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2. Breaking the Chain of Demerit
World Scripture
The wise priest knows he now must reap The fruits of deeds of former births. For be they many or but few, Deeds done in covetousness or hate, Or through infatuation’s power, Must bear their needful consequence. Hence not to covetousness, nor hate, Nor to infatuation’s power The wise priest yields, but knowledge seeks And leaves the way to punishment. Anguttara Nikaya 3.33 (Buddhism)
If it be that good men and good women are downtrodden, their evil destiny is the inevitable retributive result of sins committed in their past mortal lives. By virtue of their present misfortunes the reacting effects of their past will be thereby worked out, and they will be in a position to attain the Consummation of Incomparable Enlightenment. Diamond Sutra 16 (Buddhism)
My father was a merchant in Ujjeni, and I was his only daughter, dear, charming and beloved. Then a wealthy merchant from Saketa sent men to woo me; to him my father gave me as a daughter-in-law… I myself adorned my lord like a servant-girl. I myself prepared the rice gruel; I myself washed the bowl; as a mother to her only son, so I looked after my husband. Yet my husband was offended by me, who in this way had shown him devotion, an affectionate servant, with humbled pride, an early riser, not lazy, virtuous. He said to his parents, “I shall not be able to live together with Isidasi in one house… She does me no harm, but to me she is odious. I have had enough; I am leaving her.” Hearing this utterance my father-inlaw and mother-in-law asked me, “What offense has been committed by you? Speak confidently how it really was.” “I have not offended at all; I have not harmed; I have not said any evil utterance; what can be done when my husband hates me?” I said. Downcast, overcome by pain, they led me back to my father’s house, saying, “While keeping our son safe, we have lost the goddess of beauty incarnate.” Then my father gave me to the household of a second rich man for half the bride price for which the merchant had taken me. In his house too I lived a month, then he too rejected me, although I served him like a slave girl, virtuously. Then my father spoke to one wandering for alms, a tamer of others and self-tamed, “Be my son-inlaw; throw down your cloth and pot.” He too, having lived with me for a fortnight, returned me to my father… I begged my father, “Evil indeed was the action done by me [the karma leading to my misfortune]; I shall destroy it.” Then my father said, “Attain enlightenment and the foremost doctrine and obtain quenching, which the best of men have realized.” Saluting my parents and relatives, I went forth [as a nun]. In seven days I attained the Three Knowledges. I know now my own last seven births; I shall relate to you the actions of which this misfortune is the fruit and result; listen to it attentively. In the city of Erakaccha I was a wealthy goldsmith. Intoxicated by pride in my youth, I had sexual intercourse with another’s wife. Having fallen from there, I was cooked in hell; I cooked for a long time; and rising up from there I entered the womb of a female monkey. A great monkey, leader of the herd, castrated me when I was seven days old; this was the fruit of the action of having seduced another’s wife. I died in the Sindhava forest and entered the womb of a oneeyed, lame she-goat. As a goat I was castrated, worm-eaten, tail-less, unfit, because of having seduced another’s wife. Next I was born of a cow belonging to a cattle-dealer; a lac-red calf. I was castrated after twelve months and drew the plough, pulled the cart, and became blind, tailless, unfit, because of having seduced another’s wife. Then I was born of a household slave in the street, neither as a woman or a man, because of having seduced another’s wife. In my thirtieth year I died; I was born as a girl in a carter’s family which was poor and much in debt. To satisfy the creditors, I was sold to a caravan leader and dragged off, wailing, from my home. Then in my sixteenth year when I had arrived at marriageable age, his son, Giridasa by name, took me as a wife. But he had another wife, virtuous and possessed of good qualities, who was affectionate towards her husband; with her I stirred up enmity. These [my misfortunes] were fruit of that last action, that men rejected me though I served like a slave girl. Even of that I have now made an end. Therigatha 400-447, Isidasi Sutta (Buddhism)
If you have fulfilled a command, do not seek its reward from God straightaway, lest you not be acquitted of sin, but be regarded as wicked because you have not sought to cause your children to inherit anything. For if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had sought the reward of the good deeds which they performed, how could the seed of these righteous men [e.g., Israel] have been delivered? Exodus Rabbah 44.3 (Judaism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
For thousands of years our ancestors have been building up walls of sorrows, and as the days go by these walls are not getting lower; rather, through his many deceptions Satan has been raising the walls higher. Today all the people of the world have the responsibility to take down the walls of grudges and resentments their ancestors built up; we take this on as our responsibility. (1:305, December 23, 1956)
Original sin, personal sin, collective sin, and hereditary sin inherited from our ancestral line—we should cleanse all sin before we pass on to the spirit world. It doesn’t matter that you have become a follower of the Lord; an indemnity course remains for each individual. None of you has the same course. Some suffer a great deal; some even die on the way; while others have an easier time. Why? Everyone’s indemnity course differs. Although we may practice the same standard of faith, our paths are not the same because the amount of indemnity to be paid varies. (251:131, October 17, 1993)
We are burdened with sins inherited from our ancestors even though we personally did not commit them, and we are also responsible for collective sins that were committed by the nation or people we belong to. In a word, being a fallen person means being the result of six thousand years of fallen human history—a mixture of good and evil. We inherit good and evil characteristics from our ancestors, but since they lived in the world where there was more evil than good, we mostly inherit evil. It is no surprise that we end up adding to that evil, trapped in a vicious cycle.
There is a story behind every sin, and someone was its cause. Maybe an ancestor of yours, while living on earth, gave much difficulty and pain to someone, and that person died carrying resentment. Now this resentful spirit comes down to you, a descendant of that ancestor, to get revenge. He could have gone to any of a number of descendants, but he alights on you. He influences you, driving you to the edge, until you commit the sin.
Resentful spirits can also afflict you with sickness and pain. All modern diseases have spiritual causes connected to the sins of ancestors. By looking at the sicknesses and difficulties of descendants, we can infer about the life of their ancestors. If the ancestors stole from others or misused public things or money, their descendants may suffer from stomach problems. If they committed sins of lust and fornication, their descendants may suffer from genital diseases, or be unable to bear children, or have difficulty being faithful, or get divorced. Ancestors who did not see things about others correctly and hurt them, or who misjudged others based on bad rumors and violated their hearts, will have descendants born blind, mute or deaf. In other words, according to the way the pain was given—to a certain part of the body—the descendants suffer with the same kind of troubles. The heavier the ancestors’ sins, the more difficult it is to heal the resulting sickness; it may even be incurable. If people on the earth do not clear up these sins through paying the required indemnity, the suffering is passed down to their children. Later, when those people come to the spirit world and watch their children suffer they regret that they did not clear things up for them. They lament, “If only I had borne my suffering on earth, my children would not need to suffer now.” Therefore, unless you clear up all the sins passed down from your ancestors, as well as your personal sins, your children cannot escape from sickness and pain. (Heung Jin Moon, Message from the Spirit World, January 1, 2002)
Your ancestors committed a great many sins. On top of it, how much more sin did you commit? If you truly knew the weight of it all, you would despair. Surely you should do your best to indemnify those sins [and leave a clean slate] for your descendants. If you cannot cleanse them completely, you should be willing to devote your life as a sacrificial offering. For example, you might marry an ugly woman and determine to make your life together with her better than the most handsome couple in the world. (116:150, December 27, 1981)
The altars of sorrow continuing for six thousand years or more are due to the mistakes of our ancestors, but we fear we might leave that sorrow to our descendants by once again not fulfilling our responsibility today. Today we learned that we are responsible to stop the history of misfortune in this generation and to dissolve the grief in Heaven’s heart unto joy. (8:262-63, February 7, 1960)
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