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Karma Cannot Be Deceived
In the first article of this karma series, we looked at five basic rules of karma. In the second article, we looked at two stories to go into more depth on how karma requires time. In the third article, we studied four stories that showcased how karma has size and heaviness, as well as the distinction between shared and individual karma. In the fourth article, we looked at hidden versus visible karma. This article will emphasize how karma cannot be deceived.
During the Kangxi reign (1661–1722) in China, there was a man by the surname Hu in Xian County. Mr. Hu was the wealthiest man in the local area. Everyone knew that he was fond of helping the poor, and he never committed any great sins.
There was a poor scholar by the name of Yueping Zhang . In order to help him, Mr. Hu invited him to be a private tutor for his household. One time, during a casual chat, Mr. Zhang mentioned that his parents have already passed away, but because he lacked money, his parents' coffins were stuck in Liaodong, and he hasn't been able to bring their coffins back to their hometown for a proper burial. Because of this, he often felt guilty and sad. Hearing this, Mr. Hu immediately offered generous financial aid, sent men to help him transport the coffins back to their hometown, and donated a plot of land for the burial. Mr. Zhang was very grateful to him.
Later, a dead body was discovered in Mr. Zhang's land, and the person was an old enemy of Mr. Zhang. As a result, the local authorities suspected Mr. Zhang for murder and arrested him. Mr. Zhang insisted that he was innocent, but the authorities did not believe him. Mr. Hu then used a lot of money to bribe the authorities and mediated on Mr. Zhang's behalf through various channels. Eventually, Mr. Zhang was released. Again, Mr. Zhang was extremely grateful.
One day, a tragic accident happened. Mr. Zhang and his three sons were at home when a fire happened, and they all perished in the fire. It just so happened that Mrs. Zhang and the daughter were at Mrs. Zhang's parents' house, so they didn't get hurt.
When Mr. Hu found out about the incident, he felt great sorrow. Knowing that the family is poor, he offered a lot of money to handle the funeral affairs for the father and the sons. Moreover, he often provided financial aid for Mrs. Zhang and her daughter and often visited them. The two of them were extremely grateful to Mr. Hu for his kindness.
Mr. Hu was a generous and kind man who frequently helped the poor and saved people in their desperate times of need. He helped Mr. Zhang to bury his parents, he saved Mr. Zhang from being unjustly imprisoned, and he took care of Mr. Zhang's wife and daughter and Mr. Zhang died in a fire. Such a good person surely should receive good karmic rewards!
But he did not have a good future. Instead, he and his whole family were exterminated in a rebellion. The law of karma states that doing good deeds reaps good fortune, and committing sins reaps misfortune. Why would such a good person meet such a tragic ending? Does this mean the law of karma doesn't exist? What do you think?
In actuality, Mr. Hu only had the appearance of goodness, but deep down, his heart was very sinister.
When Mr. Hu first met Mr. Zhang and his daughter, he immediately noticed the daughter's beauty, and his heart secretly desired her. However, Mr. Zhang was very rigid and conservative, and he refused to let his daughter become anyone's concubine.
Thus, Mr. Hu first hired Mr. Zhang to be a private tutor for his household, not to give him financial aid, but rather to get closer to the daughter. He wanted to help Mr. Zhang with the burial of his parents and to save him from jail not actually to help Mr. Zhang, but rather to gain favour and trust from him and his family.
How did the fire break out that day? Mr. Zhang told him that his wife and daughter were away visiting grandparents, and his three sons are still young, so he needs to ask for leave for three days to go home and look after the three sons. Mr. Hu then seized the opportunity to hire some people to go to Mr. Zhang's house that night, lock the house doors from the outside, and set fire to the house.
In this way, Mrs. Zhang and the daughter would be left helpless. Mr. Hu then pretended to be shocked at this tragedy, offered them financial support, and often visited them. All of this was to get closer to the daughter and gain their trust.
Since Mrs. Zhang's daughter was very beautiful and reaching marriage age, a lot of people frequently visited her to propose marriage. Mrs. Zhang trusted Mr. Hu, so she would always consult him first. Mr. Hu intentionally judged all these proposals to be unsuitable. Eventually, he offered to take Mrs. Zhang's daughter as a concubine, thereby allowing her to marry into a wealthy family. Mrs. Zhang was very grateful to Mr. Hu for his past kindness, so she was inclined to agree, but the daughter herself was unwilling.
Then one night, the daughter dreamed of her late father, who said to her, "My child, if you do not agree to marry him, I won't be able to complete my plan."
She took her father's words from the dream to heart and agreed to marry Mr. Hu. One year later, she gave birth to a son named Weihua Hu. Shortly after, she died of illness.
When Weihua grew up, he joined a bad group of people and plotted to start a rebellion against the emperor. However, before he was fully prepared, the conspiracy was exposed. Imperial troops quickly assembled and launched a fiery assault, wiping out the rebels completely. Every single one of them was killed, including all their family members and even young children.
Commentary
In previous articles on karma, we learned that karma takes time. If we do good or bad deeds today, we don't usually get the rewards or punishments until later. Therefore, if we see good people not getting rewarded or bad people not getting punished, we cannot say that the law of karma does not exist.
We also learned whether a deed is good or not depends on our intentions. Doing things with the intention to help others is good. Doing things for our own selfish benefit is bad. The thing is, people cannot read minds, so we do not know others' intentions for sure. When we see "good" people having negative karma, it's possible that they do seemingly good deeds with a selfish or sinister intention, as was the case with Mr. Hu.
Having the reputation of being a good person but secretly harboring sinister intentions is a great sin. People can be deceived, but karma cannot. He set fire to Mr. Zhang and his three sons, thereby ending Mr. Zhang's family lineage. Later, Mr. Zhang's soul came to be reborn as Mr. Hu's son, and the son caused the imperial troops to launch a fiery assault on Mr. Hu's entire family. Mr. Hu died in fire the same way he caused Mr. Zhang to die, and his family lineage was ended just like what he did to Mr. Zhang.
From Mr. Hu's case, we see the importance of cultivating our intentions to be more selfless and pure. We also gain more faith that karma will never go wrong, and that our intentions cannot deceive others forever. When Mr. Zhang died and became a soul, he became aware of Mr. Hu's sinister intentions, and he vowed to get revenge. Thus, cheating others now is guaranteeing a karmic enemy in the future. Knowing this, we would naturally be motivated to accumulate goodness and avoid harming others.
Weekly Wisdom #411
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