Greater positive karma can overpower lesser negative karma in
the moment.
Greater negative karma can overpower lesser positive karma in the
moment.
Which kind of karma are you empowering in the moment?
- Stonepeace
Question: Someone else
asked, 'One person
earnestly recites the Buddha-name (Amituofo) his whole life, but on
the brink of death regresses for a moment, and consequently does
not get to go to the Pure Land. One person piles up
evil his whole life, but on the brink of death aspires to
enlightenment and recites the Buddha-name, and consequently gets to
go to the Pure Land. Why should the good person lose and the evil
person gain?'
Answer: Ah! Only one person in a million accumulates
evil his whole life and then achieves correct mindfulness on the
brink of death. Without the roots of goodness from past
lives, on his deathbed he will be harried by pain and suffering and
plunged into darkness and confusion: how would he be able to
generate correct mindfulness? Again, among good people, only one in
a million regresses on the brink of death. If there is such a
person, it must be that his lifelong Buddha-name recitation was
done casually and in vain: it was not pure and earnest.
'Pure' means that his mind was not chaotic and mixed [with other
concerns as he recited the Buddha-name]. 'Earnest' means that there
were no mental interruptions or breaks [to his recitation]. So [if
his recitation was pure and earnest], how could any regression
occur? This being so, those who do evil should come to their senses quickly,
and not falsely imagine that they will have this kind of undeserved
good fortune on the brink of death. Those who seek the Pure Land
with a genuine mind should be ever more pure and earnest, and not
worry that on the brink of death they will regress.
