Cause & Effect in Buddhism

星期天的靜坐班后，我們討論的課題是 “因果”。有一成員說她聽到一個故事﹕有一壞人要加害一群人，其中一人甲為了要拯救所有的人，所以他殺了那壞人乙，過了幾世后，甲乙两人都投世而在同一世碰上時，甲卻被乙‘壞人’殺了。另一成員講因果是很複雜的，若以佛教的角度看這個故事，雖然好人救了許多人种了善因，可能也得了好報（果），但殺了壞人也是惡因，所以也是一樣有果報。他聽到一個真實的事﹕有两人是同學，成績非常好的一位揶揄另一位說，“你的成績不好…” 廿多年后，成績不好的那位，在公司徵聘職員時，見到是好成績同學的名字應徵信，記得廿多年前他說的話，即刻把他淘汰！

因緣果報，絲豪不爽！不管是有意或無意的…

前年有一次，我和Steve在吉隆坡與CH見面並在某咖啡店用晚餐之際，有位身穿和尚裝拿着‘砵’走到我們的桌子旁，Steve伸手進褲袋要拿錢，我按着Steve的手搖搖頭，那人見狀走開了。過后我向Steve和CH解釋曾看到報導有很多冒充出家人出來討錢，真實的南傳出家眾如出來托砵，是要食物而且須在午飯前…

當時我是理性的意念阻止Steve感性的善念，現在我突然感到不安，我的一些無意的舉止會得什麼果呢？啊…不管怎樣，我得懺悔！

Last Sunday, after our meditation class, we had a discussion topic about ‘cause & effect in Buddhism’. One of the members said she heard a story: a bad guy wanted to harm a group of people. So one guy, A, from the group thought to save all of them, and he killed this bad guy, B. In a later life, after several rebirths, B killed A, when they met again. Another member said cause & effect is complicated. From Buddhism’s view of this story, even though the guy saved some good people and he might get some merit (effect), he still killed a person, so he will also get that effect too. This member heard a real story: two boys were classmates; one of them got excellent grades and ridiculed the other one, “Your grades are not so good…” Over twenty years later, the one who did not do as well was in a company looking at job candidates. When he read the resume of his former classmate, he still remembered that classmate’s words to him twenty years earlier, and he eliminated his former classmate from consideration!

Cause and effect are perfectly accurate and right in every detail, regardless of whether an action is intentional or unintentional…

Two years ago, Steve and I met a friend, CH, in Kuala Lumpur. We were having our dinner in a hawker food restaurant, when a guy dressed as a Chinese monk with an ‘alms bowl’ came to our table. Steve put his hand into his pocket trying to take out some money. I pressed his arm and shook my head. That guy noticed and walked away. After that I told Steve and CH that I had read some news reports about cases of fake ‘monks’ and ‘nuns’. When a real Hinayana Buddhist monk comes out with an alms bowl, they only want food, and it must be collected before lunchtime…

At that time, I was in a rational mind to stop Steve’s kindness. Now, I am worried and uneasy about what the effects will be of my unintentional actions? Ah…I need to repent!