冤親債主 林鈺堂

造業牽扯相交結,宿世因緣藕絲連;
禳解培福共休戚,菩提道侶遍法界。

不論世間之消災祈福,或修途之進展成就,若只偏重個人之得失,皆難見成效。良以人際互動,牽扯繁複,罕有只需照顧一隅,而不用兼及各方的。更何況宿世多生之因果,往往藕斷絲連,催逼不已。又豈能只顧眼前,而無視於冥冥中之助力及障緣?佛法以「冤親債主」提示每個有情在多生多世的輪迴中皆有一大群因種種業緣而牽扯難清的有情眾。吾人明乎「業緣所繫,休戚與共」之理,則當常為冤親債主眾迴向一切功德,方可望由個業之纏縛中解脫出來。若能開展視野及於全法界一體之大因緣,則所有眾生息息相關,莫非親同手足,而皆為菩提道上同舟共濟之道侶矣!


                     二○○二年五月六日
                     養和齋   於加州


Karmic Creditors Yutang Lin

Karmic entanglements pulling one another,
Past-lives connections linger behind scene.
For better, for worse, share merits together;
Partners on the Bodhi path are everywhere.

Comment:

Be it to pray for removal of karmic hindrances or for accumulation of good fortunes, or to gain progress or realization on the path, if the emphasis is on personal gains or losses, then it would be difficult to attain noticeable results. The reason being that interactions among people are complicated and entangling, and hence it is seldom the case that only one corner need be taken care of while all remaining aspects could be ignored. Not to mention the factor that causal relations accumulated over many past lives often continue to play an influential role behind the scene in this life. How could we pay attention only to what can be seen but take no heed of helps or hindrances that are invisible? In Dharma the notion of one's "karmic creditors" reminds us that, for each sentient being that has gone through many lives in the cycles of transmigration there are many sentient beings that are karmically related in a mass of entanglements. Since such karmic connections could hardly be sorted out and resolved, for better and for worse one's course of life is inevitably shared by all such "karmic creditors." Therefore, in order to escape the net of entanglements, one needs to constantly dedicate all one's merits to share with one's karmic creditors. Better still, if one could enlarge one's view to the whole Dharmadhatu and comprehend the oneness of all, then all beings are seen as intimately interconnected as parts of one body and all would become helpful comrades on the path to enlightenment.


Written in Chinese on May 6, 2002
Translated on May 7, 2002
El Cerrito, California


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