A letter to my son who works in Beijing
Goodness returns goodness and evil returns evil. The fact of condition and effects never fails. Your mother¡¯s life long experience is the most eloquent proof for these words, which are also the unalterable truth for centuries. A man¡¯s life is deemed happy and perfect only if he acts upon this rule.
Your mother realized this truth by means of her illness, there was a time when mum was ill and day. I asked doctor, ¡±Doctor, I took so many? medicine and resistance growing in me. Now no drug is effective on me. What shall I do it the future?¡± the doctor replied:¡± there will be new inventions.¡± Does this mean that I had to be with drugs for the rest of my life? I couldn¡¯t bear this. Just then my sick sister came to me and told me a more shocking fact, she said:¡± in books our life is made up of birth, aging, illness, death and sufferings, and suffering even after death.¡± It was like a stunning blow upon me. My life of sickness was already miserable enough, and what shall I do if I had to suffer even after death? I cannot make myself ignore this especially because this saying was reflected on the many books of treasure that was handed down for saints in Chinese history, which has five thousand years of history. If it was true, it would have been in oblivion during the long course of history. Since it exists up to this day there must be some proof to justify it I shall pay attention to this otherwise I will loss.
After I knew this fact, I was scared as I have never been before. I didn¡¯t want suffer, instead I want harmonious life. I must find out a path that leads to happiness forever.
I thought that since this fact was recorded from ancient literature and books of 50,000years ago, there must be an answer to it in the vast works of Chinese culture. I then went to libraries, consulted with people of my life, and I even involved myself in Qigong in physical excise, I learned what the one common characteristic is for those people of long life and those masters of Qigong. That is, they all enjoyed their health. All of them paid deliberately attention to goodness, promoting good deeds and virtues. Knowing this, I went again to the libraries to look for some proofs among those ancient book I discovered the experiences draw by other ancestors with exhausted their lives, and by which they imparted to their offspring to do good and to cherish virtue, extra misfortunes are for family of evil the retribution of goodness for evil are walking side by side.
Follow these direction, I read a lot of books that told people to do good deeds as well as books such as ¡°The Ultra Supreme¡¯s Tractate on Actions and Their Retributions¡±, ¡°Liao Fan¡¯s Four Lessons¡± and ¡°Scripture of the Hidden Merits¡±¡¡.they are just like light in the darkness which cleared the shadows in my heart. I was enlightened. I have at last found the answer I was looking for so long a time. The truth is good evil. Just follow this truth and you will be protected by gods from above. These books of virtue told us that divines are looking down upon you. Do not act if you do not want to be known. It was just the path pointed out especially for me, who was a victim of sickness. I decided to act up on these truths and thus salvage myself. Since it is paid to do goodness, and if I don¡¯t want suffer I have to do goodness to the utmost of my efforts. Just giving and then having. My life has since then taken a sharp turning. In order to be really good, I started from inside, because only kind hearts brings kind acts. One of my colleges who shared the same office with me at that time said:¡± all you did in a day is confession.¡± Of cause I did, I have committed too much sin in the past which resulted in my sickness, the retribution of wrong doings. Now that I realized it I shall correct it by daily confessions. Good against evil is the cosmic phenomena. It exists no matter you believe it or not. It cannot b manipulated or directed by anyone. If is just like ¡°mothers have children mother¡¯s mother is the grandmother.¡± It is the fact, the truth, whether you believe it or not. A new prospective revealed before me. If becomes more beautiful and brilliant day by day. Time passed with twelve years, a once sick person has turned into a health person. A once vulnerable and weak person now became fearless; I can even walk in the mountain at midnight. Because there are gods of goodness protect me above, and there are many of them. When it was raining and slippery on the road, I who was always liable to trip never tripped, often I lurched and glided to certain degrees but then stood up without falling. This is because gods are preventing me from falling. Once, a fellow Buddhists said to me: ¡°you are really good, jumping from the third row to the first row, Buddha never protect me like that.¡± When I jumped to the third row with my eyes closed, I nearly fell, but gods grasped me and pulled me over to the fifth row. I was moved to tears, weeping silently. A sick person who was always struggle between life and death, now totally recovered. I was happy that I was on the right path. I always secretly meditate that how could I be so able, so intelligent to be somebody
Five years ago I opened a children¡¯s clothes store by other¡¯s helps. The owner of the estate was a manger of a dry goods firm . he was reluctant to lease to store to me, because the rent for the store was 34oo Yuan. It was rented out for banks, watch store and never made much profit he was doubtful that my clothes store would have a market and earn enough money to pay the rent. Just then a boy of my neighbor bought two little chickens for fun. After a short time she deserted then on the corridor. They are living creature, after all . my conscious stung and I adopted them. One of them followed my to the store, centering around me all day and never went out. I put it in the grass across the street to feed it but it refuse to stay there and only run back to me across the street despite the traffic, determined to stay with me. The manager saw this and amazed, he told others that, ¡°the old lady is unusual, and her chicken. I want to rent to store to her, let us have some favor from Buddha too.¡± After the signing of the lease contract, the chicken disappeared as if by magic. I consider it was sent to me from above. ¡°
One day a car stopped in front my store; three portly gentlemen got off and found me. They said:¡± we heard that you are good at business, we want to hire you as our public relationship stuff.¡± I laughed at hearing this and told them that the reason why my business was prospering was because I was a Buddhist conducting charities. The store would send a truck load of children¡¯s clothes to the orphanage each year, so that the store was favored by Gods of goodness with good business. It was not because of my own abilities, it was the result of goodness.
One morning not long after I opened the store, I was having noodles as breakfast when a beggar came up to me. I gave one Yuan, she said:¡± you are not rich, and yet you give me one Yuan. You deserve to live well the next life.¡± I was surprised and wondered how she could know that I was not rich. The store rent was 3,400 Yuan each month, plus taxes the expenses run into 40,000 Yuan a year, which was heavy burden upon a person like me who never did any business before. A portion of the daily income went to the rent, and the remainder had to be saved for replenish the stock, so that not a cent was left for any extravagance. Sometimes a bowl of dry cabbage was all that on my menu. It was a mystery the beggar should understand my difficulties and forecast good effects for my undertakings. Did not this coincide with my practices? I intended a path a doing goodness and achieving virtues for the purpose of altering my destiny. How she got the insight to this? She must be the disguise of some gods sending to try me, see if I still kept a helping heart in my present miseries. However I was already accustomed to lending people a helping hand. It was not possible in the past when meanness dominated the notion that saving money could make fortunes and avoid hard life. Not I realized that fortunes came out of offering. A helping hand was bound to be rewarded. So I developed it into a good habit which enabled me to do goodness any time and any occasion. With the lapse of time, my achievement grew bigger and bigger and so would be my good effects. After twelve years I am today a well-to-do person. But what is that makes me dare to say so? The reason is although I chant Buddha in Huanghsi everyday and come back only once to the store for paying the rent, it is a miracle that I still can pay the rent without conducting any business. Whence comes the money I don¡¯t know, only in the Spring Festival of 2005 I received donation of 20,000 yuan. As the old saying in the ancient saint¡¯s books¡± goodness returns goodness¡±, a thing realized on me.???
In the fall of 2004, I was planning to go to Shanghai and Hangzhong to visit the graves of my grandfathers, at the time, businessmen in Hangzheng Street sent me 6 bags of clothes as donations.
Money or clothes could not make me happy as much as the fact that my brain was getting wiser day by day. It took me only half a day to finish a letter with such a length without graft. Computers are said to be versatile, I say my brain is even versatile than a computer, because can only run at man¡¯s control, which my brain changed my life. My experience can be a help to others, which will benefit both other people and me. Our youngsters are now growing up to be adults, they need good educations to lay the foundation for a brilliant future, and therefore they need an experienced and wise person to guide them. When your mother, I, discovered this clever brain, I was so happy that I would be able to help yang people to achieved a happy life, how encouraging it would be! Our life is worthy only when we are able to help other people; such life is considered to be really worthy and decent. A selfish life is an animal¡¯s life; only virtuous life is a human being¡¯s life. People of nowadays are contaminated in heart to become self-interested. Yet we cannot blame them, it is the lack of education. If somebody can take the initiative to set a model of virtue for them, they will follow suit, because everyone has a dream of happiness, no one is contented to be degraded. When these struggling yang people discovered to truth of goodness and evil, they will take actions. Only the problem is, there is no one to take over this responsibility of education. Today mother will challenge you, my son, in a race to see who can make our life more exiting and colorful. From today on, your mother will have not only you, my only one child, but will have thousands of children for the nation¡¯s future. Mum will make utmost efforts to advance in this course, to help all these young people with the bliss endowed upon me by the heaven, to lead them to a bright path towards everlasting happiness.
Goodness returns goodness and evil returns evil. Please always keep this in mind. It is the truth, the principle and the law of nature. Young man, the future belongs to you; you are like the morning sun hopeful to reveal every miracle. Make great efforts to push our motherland to the top of the world, and take prompt action to make the happiness of tomorrow to come true earlier. Goodness returns goodness and evil returns evil. By giving up your seats to elder people in the public bus or by picking up a banana skin, you are doing goodness. Your constancy will gain the favor of god of goodness. Habit can be altered at firm determinations. Every day before you get up, make an order to yourself that I shall do five good things today, and before go to bed , check if you have fulfilled your promises. If not, hit upon yourself for good-for ¨Cnothingness. If you have done one more good deeds, praised yourself for your greatness. Where there is will, there is a way. At the end of every month sum up your deeds, elevate whether you are worthy for yourself, whether you are trying hard for the happiness of tomorrow. At the first month, do five good things, the next month, add one more to it. For any young people who wishes the happiness to befall upon earlier, he needs to take wider steps, doing six or seven good thing a day and by analogy. Following I expound on the detailed things which will bring good effects:
Fortune donation brings effect of fortune.
Offering of Dharma brings the effect of wisdom.
Self-denying offering brings the effect of health and longevity.
Your mother
Year 2005