrogant and unrestrained.

Someone asked: "The Tathāgata's spiritual power is inconceivable — why does he not simply cause every wicked person to receive evil retribution immediately within this life, so that people would grow cautious and fearful each day and dare not do wrong; and cause every virtuous person to receive good retribution immediately as well, so that people would grow diligent each day and redouble their good deeds? The world would then achieve peace effortlessly! Why has this simply never occurred to him?"

Ah! Whether retribution comes quickly or slowly is simply how the karmic retribution of sentient beings naturally unfolds — even a great sage cannot compress what naturally takes a long time into something swift, nor stretch out what naturally comes quickly into something slow. All the sages and worthies can do is earnestly proclaim to the world that cause and effect are never false, and that repayment, once incurred, is exceedingly difficult to escape. If someone hears this teaching and still refuses to believe it, then truly nothing more can be done for him!

The questioner continued: "Yongjia said: 'Once one has fully realized this, karmic obstruction is originally empty.' If it is empty, then what karmic repayment could there possibly be?" I answered: "Have you yourself fully realized this?" He said: "Not yet." "Then, not yet having realized it, you must certainly still repay your own past debts."