The world of Tzu Chi (Vol.107)

TZU CHI 107 53 THREE WAYS TO THE PURE LAND the Zen master. “Master, thanks to your teaching I have been liberated. I live in the mountains behind the temple. Please bury me with the ritual for a deceased monk.” The next day, Venerable Baizhang led his students to the mountain in the back and indeed they found the corpse of a fox in a cave. They cremated the body in a formal Buddhist ceremony. The old man had fallen into the animal realm and become a fox due to a mistake he made through saying a single wrong word. His story is an example of how a small deviation can take us far off course. Since we have started to learn the Buddha’s teachings and have understood the principle of cause and effect, we should follow the Buddha’s instructions and not rush from moment to moment. We must pay close attention to every thought that stirs in our minds and everything that we say and do. The fruits we reap will be in accordance with the causes we plant. The three periods of cause and effect The Buddha’s teachings often mention the “three periods of cause and effect”. The “three periods” refer to the past, present and future. In a longer time frame, they can refer to the previous life, the current life and the next life. In a shorter time frame, they can refer to yesterday, today and tomorrow. All these can be the “three periods”. As for cause and effect, what we sow are “causes”, and the results we receive are “effects”. If we sow positive causes, we will reap positive effects, and if we sow negative causes, we will reap negative effects. Take Tzu Chi, for instance. It is the planting of positive causes – the hard work accomplished over the years by all those who have volunteered and worked for Tzu Chi – that makes it possible today to reap the positive effects: people all over the world supporting and encouraging Tzu Chi’s work. But we are constantly moving into the future, and so we have to keep strengthening our resolve and increasing our efforts. If we work diligently now, we can look forward to an even better future. If people believe in the three periods of cause and effect, they will continuously do the best they can. There is a Chinese saying that states, “People know that there will be a spring next year, so they save seeds for the coming spring.” To sustain ourselves, we humans will make provisions for the future. In the same way, “When people believe that there is a future life to come, they will earnestly cultivate blessings for this future life.” Today we are able to live in prosperity and be in a country of great freedom because of the blessings we cultivated in our previous lives. If we want to extend our blessings into the future, we must diligently plant positive causes now. This concept of the three periods of cause and effect is not a superstitious belief. Take for example interpersonal relationships. If we want other people to treat us well in the present, we would have had to treat them well in the past. If we want to win other people’s support in the future, we must do the same for them now. In summary, we must