(Clearwisdom.net) In the Ming Dynasty, there was a student who lived in the mid-Chu area. He had the supernormal capability of visiting hell and coming back. In hell he discovered that the saying, "Good will be rewarded with good and evil will receive retribution," was true. He saw a book in hell that documented all the good and bad deeds everyone on earth had done, and saw that everyone will receive their rewards or retribution accordingly. He felt bad for the ones suffering punishment, who he could see were climbing mountains made of swords and knives at their own peril. He wanted to save them, yet those people did not accept his help, and continued climbing even more anxiously. There was no way to save them at all.

In the context of this article, "creating karma" is the opposite of "accumulating virtue" that is often talked about by older folks in China. One will be rewarded with good fortune when one does good deeds, and receive punishment when one does bad deeds. "Karma" and "virtue" are substances of real material existence. Many cultivators and persons with supernormal capabilities have seen this.

One day, that student saw on the record book in hell that his wife had stolen a chicken from their neighbor; the chicken weighed 1 Jin 12 Liang (ancient China measuring unit, about 2 pounds). The person folded that page to make a mark in the book.

When he came back to the world of the living, he asked his wife about the chicken she stole and she denied it. He told his wife what he saw in the book, and she then told him the truth. The incident with the chicken had come about because their neighbor's chicken ate the grains his wife was drying in the sun. The wife accidentally killed it when chasing it. Afraid that the neighbor would be upset with her, she did not tell anyone and hid the dead chicken.

The couple was surprised that the book in hell had a record about this. They found the dead chicken and weighed it, and it was exactly 1 Jin 12 Liang. The couple immediately paid their neighbor for the loss and apologized.

Several days later, the person went to the hell again to check the book. He found where he had folded that page, but the record about his wife stealing the chicken had disappeared.

This story shows us that gods are watching, and any bad deeds will eventually hurt the person who committed them. This story also shows that as long as we correct our mistakes, we have the opportunity to avoid retribution. It all depends on our own choices.

March 29, 2007