Hello,
She asked me : Is this true that one has to undergo punishment for one's bad Karma before one can be reborn in Pureland ( Note: He/she has already been promised of a place in Pureland but he/she has to endure the punishment for his/her bad Karma ( in Hell for instances ) ?
I have often hear of this : Chanting Da Bei Mantra and Heart Sutra at night is not advisable as one tend to attract Ghost. I wonder if this is a myth?
IMO...
Don't think of karma as punishment. It is not. It may be a bad experience, but it is not punishment.
Keep to the precepts... they are meant to prevent 'accumulating' more negative karma.
The karmic consequence of past action... just experience them and learn not to repeat the same pattern again.
Learn to drop away the desire to do certain things in a reactive manner. This reactive habit of responding to certain situation itself is the karmic pattern.
If we accumulate too much concepts, at a later stage on the path, these concepts becomes obstacles.
Originally posted by Isis:Hello,
She asked me : Is this true that one has to undergo punishment for one's bad Karma before one can be reborn in Pureland ( Note: He/she has already been promised of a place in Pureland but he/she has to endure the punishment for his/her bad Karma ( in Hell for instances ) ?
I have often hear of this : Chanting Da Bei Mantra and Heart Sutra at night is not advisable as one tend to attract Ghost. I wonder if this is a myth?
Hi,
Master Tan-luan, a major Pure Land Master in China, wrote quite extensively about this question. Here's what he said:
Question: The Sutra on the Working of Karma states, "The working of karma is like a scale; the heavier side is drawn down first and foremost." The Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life speaks of a person who has committed the five grave offenses and the ten transgressions, and is possessed of all evils. He is to fall into the evil courses and undergo incalculable pain for many kalpas. At the point of death, he happens to be guided by a true teacher and comes to say Namu-muryoju-butsu (Namu-amida-butsu). When, in this way, he gives voice to it with a sincere mind without interruption, completing ten utterances, he attains birth in the Pure Land of happiness, immediately enters the truly settled of the Mahayana, and ultimately attains nonretrogression. He becomes free forever from all the pain of the three courses. How is this to be understood in terms of the principle of "the heavier side is drawn down first and foremost"?
Further, from distant kalpas in the past we have been committing all manner of acts. These acts, being defiled dharmas, are bound to the three realms. If, as you say, one immediately emerges from the three realms by merely thinking on Amida Buddha with ten utterances, how are we to understand the meaning of "binding karmic acts"?
Answer: If, giving weight to the five grave offenses, the ten transgressions, and other binding karmic acts, and considering the ten utterances of the person of the lowest grade of the lowest rank to be trivial, you say that drawn by karmic evil one should first and foremost fall into hell or be bound to the three realms, then we must consider lightness and heaviness here in terms of principles. This is a matter of mind, of active condition, and of settledness; it is not a matter of length of time or of quantity.
What is meant by "matter of mind"? The person who commits such karmic evil does so based on his own false and inverted views. The ten utterances, however, arise when a true teacher, consoling him by various means, makes him hear the dharma that is true reality. The latter is real, the former is unreal. How can there be any comparison?
Suppose there is a room that has been dark for a thousand years. If light reaches it, however briefly, the room immediately becomes bright. How can the darkness say that, having occupied the room for a thousand years, it refuses to leave? This is termed "matter of mind."
What is meant by "matter of active condition"? The person who commits such evil does so based on his own mind of falsity, depending on sentient beings who have come into existence from blind passions and falsity. The ten utterances arise based on supreme shinjin, depending on the Name embodying Amida Tathagata's immeasurable, true, real, and pure virtues, which is the adornment of compassionate means. Suppose there is a man who has been struck by a poison arrow. At the point of entry, the flesh is torn and the bone is broken. But if he hears a drum to which the dispelling elixir has been applied, the arrow will immediately be extracted and the poison expelled. It is like this [Note]. How can it be said that, because the arrow is deep and the poison virulent, even though the drumbeat is heard, it is impossible for the arrow to be withdrawn or the venom removed? This is termed "matter or active condition."
What is meant by "matter of settledness"? The person who commits such evil does so based on thoughts of something coming after and of other things interrupting. The ten utterances arise based on thoughts of nothing coming after and nothing interrupting. This is termed settledness.
When we consider these three matters, we see that the ten utterances carry weight. What is heavy draws down first and foremost and enables beings to depart from the three realms of existence. The two sutra passages have a single meaning.
Gassho
Originally posted by Isis:Hello,
She asked me : Is this true that one has to undergo punishment for one's bad Karma before one can be reborn in Pureland ( Note: He/she has already been promised of a place in Pureland but he/she has to endure the punishment for his/her bad Karma ( in Hell for instances ) ?
I have often hear of this : Chanting Da Bei Mantra and Heart Sutra at night is not advisable as one tend to attract Ghost. I wonder if this is a myth?
Regarding your second question, I don't think so.
Actually, I did see a ghost when listening to heart sutra at night when I was 9. But this is because the house is already haunted and I have the habit of listening to heart sutra at night, and the ghost appeared to me, and we took it to be a sign that it wants to receive help. So we dedicated merits to the ghost. My mom claims she saw certain signs and thought it was the ghost(s) 'thanking' us.
But that was in a rented house we stayed for 9 months... that house is very creepy and I think is haunted from the beginning (had a feeling). After we move to somewhere else, I still listen to heart sutra at night sometimes, and never had such encounters.
So anyway, I don't think you need to fear chanting heart sutra or da bei mantra at night. Even if ghosts come, so what? They will not harm you. If nevertheless you encounter some ghosts, then you should give rise to compassion and perhaps dedicate the merits of your chanting to the ghost, or the merits through donation, pujas, or any meritious deeds.
Originally posted by Isis:Hello,
She asked me : Is this true that one has to undergo punishment for one's bad Karma before one can be reborn in Pureland ( Note: He/she has already been promised of a place in Pureland but he/she has to endure the punishment for his/her bad Karma ( in Hell for instances ) ?
I have often hear of this : Chanting Da Bei Mantra and Heart Sutra at night is not advisable as one tend to attract Ghost. I wonder if this is a myth?
both i have never heard of such ideas. could be a speculations from cults.
can ask her to read through 10 Doubts of Pureland:-
http://www.geocities.com/sinweiy/TenDoubtsaboutPureLand.html
as for the 2nd query, it's said that chanting mantra/sutra are often more "firm/strong/hard/wisdom-based" while chanting Buddha's or Bodhisattva's name are more "soft/gentle/compassion-base". hence ghosts tends to be more afraid of the former than the latter.
/\
Originally posted by longchen:IMO...
Don't think of karma as punishment. It is not. It may be a bad experience, but it is not punishment.
Keep to the precepts... they are meant to prevent 'accumulating' more negative karma.
The karmic consequence of past action... just experience them and learn not to repeat the same pattern again.
Learn to drop away the desire to do certain things in a reactive manner. This reactive habit of responding to certain situation itself is the karmic pattern.
If we accumulate too much concepts, at a later stage on the path, these concepts becomes obstacles.
yes i kind of get it..
Thanks for the reminder
Originally posted by Isis:yes i kind of get it..
Thanks for the reminder
welcome :)