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


[Home][Back to list][Back to Chinese versions]