Traversing the Meandering River of Karma
Selflessness matters
When I was growing up as a monk in a Thai forest monastery, we had to make the robes we wear ourselves. It was not an easy task. Not only do we had to take the cloth, cut it out and sew it, we also had to dye it ourselves by boiling chips of wood from the jackfruit tree to get the sap. Even without sleep, it took literally days to make them. I remembered there was this group of monks who had no rest due to making the robes for 36 to 40 hours. Out of compassion, I decided to help them after the evening meeting to mind the fire for the dye throughout the night so that they could get some sleep. I went without sleep that night. But do you know, instead of being drowsy and tired that morning, I had lots of energy. I couldn’t understand why I was more awake that morning than most other mornings, so I asked a teacher, “Why?” My teacher told me if you sacrificed your sleep to help others, and you get more energy than you had a good rest, that proved that I had done some good karma. Because of my selfless service to others, I had gotten immediate karmic rewards of energy, happiness and, of course, the friendliness of other monks.
If you act with selflessness, kindness and care to other people, even for other beings, you get immediate reward and positive mental energy, which is happiness. Sometimes, you also get a reward afterwards that last for a very long time. The law of karma is the law of happiness. If you want to be happy, don’t think that the world conspires against you, or that you have to be stuck in a difficult situation, go out there and do something about it. The karma from your past gives you what you have to work with. But the most important part of karma is what you are doing about it right now.
For instance, if, due to your past karma, you have a terrible boss who gives you all his work and goes off to play golf the whole day, what are you doing with your present karma? Because whatever you have to experience in life you can always do something about it. You can get friendly with your boss. Take him out to lunch or dinner, find out what he likes or what his problems are. Talk to him, but choose your opportunities, at the right time and place, and not when he’s busy.
Generally, in life, be it in relationship, business or others, it is about finding the right time and the right place to say the right things. So you wait. If you have a girlfriend who’s giving you trouble, take her out to an expensive restaurant. Give her a sumptuous meal and when she’s at her final course, speak to her so soft and malleable that you can ask her anything you like and she won’t get angry.
When a person is treated kindly, they like to treat you kindly in return. It’s just the law of karma. You may experience a difficult situation due to your past karma, but what you are doing in the present is most crucial. Are you using that experience to be a better person? To learn from it?
Transforming the negative into positive
In my life as a monk, I’ve been in sticky situations. I’ve counselled other people in difficult situations and I’ve always found this active law of karma (“Well this is what you’re experiencing, something negative, and what you’re doing about it.”) very, very powerful.
Once, there was a woman who told me she had been raped. I looked at her and used my mindfulness to find out what sort of woman I was talking to. I quickly found out this was quite a strong and wise person who had enough good karma from the past to be able to deal with it in a special way. So I told her how lucky she was. She looked at me in utter surprise. I don’t usually say this to everyone who had been in this terrible situation. I told her, “I’m not saying that it’s good or whatever but you can actually use that experience and turn it into something wonderful, by contemplating and understanding, to get beyond your pain and to help other women move beyond that experience into freedom.”
“Only people who have had those experiences had an opportunity to help others,” I said. “I, as a monk, as a man can never know how you feel but I can tell you if you make use of that terrible experience you can turn it into something amazing. You can be the counsellor, the friend, the wise one. Only you because you’ve been there. You’ve felt that pain, that abuse so only you can take somebody else’s hand from the place you’ve been and lead them out into freedom.” That I said is how you use a terrible karma and turn it into something wonderful and beautiful. She nodded. She understood and I think she’s on the way not just to her own recovery but also to be a special person in our society who can lead other people out of that terrible situation. Sometimes, only those who felt the very worst of emotional suffering that gets deep inside, not just the physical pain, can actually take the hand of somebody else and say “I know not just how hard it feels but I also know the way out. Come.”
This is an example of how we understand the law of karma even if a devastating thing happens in our life. We can make use of that for the benefit of all other beings. Sometimes you are hurt and tortured by the untimely death of a child, a loved one, maybe a fiancé whom you’re about to get married to, due to an earthquake, a tsunami, a heart attack, or an accident they die. So close to happiness and they’re taken away. Sometimes you ask why. Why do these things happen? I say stop asking that question and get out and do something about it. When we waste time asking why, we are not actually doing something about the situation.
Death comes to all, young and old
During the aftermath of a tsunami, an earthquake, we can give donations, go help look after the injured and the sick, rebuild their homes, rebuild their lives, but most importantly is to learn just how precious life truly is. How easy it is to die, even for a young person. When you realise that, you don’t have time for arguments. You don’t have time for being selfish. If you want to tell someone how much you love them how much you care for them, you do it now. If you have hurt someone you say sorry now. Because the earthquake tells you that sometimes we don’t know how long we have to say these important things to the important people in our life. For life can be snuff out in an instance. This is what an earthquake does, a sudden death, a tragedy. It jots us back to what is truly important in life. And what’s important in life is not wealth or fame but your loved ones and your own spiritual heart. Your goodness, your kindness. This is another example of the law of karma. How can we take what most people call tragedies and turn it into something wonderful and beautiful?
A Buddhist from UK visited and volunteered to work in a refugee camp in Africa some years back. It was a terrible situation there, with many starving children and women but limited food to distribute. Every morning, this lady was given a number. This number represented the number of people she could let in that day. Only that many. The rest had to be kept outside. She knew those who could come in would survive and those outside would die. But if they share the limited food thinly with everyone, nobody would survive. For weeks, this lady had the horrible job of literally choosing who would live, and who would die. Those who heard her story thought that must have been so terrible. But strangely, she told us no, it was one of the most inspiring times of her life. Because every morning when she went outside and said six of you could come in, the starving African women and children said,” Don’t take me, take her, that one over there.” Even though they knew they would die, they gave up their chance so that others may live. It was most inspiring for her to witness the fact that in the face of death, there were people who were so selfless and compassionate. They would rather sacrifice themselves and give life to somebody else. Her faith in humanity, kindness, compassion, selflessness which a religion speaks about but very rarely act upon was fully restored. This is another example of how the law of karma works. The situation that you’re put in, even terrible ones in which you’re about to die, can allow people to be selfless, dying with such grace and inspiration to soar way up into the high heavenly realms.
An act of kindness doesn’t just brighten you up, it also brightens up for all sentient beings. It brings inspiration and goodness into our lives. Instead of lamenting and asking why is this happening to me, learn from it, learn from the mistakes and become a better person.
If you really want you can do whatever and anything you like in this life. You can make a beautiful picture out of something you think is hopeless. I have seen it happened and its wonderfully inspiring to know that is what the law of karma means. All possibilities are open to you; its just some possibilities take more hard work than others. The law of karma means that you are free, you are free to make your future. The present moment, you’re confined to that. You may suffer from a relationship problem, cancer, a loss of job or a divorce but you can always turn it around. You can make a beautiful cake out of the worst ingredients, that’s what it says in my book. That’s what the law of karma means. You create your world. You are in charge. Whatever you got to deal with now, you can make it wonderful and beautiful. You don’t need to be rich to be happy, you don’t need to have the most beautiful girl in the world to have a wonderful wife, you don’t need to have a husband who is earning two hundred thousand a year to have the most wonderful man by your side. It’s up to you what you make of what you’ve got.
Beauty of the heart
I remember once when I was cleaning the hall in Thailand, sweeping behind the cupboard, a girl ran in. At first, I thought she was a burglar because she was looking around to make sure no one was there. I soon recognised her. She was the village girl who was brain damaged from birth. She could not speak, or go to school and could hardly do anything. I wondered what she was doing. I hid and looked from behind the cupboard so she could not see me. I saw her place something in front of the Buddha statue in the main hall. She put her palms together very quickly, looked around and dashed out again. Once she was gone, I went to see what she had left on the altar. It was a paper lotus that she had made. Only a small one, and not very pretty. When I saw that, and I knew where it had come from, how hard it was for her to do that, and how embarrassed she was that she had to sneak in and put it in front of the Buddha statue, I almost cried. I told the other monks when they came in and the abbot who was much senior than me, “Don’t move that paper flower. If you do, I’m going to ge
t angry at you. I’m not going to stand there because I know where that had come from.” That had been a gift, which was so hard for that brain damaged girl to do and she had gone to such extreme lengths to sneak it in and put it in front of the Buddha statue.
To me, that was one of the most beautiful offerings I’ve seen. Because it came from such a pure, generous heart. Even in her difficulty and the need to put in much effort, she made something, and that was a beautiful offering. This is what we mean by karma. It is a joy, a beauty of your heart when you do something like that. It doesn’t matter how big the lotus is, how much the donation is, it doesn’t matter what the act is, it is where it comes from that matters.
When I see people doing inspiring things, I know that is huge good karma. Huge good karma like that creates happiness in this world, for you and for all the other people. So take the opportunity, any chance you have to help someone who’s crying, someone in pain, don’t think about being late for work. Take that chance, do something beautiful and you will never regret it.
Be a good person, a kind person, a virtuous person, a wise person. The Buddha said, the person who sees the Buddha sees the Dharma. So having faith in Buddha is having faith in the Dharma, having faith in truth, in goodness, virtue and purity. Keep then right at the heart of things and you will make huge good beautiful karma.
According to the seed that is sown, So is the fruit ye reap therefrom.
A talk given by Ven. Ajahn Brahm at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery
A True Act of Kindness
By Vasana Chinvarakorn
Their gestures to each other were brief, austere. But the memory of the scene is etched in my mind -and makes me smile when I think of the pair.
It was a busy Monday evening of traffic-as-usual. I stood at the intersection, waiting, waiting, waiting for the pedestrians’ light to turn green. Continuously, speeding cars filed by, honking, spewing exhaust fumes, fouling the humid air – the purgatory of the stationary sidewalk crowd seemed to last forever.
But thanks to this daily delay, I was able to witness one of the nicest things about fellow humans.
All of a sudden, the man in front of me turned sideways. My eyes followed his move. He was holding an old cranky bicycle in one hand, while the other hand dug into a plastic bag in the bike’s front rack. It produced a crinkly twenty-baht banknote.
My eyes followed his move. What was he trying to do? A few metres from me stood another man, someone who looked so ordinary he would not have “existed” (in my limited world of perception), had the bicycle owner not initiated the event.
What both of them did next proved an old adage: We should not – cannot – judge others by their appearance. There is beauty, and dignity, in the little things that we may have glossed over.
The first man extended his right hand, with the small banknote, to the second man. No words were uttered, but it was apparent he wanted the older man to take the money.
A spectator now, I saw why. The old man had that pitiful look -a dirty blue outfit, the smudgy, peppery hair – of someone who clearly belonged to the lowest of the low echelon.
How the second man responded made me, an observer, feel humble. He shook his head, refusing the sudden charity.
Why? The “giver” himself did not seem to be in a much better state. I recognised him, as a “regular”, who earned his keep by playing the violin in that area. People walked by and around him, some dropping a coin or two in the bag on his bike but most – including me – speeding by, preoccupied by our own errands and thoughts.
But the violin player – and his well-worn instrument – continued to offer the eerie yet soothing music to everyone. When he plays, he is an islet of tranquillity at the centre of the madding crowd.
Now I heard him speak for the first time. He had a tired voice, but it suggested kindness. The violin player said, “Please take it, uncle, so you can buy yourself a bowl of noodles.”
The old man dug his hand into his trousers pocket. He produced a small coin. I stole a glance – the familiar, silver five-baht coin.
The message was clear. The elderly man did not want to be a burden to the violinist. The 20-baht bill would mean a full meal, a stomach not left hungry. But then what could the old man find to eat with that five-baht coin?
The violin player repeated the same sentence. And again. Finally the aged man gave in. The expression on his face was indescribable as the violinist passed the banknote into his wrinkled hand.
A moment of quiet gratitude. The old man shuffled away.
I tried to look ahead. The traffic was still in full motion. We were still waiting. My eyes inched right again, and the back of the violin player came into focus. His shirt was clean but threadbare. There was a patch; the repair job was frankly poor stitching.
The light turned green at last. The violinist hopped on his bicycle and raced away. I crossed the street, unable to catch up. On the opposite side, a few metres on, I spotted a small flower on the pavement.
The wind must have blown it off a tree in the neighbourhood. The pink petals had already started to wilt, but against the hard granite, this small and fragile thing seemed to smile at me. And I felt blessed.
This true account personally witnessed by the writer is reprinted with permission from the Bangkok Post.
Ullambana Stories 关于盂兰盆
According to the Ullambanapatra Sutra, Ullambana is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word that means “deliverance from suffering”. It specifically refers to the liberation of tormented beings in hell by making offering with basin containing the five fruits of a hundred different taste to the Sangha of the ten directions. 据《佛说盂兰盆经》的记载，「盂兰盆（ullambana）」「盂兰」意思是「倒悬」；「盆」的意思是「救器」，所以，「盂兰盆」的意思是用来救倒悬痛苦的器物，衍生出来的意思是：用盆子装满百味五果，供养十方僧众，以拯救入地狱的苦难众生。
Related Stories
The origin of Ullamabana is closely associated with a story of Maudgalyayana, a chief disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha who was renowned for his psychic powers. One day, while recalling his deceased mother, Maudgalyayana saw with his powers his mother suffering in the hungry ghost realm due to her strong greed. Through his psychic power, Maudgalyayana had food transformed before his mother. But because of her strong greed, it was impossible for her to swallow it as the food would turn into burning charcoal when it enter her mouth. Although Maudgalyayana had great psychic powers, he was still unable to deliver his mother from suffering. Thus, Maudgalyayana approached the Buddha for instruction to liberate his mother from suffering.佛 陀弟子中，神通第一的目犍莲尊者，惦念过世的母亲，他就用神通看到其母亲因在世时的贪念业报，死後堕落在恶鬼道，饿得不成人形，过著吃不饱的生活。目犍莲 於是用他的神力化食物，送给他的母亲，但其母亲不改贪念，见到食物到来，深怕其他恶鬼抢食，贪念一起食物到她口中立即化成炭火，无法下嚥。目犍莲虽有神 通，身为人子，却救不了其母，十分痛苦，於是便请求佛陀指点，如何营救母亲脱离苦海。
The Buddha replied: “The 15th of the seventh lunar month is the last day of the rainy retreat and is filled with wholesome Dharmic joy. Out of compassion to liberate your deceased mother, use a basin to gather food of a hundred different tastes and offer it to the Sangha of the ten directions to accumulate immeasurable merits. The merits coupled with the pure virtues of the Sangha of the ten directions, would not only liberate your mother but also the parents of all others from suffering.佛陀说：「七月十五日是结夏安居修行的最後一日，法喜充满，在这一天，盆罗百味，供养十方僧众，功德无量，可以凭此慈悲心，救渡其亡母。结合十方僧众德行的威力，不但可以拯救陷在地狱的母亲，脱离苦海，也可以解救别人的父母，让他们也脱离苦海」。
Finally, Maudgalyayana did as the Buddha had instructed and liberated both his mother and the parents of all others. This practice is known as Ullambana in Buddhism. 於是目莲尊者照著佛陀的指示去做，终於解救自己的母亲，并普渡了别人的父母亲；在佛教称为「盂兰盆」法会。
The primary ideology of this Sutra is to liberate the suffering of deceased parents through the merits accumulated by making offering to the Sangha. As the emphasis of this Sutra is filial piety, it is highly regarded by people. The first Ullambana Festival was held by Emperor Wu on the 15th of the seventh Lunar month, Datong fourth years (538), at “Tong Tai” monastery. During the Tang dynasty, the Ullambana Festival was popularised among the commoners. Till today, Ullambana is a part of Chinese culture. 此经的基本思想就是以供僧的功德救度已亡故之父母。由于本经强调孝道思想，所以颇受人们重视。梁武帝于大同四年（538）七月十五日，在同泰寺举办第一次盂兰盆会。到唐代，盂兰盆会便广泛地在民间流行。直至今日，盂兰盆会已成为中国民俗的一部分。
Ullambana 盂兰盆节
Ullambana, commonly known as “Seventh Lunar Month” or “Hungry Ghost Festival”, is a celebration of Filial Piety. We show gratitude to our parents and ancestors by remembering and paying respects to them.
On the 15 of the seventh lunar month each year, Buddhists participate in the Ullambana Festival to make offerings to the Sangha of the ten directions. This is done to liberate beings of the three lower realms from suffering, so as to repay the deep kindness of parents.
佛教的盂兰盆节，俗称中元节，其实是孝亲节。这一天，感恩我们的祖先、父母对我们的无私奉献，思念他们的慈悲与关爱。农历七月十五日这天，佛教徒举行「盂兰盆法会」供养十方僧众，济度三恶道苦难，以及报谢父母长养慈爱之恩。
:: Events 活动 ::
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva prayer Ceremony 地藏追思报恩法会
On the 1st to 9th of the Seventh Lunar month, our monastery would conduct a nine day “Ksitigarbha’s Rememberance and Repaying of Kindness Puja”. Venerable Sirs would lead in the recitation of “The Sutra of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha’s Fundamental Vows” and dedicate it to world peace, well-being of citizens, deliverance of the deceased, and the auspiciousness of those living. 于农历七月初一至九，本寺将启建九天《地藏追思报恩法会》，届时将由法师带领大众念诵《地藏菩萨本愿功德经》，以祈世界和平，人民安乐，先亡得度，现眷吉祥。
Ullambana Puja 盂兰盆超度法会
On the 15th of the Seventh Lunar month, our monastery traditional ” Ullambana Puja” Sutra Recitation invites devotees to make offering to the deceased on this auspiciousness occasion.
于农历七月十五日 ，本寺将启建《盂兰盆超度法会》，由法师念诵经文，欢迎信徒为先亡得度，现眷吉祥。
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