If there are fifty students in a class, only one out of the fifty can be the first position. Did the teacher give him that honor? On what condition that he is given that position? Obviously it has nothing to do with his teachers personal preference. The student who is placed at the bottom of the class should not argue with the teachers decision, but should reflect upon the quality of his own performance.

Life does not begin in the delivery room, nor does it end in the funeral parlor. It exists long before birth, and death does not bring it to an end. Death is the beginning of another birth and life and death are a continuation of one another. The past goes back beyond memory and the present is the continuation of previous lifetimes. The future arrives with the passing of the present and they are boundless. The Buddhist text says:

To understand the causes of our present circumstances, look to previous lives. Our actions in past lives cause our present situation to manifest. To know the future, look at what we are doing in the present. The future will arise as a consequence of these actions.

Whether we succeed or fail in life, it can be from our ignorance and foolishness. There is a joke about a person who died and was called before God to answer for the way he had led his life. God was very angry and said:

You have spent your whole life drifting around, wasting your time in meaningless pursuits, and you have been guilty of countless wrongs. Tell me, why dont you believe in God and obey the order?

The man shrugged his shoulders, faced God and said:

You tell me. Why was I born into a family that doesnt believe in God? I went through my whole life never heard of the word God. How can you expect me to believe in God when I never had the chance to even know that there is God? It is not my fault for not believing in you, it is you who made the first mistake at my birth!

It is indeed a fine joke and it can be true that people living in the deep jungle out of civilization have never met the messenger of God to tell them about God. If people have not been told about Jesus will not know about Jesus likewise Buddha or any spiritual teachers. What is important to us is to understand its deeper meaning. The joke highlights a common human ignorance and the tendency to blame our failures on environmental effects and influences, and give ourselves credit for our efforts and abilities when we succeed.

The power of Heaven is lesser than the power of karma (cause and effect), and the power of the karma is lesser than the power of repentance. Seek no excuses for your failures, but search for the way to success. If someone wishes to die by taking along many others along, God cannot stop him. Prayers cannot stop someone from dying or to be executed or beheaded. If prayer can help to stop the sin then nobody will die and everybody will be rich because everyone prays for wealth and good health. This is the truth and success or failure lies in our hands. Whatever we encounter is due to our own actions. We can blame neither Heaven nor other people.

Have you ever wondered why we look the way we do? Have you ever asked yourself, Why was I born into this family? or Why is it that I have this way of thinking and these attitudes? Why do certain events happen? Are all these things predestined by Heaven? Indeed they are but what criteria does Heaven use as a guide for arranging billions of our fate? This is indeed a mystery of life that sees all kinds of human from the very fortunate to the very unfortunate. Success or failure depends a lot on our fate. We can work from early morning till late into the night, there is no guarantee of success. The world is round, when we think we are ahead, we can actually be behind.

Our fate is like a school report, the result of our past actions. Heaven is fair, only human is not fair. Heaven is absolutely impartial in its arrangement of our fate in accordance with our actions. Heaven is also known as Tian Gong in Chinese. Tian means Heaven and Gong means fair or just. All sentient beings are the successors to their own past deeds. Whether the taste of our life is sweet and sour or bitter and hot is all a consequence of our own actions and intentions.

However, this is not a simple theory of cause and effect. There is a profound truth hidden within it. To harvest sweet and juicy fruit, we will have to sow the appropriate seeds. Without previous hard work in cultivation, how can we expect to enjoy an abundant harvest now? To plant a negative cause and yet expect a yield of good fruit is unrealistic. To follow blindly without understanding the essence of truth is to place our reliance solely on luck or some notion of good fortune. If we know that our thoughts deviate from the truth and still act on them and expect a positive outcome, it is unreasonable. Trying our luck with no knowledge of the underlying reasons is like a blind man riding a horse. There is no sense of direction and no knowledge of where to go.

We must not let anger, hatred or blame enter our hearts, or hold grudges against others. A person who falls on the ground uses the ground as a support to stand up. Do not blame the ground for our falls. Blame ourselves and if we point our finger at others, remember that three other fingers are pointing back at us. If we respond positively to every good or bad situation then every situation becomes a stepping stone to success. Accept our present conditions to resolve past karma so that there will be no new karmic seedlings.

Author: T.A Chew