Good advisors! The most terrible retribution in the world is that for killing. This morning a Vietnamese man brought his two sons to see me. He said his sons were sick and asked me to help them, so that he could have an easier time. Seeing that the two boys had some sort of mental disorder, I asked if he had done any killing.

The boys' mother said that she hadn't After some more discussion, however, the parents told me that after they had chopped down a large tree in front of their house, they had seen two snakes crawling into the hole where the tree had been. They had then poured boiling water into the hole to kill the snakes. After that, one of their sons locked himself in his room and was insane when he came out several days later. Their second son went insane as well. They hoped I could do something about this.

Their children's insanity was due to killing. See how cruel and vicious the man was? He had no compassion at all. Even after the snakes had crawled into their hole, he still wanted to use boiling water to scald them to death. Those two snakes were brothers. And so after the two snakes were scalded to death, the two human brothers went insane. The most serious karma in the world is that of killing. The retribution for killing is heavier than any other retribution. Mutual killing in vengeance is the most tragic thing in the world.

The karma of mutual vengeful killing has sent countries to war with each other, causing them to create ever deeper killing karma, killing without cease. I know a six or seven-year old boy in Los Angeles who cannot talk or do anything. His father has to hold him always. This is the boy's retribution for having hunted too much in the past. In his past life he killed the spirit of a white rat, and so now the white rat spirit constantly gnaws at his throat, causing him to be mute and retarded. This is a living/real life example from Los Angeles right now.

In Hong Kong there is a certain Ms. Xie, who loved to eat shrimp, lobsters, and crabs, and so she gave birth to a son who is now over ten years old but can only crawl sidewise like a crab. This is a case of retribution during one's present life, an illustration of the retribution for killing.

In Malaysia I saw a mute person who had been a black bear in his past life. He is quite intelligent and bows to the Buddha and studies Buddhism, but due to having been a black bear in the past, he cannot speak. These individuals are all speaking the Dharma by their very existence, but people still fail to believe and continue to create killing karma. They don't understand that instead of taking life they should liberate life. If everyone can follow the five precepts--no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech, and no taking of intoxicants--then the world will surely be at peace.

The following incident happened in Hong Kong in the summer of 1953. At that time I was lecturing on the Earth Store Sutra at Zhilian Hermitage. The nun in charge, Dharma Master Kuanhui, was a disciple of Elder Master Hsu Yun. Before she became a nun, she had been an illiterate maid who worked and cooked for people. Often she had to buy chickens and ducks, which she would slaughter herself. One time she bought some crabs and was going to cook them for her employer. As she was preparing the meal, one of the crabs pinched her middle finger with one of its pincers and wouldn't let go. She reacted savagely by chopping the pincer off with a butcher knife. Then she cooked the crabs and served them. Guess what happened after the crabs had been eaten? At the spot where the woman's middle finger had been pinched, a fleshy crab-shaped protuberance appeared, and it hurt unbearably day and night.

Later she came to Furongshan (Hibiscus Mountain) to bow the Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance. After she had bowed for seven days, the flesh crab became slightly smaller, but it still hurt. When I was lecturing on the Earth Store Sutra, Dharma Master Kuanhui asked me to help her dissolve this bond of enmity. After I gave the crab the Three Refuges, it disappeared from her finger and the pain went away.

The workings of cause and effect, and the meting out of retributions, is never off by the slightest. We should be extremely careful not to take life. You kill him, he kills you, and the mutual killing never stops. The above story was a case of receiving the retribution in this very life; everyone could see it. Having seen it, we should not fail to believe that cause and effect are real. If you don't believe in cause, effect, and retribution, when it's your turn to undergo them, you won't be able to escape even if you want to.

The most important issue is that there are countless little ghosts in the world right now. Why are there so many little ghosts? Because there have been too many abortions. The fetuses are killed even before they have developed a fully human form. The vengeance wreaked by little ghosts is very grave. Therefore, the injunction to liberate life and avoid killing includes not having abortions. It's not easy to get free of these little ghosts. As it's said, "King Yama is easy to meet; it's hard to extricate oneself from (cope with?) the little ghosts." Everyone should pay attention to this. In all the countries of the world right now, there are more little ghosts than big ghosts, and more big ghosts than old ghosts. It's a very serious problem.

We should all realize that all living beings have the Buddha-nature and can become Buddhas. You should also know that all living beings have the Bodhisattva-nature and can become Bodhisattvas. All living beings have the Arhat-nature and can become Arhats. All living beings have the nature of Those Enlightened to Conditions and can become Those Enlightened to Conditions. All living beings have the heavenly nature and can ascend to the heavens. All living beings have the human nature and can become people. All living beings have the asura-nature and can become asuras. All living beings have the ghost-nature and can become ghosts. If you do ghostly deeds, you are a ghost. If you keep doing animal-like deeds, you are an animal. All living beings have the nature of the hell-beings. If you keep planting causes for the hells, you will eventually fall into the hells. Whatever kind of causes you plant, that's the kind of fruit you will reap. It's never off.