Conserving Our Good Fortune

When we create goodness, we amass good fortune. What does good fortune look like? It can manifest as a safe living environment, satisfactory resources, or a good education. It can be a loving family and caring friends. If we live prudently and do not foolishly drain our good fortune, we will conserve it for when we need it most—at the end of our lives.

 

How might we reduce our good fortune? By taking more than we need and by not using all that we have taken.

Why do we need to conserve it for the end of our lives? Our last moments lead to our next lifetime. To die without pain or suffering, to be clear minded and aware of what is happening is very rare. To be with loved ones and friends who encourage and support us, and to die in an environment where our final wishes are honored is also very rare. To die peacefully enables us to have the thoughts that will lead to a good rebirth.

Whether our wish is to go to heaven or the Pure Land, a peaceful death in which our mind is clear and at ease is essential. And to have all the right conditions to bring this about, we need that good fortune.

Not knowing how much we have or when we will die, conserving our good fortune and not squandering it is our best hope for having it when we really need it. 

Fear in Our Lives

Because we are only accepting of pleasure in our lives,

an immense amount of fear is created

as we spend our lives dodging pain.

~ Author Unknown 

Beings in the Pure Land

In the Pure Land, we will be born inside our lotus flower, a pure conception. This is different from a fetus spending nine months in the womb. When one enters the womb, one is not pure. One’s thoughts are not pure. Neither is the living environment. The womb is surrounded by the large and small intestines, by feces and urine. Therefore, the environment is not pure.

It is different when one is born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. The lotus flower is pure. In addition, one is born through transformation. As soon as one is born, the body is tall and the appearance is magnificent. There are no young or old people there. Everybody has the same appearance. It is a world of equality. Therefore, the mind is at peace.

People in this world have different appearances and do not have an impartial mind. One who has good fortune or good looks can easily become arrogant. One who has no good fortune or is unattractive often suffers from a sense of inferiority. These are common social phenomena.

In the Western Pure Land, everyone has the same appearance, the same physical conditions, the same living environment, and the same learning. Everyone is equal in everything there. Therefore, one will not have afflictions such as arrogance or a sense of inferiority.

Although one still has the seeds of afflictions and residual habits, there are no conditions that will cause these afflictions and residual habits to arise. This is why the Western Pure Land is incomparably wondrous and why it is praised by all Buddhas. These inconceivable conditions are because of the powers of the original vows and the merit of innumerable kalpas of cultivation of Amitabha Buddha.

~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra

Karma Is A Natural Law

The theory of karma should not be confused with so-called "moral justice" or "reward and punishment." The idea of moral justice, or reward and punishment, arises out of the conception of a supreme being, a God, who sits in judgment, who is a law-giver and who decides what is right and wrong. The term "justice" is ambiguous and dangerous, and in its name more harm than good is done to humanity. The theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward and punishment. Every volitional action produces its effects or results. If a good action produces good effects and a bad action bad effects, it is not justice, or reward, or punishment meted out by anybody or any power sitting in judgment on your action, but this is in virtue of its own nature, its own law. This is not difficult to understand. But what is difficult is that, according to karma theory, the effects of a volitional action may continue to manifest themselves even in a life after death.

~ Walpola Rahula

The Karma of Thought

 

What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts,
is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with an impure thought,
suffering follows one,
like the wheel of the cart
follows the foot of the ox.

What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts,
is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows one,
like a shadow that never leaves.

~ The Buddha