Tu Viện Quảng Đức105 Lynch Rd, Fawkner, Vic 3060. Australia. Tel: 9357 3544. quangduc@quangduc.com* Viện Chủ: HT Tâm Phương, Trụ Trì: TT Nguyên Tạng   

Karma Sutra

19/03/201417:03(Xem: 4529)
Karma Sutra
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS
THE SUTRA ABOUT KARMA

Transcribed in English by: Jason Chau

---o0o---

This Sutra has changed the lives of many who have read it, for it explains the direct results of causes. It is also called the Golden Precepts by Lord Buddha and is reproduced here in its entirety:

"Once upon a gathering attended by 1,250 followers, the venerable Ananda, after circling thrice with folded hands around the Buddha and bowing with respect asked: "In the present dark age where the majority of our people are indulgent in unrighteousness, disrespectful to the Lord’s teaching, undutiful to their parents, immoral, miserable and sordid, among them some are deaf, some blind, some mute, some idiotic, some handicapped in other aspects, and most people inured to killing, how could we understand the cryptic and fundamental principle or causes that have brought about this reality and what consequences each individual is to suffer eventually for his deeds. My Lord, would you kindly explain these to us?’.

The World-honoured One then answered, "Listen carefully, I will now expound the Law of Karma. Because of Karmic effects inherited from previous lives, some people are poor, some rich, some happy and some miserable. These are four rules inseparable in obtaining happiness and prosperity for your next life. They are: to be dutiful to parents; to be respectful to Buddhas, to Buddha’s teaching, and to Buddhist monks; to abstain from killing and setting free sentient beings; and to abstain from eating meat and be charitable." Then the Buddha proceeded on the Karmic Sutra:

"Destiny is aggregate karmic effects from the past. To believe in and practice this Sutra will bring you eternal prosperity and happiness.

Learn the Law of Karma expounded as follows:

‘To be able to hold office in the Government is a reward for your building Buddha’s statues in previous lives. For building Buddha’s statues is likened to molding yourself, and to protect the Tathagata is protecting yourself. To be a public officer cannot be taken for granted, for without practicing Buddhism it will not befall you. Having helped in the construction of bridges and roads in your past life is conducive to your present enjoyment of various transportation facilities which prevent you from getting foot-worn.

To donate clothing to monks will ensure you to be well provided with clothing in future or in your next life.

To be free from want in food is the result of your providing food to the poor in your previous life.

To be miserly and unwilling to help the needy gives rise to future starvation and clothlessness.

To have ample housing is a reward for donating food to monastries in your past life.

To build temples and public shelters will give you future prosperity and happiness.

To be pretty and handsome is the reward for your respecting and offering flowers to Buddha’s altar in the past.

To abstain from eating meat and to pray constantly to Buddha wil assure you to be born a very intelligent child in your next incarnation.

To have a good wife and son is reward for your disseminating Buddha’s teaching in your past life.

Furnishing Buddhist temples with hangings and tapestries will enable you to have a good marriage in your next rebirth.

To have good parents is a reward for your respecting and helping those who were lonely and desolate in your past life.

Being a bird hunter in your previous life has resulted in your being an orphan now.

To have plenty of children is attributable to your setting free birds in your previous life.

To have destroyed flowers habitually in your previous life has caused you to be heirless now.

Your longevity is due to your setting free sentient beings in your past life.

Being short-lived is the result of your committing too many killings in your previous life.

To steal the wife of another man will cause you to have no spouse in your next reincarnation.

To be a widow now is due to your disrespecting your husband in your previous life.

Being ungrateful in your previous life has caused you to be a serf at present.

To covet another man’s wife will cause you to have no spouse in your next reincarnation.

To distort truths habitually will cause you to suffer blindness in your next life.

To have wry mouth is due to your intentionally blowing out candles before Buddha’s altar in your past life.

To vituperate (abuse) your parents will cause you to be reborn a deaf mute in your next incarnation.

Being a hunchback is punishment for jeering at the Buddha’s followers in your previous life.

To have committed evil with your hands in your past life is the cause for you having disabled hands now.

Your being lame is imputable to your being a robber in your previous life.

To be reborn a horse or an ox is the result of your denying your debts in your previous life.

To be reborn a pig or a dog is the punishment for your deceiving and hurting others in your previous life.

Offering flesh to monks in your past life has given rise to your constant illness now.

To be healthy is a reward for your offering drugs and medications to save the sick and wounded in your past life.

Relentlessly perpetrating evil in your previous life is the cause for your present imprisonment.

Plugging snake-pit and mouse holds habitually will cause you to starve to death in your next incarnation.

To intentionally poison a river or water-source will cause you to die of poison in your next life.

Being forlorn and friendless is the punishment for being unfaithful and deceitful to others in your past life.

Disrespecting the Buddha’s teaching will bring you constant starvation in your next rebirth.

To spew blood is the punishment for eating meat while praying to Buddha.

To have attended Buddhist instruction with levity in your previous life is the cause for your present deafness.

To be afflicted with ulcers is the punishment for offering flesh before the Buddha’s altar in your past life.

To have bad bodily odour is the punishment for selling incense with dishonesty in your previous life.

To hunt animals with rope and net will predestine your death by hanging in your next incarnation.

Being unduly envious and jealous in your past life is the cause for being so lonely or being refect of spouse at present.

To be struck by lightning or burn by fire will be the punishment for dishonest trade dealings.

Being wounded by beasts or snakes tells you that those creatures were your enemies in your previous life.

Whatever you do will come back to you, so accept whatever justice and retribution that befalls you.

Be not mistaken that karma is fallicious. You will live to bear its consequences, either in this lifetime or in your future life.

Should you doubt the virtue of practising Buddhism, could you not see the happiness of Buddha’s followers?

Past karma determine your present destiny. Present karmas are to mold your next life.

Whoever slanders this Sutra will not be reborn again a human being.

Whoever accepts this Sutra will witness the truth.

Whoever writes this Sutra will prosper in successful lives.

Whoever carries this Sutra will be free from mishaps.

Whoever preaches this Sutra will become a very intelligent person in successive lives.

Whoever recites this Sutra will be well-respected by people in his next incarnation.

Whoever distributes this Sutra free to all will become a leader to humanity in his next life.

If karma did not produce effect, what prompted Wu-Lin, a dutiful son, to rescue his mother under grave danger?

Whoever is faithful to this Sutra will not fail to witness the eternal paradise.

The Law of Karma works forever, and the fruit of good deed will come in due course."

Having spoken the above Sutra to Ananda and the followers, the World-honoured One added "There are innumerable examples of Karmic Law, but I have only mentioned in generalisation."

Then Ananda said, "Until the end of the present Dark Age, most human beings would have through successive lives accumulated countless misdeeds because of their ignorance of the karmic consequences, but thanks to our Lord and the Sutra he has so kindly given to us, whoever writes and reads, prints and distributes this Sutra, upon praying to the Buddha, will be blessed with eternal happiness and be admitted to see Amitabha Buddha, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and all the other Buddhas in the heavenly paradise."

After Ananda spoke, all Buddha’s disciples and followers felt ecstatic and enlightened and, after bowing respectfully and vowing to abide by his Sutra, took their journey home
Gửi ý kiến của bạn
Tắt
Telex
VNI
Tên của bạn
Email của bạn
22/05/2018(Xem: 41507)
The Buddhist community is extremely upset by the inappropriate and disrespectful use of the image of Buddha, The Buddhist community is extremely upset by the inappropriate and disrespectful use of the image of Buddha, in a display at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) entitled the 'Eternity-Buddha in Nirvana, the Dying Gaul, Farnese Hercules, Night, Day, Sartyr and Bacchante, Funerary Genius, Achilles, Persian Soldier Fighting, Dancing Faun, Crouching Aphrodite, Narcisse Couché, Othryades the Spartan Dying, the Fall of Icarus, A River, Milo of Croton'. It can also be seen at: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/131149/ Although this display has been in place for some months, we have only just been made aware of its' existence. We are not usually outspoken, but this display desecrates the image of Buddha by placing images of these mythical images on him and in doing so, showing no apparent regard or respect for Him.
23/02/2018(Xem: 12303)
THE Great Stupa of Universal Compassion expects to spend $400,000 on a three-day celebration to welcome home a ‘wonder of the world’. Preparations are underway for the Illumin8 festival, marking the return of the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace. The five-tonne Buddha, crafted from the world’s largest discovered piece of gem-quality jade, has been travelling the globe since 2009.
27/03/2017(Xem: 37227)
The Seeker's Glossary of Buddhism By Sutra Translation Committee of USA/Canada This is a revised and expanded edition of The Seeker's Glossary of Buddhism. The text is a compendium of excerpts and quotations from some 350 works by monks, nuns, professors, scholars and other laypersons from nine different countries, in their own words or in translation. The editors have merely organized the material, adding a few connecting thoughts of their own for ease in reading.
26/10/2016(Xem: 30276)
In India in the 6th century BC, Sakyamuni, "a wise man of the Sakya tribe", had been meditating under a tree when, suddenly, he was struck with the comprehension of all things. He became Buddha, meaning the « Illuminated ». His message, based on a pragmatic philosophy, taught how to free oneself from all needs in order to achieve illumination. After the death of the Enlightened One, his disciples – a few monks – began to spread his teachings all over India, from Ceylon to the Himalayan. Fearing man’s penc
04/11/2014(Xem: 11636)
The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, from the deep course of Prajna Wisdom, saw clearly that all five skandhas are empty, thus sundered all bonds of suffering. Sariputra, know then: form does not differ from emptiness, nor does emptiness differ from form. Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. None are born or die, nor are they defiled or immaculate, nor do they wax or wane. Therefore, where there is emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no impulse, nor is there consciousness. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind. No color, sound, smell, taste, touch, or object of mind. There is no domain of sight, nor even domain of mind consciousness. There is no ignorance, nor is there ceasing of ignorance. There is no withering, no death, nor is there ceasing of withering and death. There is no suffering, or cause of suffering, or c
09/08/2014(Xem: 5410)
Thus I have heard, at one time, the Buddha dwelt at Shravasti, in the Jeta Grove, in the Garden of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary, together with a gathering of great Bhikshus, twelve hundred fifty in all, and with all of the Bodhisattvas, thirty-eight thousand in all. At that time, the World Honored One led the great assembly on a walk toward the south, Suddenly they came upon a pile of bones beside the road, The World Honored One turned to face them, placed his five limbs on the ground, and bowed respectfully.
19/03/2014(Xem: 7807)
Thus have I heard. At one time the Bhagavat was staying in Jeta Grove monastery in Anathapindada's Garden at Shravasti, together with a large company of twelve hundred and fifty monks, who were all venerable shravakas and well-known great arhats. They were headed by eminent shravakas, such as the Venerable Shariputra, Mahamaudgalyayana, Mahakashyapa and Aniruddha.
10/02/2011(Xem: 3658)
Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was dwelling in the garden of Anathapindika, in the Jeta Grove near Shravasti. At that time, a laywoman named Gangottara came from her dwelling in Shravasti to see the Buddha. She prostrated herself with her head at the Buddha's feet, withdrew to one side, and sat down.
10/02/2011(Xem: 4027)
I who would follow the Teachings of Buddha Should concentrate earnestly morning and night With resolve in my heart, on these Teachings the Buddha Has given to free us from suffering's grasp.
09/02/2011(Xem: 3779)
The Heart Sutra has been transmitted in a short form (about 14 slokas) and a longer form (about 22 slokas). The latter redaction, in 22 slokas, appears to be the more original (since it more neatly adheres to the earlier source texts, such as the Astasahasrika-prajnaparamita-sutra) and it is this text that we present herein.
facebook youtube google-plus linkedin twitter blog
Nguyện đem công đức này, trang nghiêm Phật Tịnh Độ, trên đền bốn ơn nặng, dưới cứu khổ ba đường,
nếu có người thấy nghe, đều phát lòng Bồ Đề, hết một báo thân này, sinh qua cõi Cực Lạc.

May the Merit and virtue,accrued from this work, adorn the Buddhas pureland,
Repay the four great kindnesses above, andrelieve the suffering of those on the three paths below,
may those who see or hear of these efforts generates Bodhi Mind, spend their lives devoted to the Buddha Dharma,
the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Quang Duc Buddhist Welfare Association of Victoria
Tu Viện Quảng Đức | Quang Duc Monastery
Most Venerable Thich Tam Phuong | Senior Venerable Thich Nguyen Tang
Address: Quang Duc Monastery, 105 Lynch Road, Fawkner, Vic.3060 Australia
Tel: 61.03.9357 3544 ; Fax: 61.03.9357 3600
Website: http://www.quangduc.com
http://www.tuvienquangduc.com.au (old)
Xin gửi Xin gửi bài mới và ý kiến đóng góp đến Ban Biên Tập qua địa chỉ:
quangduc@quangduc.com