Last week my car would not start due to a dead battery. I went through quite a bit of trouble to install a new battery. It went through my mind that this incident was a small misfortune on my recently rather grateful days.
Later on, when I talked to my friend about this episode, she remarked that I was very fortunate to have the car fixed up, as I would be driving the car for a long trip out of town. It is much more desirable to have the car broken down then instead of during the trip. So my misfortune turned out to be a fortune instead!
We, human beings, tend to be shortsighted and have a very limited scope of viewpoint on happenings of life. We can hardly tell if certain events occur for better or for worse. Events can be good in the short run and bad in the long run or vice versa, good for some people and bad for others, good in one era and bad in another era. Moreover, good or bad is judgmental and depends on perception.
If we go down to the bottom (essence) of all phenomena, everything is governed by the principle of causes and effects （因緣法）or dependant originations（緣起法）. And among the millions of factors that lead to certain effects, our mind is one of the dominant factors.
For most non-practitioners, their minds are operated under or influenced by the law of “karma”. Whereas for the true practitioners, they understand how the mind operates and how karma works; they can work around the internal and external attributes (causes), and in turns alternate the effects as well as take charge of their own destiny.
Whether we are blessed or condemned is determined by how well we can understand or work around the minds, the law of karma and the dependent originations. That explains why sometimes a practitioner acts rather unreasonably or unexpectedly, as he or she can perceive phenomena on a higher plateau.
(July 23, 2008)
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