Cause and effect are true and infallible

In the Dharma-ending age, sentient beings' minds are restless and agitated, yet some people deliberately cater to and please this restlessness. If one never goes against sentient beings' bad habits at all, then how can one turn those habits around and how can beings attain liberation?

Sentient beings are not only greedy but also foolish and deluded—they insist on licking that bit of honey on the blade's edge, and what do they end up gaining in the end? No one considers this. Most people chase after the tiny so-called benefits right before their eyes, while risking rebirth in the three evil paths. It may look like boldness, but in truth it stems from foolish delusion and shortsightedness—an inability to plan for the great and lasting benefit of the far-off future.

In fact, most people plan and scheme only for their personal gain, yet the things they do not only fail to bring them benefit but often cost them what they already have. Yet no one thinks of this or sees it. Why? Because of ignorance and delusion—because afflictions have veiled their eyes, they cannot see themselves clearly, nor clearly discern true gain and loss, benefit and harm.

As for cause and effect, many people do not truly believe in it; they always harbor a fluke mentality, imagining that karmic results will fall on others' heads and never on their own. So, for the sake of their own interests, they tell others that if they do not comply with their arrangements, some evil retribution is sure to follow—unaware that their own evil retribution is about to arrive, and that they are right now creating the causes of evil retribution.

When I first began studying Buddhism and reading the sūtras, I read a number of true stories about cause and effect and came to believe that cause and effect is real and unfailing, so I was careful in all my bodily, verbal, and mental actions. But Buddhists today do not read the sūtras at all and do not know what the sūtras are teaching; therefore their minds are blind and they do not understand cause and effect.

Now that the internet is so developed, committing evil karma is far easier than before—with a flick of the fingers, evil karma spreads across the whole country. It is truly lamentable. No one is alert to what evil consequences will follow after they move their fingers. Only the ignorant are fearless. With their minds blocked, they blindly follow others, unable to tell wholesome from unwholesome; they commit grave evil karma without any sense of remorse.

Some people commit evil karma because they are instigated and egged on by others, without realizing it themselves. For instance, someone tells them, "Go ahead and do this—nothing will happen. I will bear the karma for you; you will have only good results, no bad ones." So some of the mind-blind believe what this person says, thinking that he can truly bear their karma on their behalf. Little do they know that when cause and effect arrives, each person receives his own retribution—there is no substituting one for another at all. Even one's own birth parents can do nothing about it.