The world of Tzu Chi August 2020 (Vol.125)

2020 • 08 48 harma Heretical practices can hurt our wisdom “F urthermore, they must not make medicine, become a fortune-teller, or use astrology to predict profit and loss or make divinatory calculations.” Here are several things that should be avoided, since these are parts of heretical practices. The first is making medicine. Since we have a body, we will undergo birth, ageing, illness and death. When sick, one needs to be treated by a doctor to regain health. However, some people do not seek a doctor, but instead petition gods and fortune-tellers—these are not proper ways. When people use remedies based in superstition, they may even delay the start of their medical treatment and in this way miss the opportunity to get well. The second is becoming a fortune-teller; the Buddha told his disciples that everything is due to the karma of sentient beings. However, many people enjoy going to fortune-tellers and believe in all kinds of folk superstitions. However, this is not proper faith. In fact, everything follows the principle “as are the causes and conditions, so are the effects and retributions”. Another way of expressing this is that nothing follows us in death except our karma. If no causes for obstructions have been planted in the past, then we will not receive effects of obstruction; without creating the causes of afflictions, we cannot encounter the karma of afflictions. When our view of cause and effect is right, we joyfully accept whatever comes. We should not run to fortune-tellers as soon as we encounter a setback. If the fortune-teller tells you your luck will be bad this year, won’t you go through an entire year in a panic? We should have a proper view of cause and effect and joyfully accept whatever comes, as this is the way to eliminate our negative karma. What matters is to knowwhat we need to do today. If we always have good thoughts and nurture integrity, why would we worry about what the year will bring? So, if we maintain the right faith, we will have no need for fortune-tellers. The third is to use astrology to predict future profit or loss. Before science and technology, it was common to pay great attention to astrology, using strained interpretations and far-fetched analogies to predict fortune and misfortune. “When a certain star reached a certain position, there would be good fortune”, or “when one star converged with another, there would be great upheaval”, and so on; this only made people panic. In fact, if we can just nurture goodness in our hearts at all times and work together to accumulate good karma, then we will have beneficial weather and harmonious human CHAPTER 2 - UPHOLD PRECEPTS