How karmic results grow and shrink

There are things people do not notice and do not see, yet the law of cause and effect examines them clearly, without missing a single detail.

Usually the karmic result is many times greater than the original cause. When we plant one banana tree, it bears many bananas, then sprouts many young plants, until the clump grows old and is pulled up to make room for a new one. When we sow one grain of rice, we get a plant carrying hundreds or thousands of grains. When we plant a lychee or a longan tree, it bears fruit for years and years, season after season... In the same way, some causes bear results ten or more times over, some a hundred times over, some ten thousand times over, each cause producing different results. Likewise in the law of karmic cause and effect: we sow one cause, but many results come back to us.

When we give someone a moment of joy, we may receive ten joys in return, or even a million. Why does one cause produce so many results? What factors make a single cause bring about many results? Suppose we meet an acquaintance who has gone to see a doctor and is twenty thousand dong short for the medicine. We hand over twenty thousand at once and then forget about it entirely. But ten years later, at some point, we happen to be lucky and receive two million. We do not know that those twenty thousand we once gave have now become two million; we never expected the result to multiply so many times.

Here is another example. We hear that a house has burned down in the next village, and in our neighbourhood group we organise a collection to help that family out of village solidarity. The group leader asks each household to give a hundred thousand dong. Everyone gives the same amount. We might think the karmic result would be the same for everyone, but it is not. The results differ because, although the sums are equal, the hearts behind them are not. Some comfortably-off people give a hundred thousand thinking: "Fine, just hand it over and let him go and bother someone else; paying my share settles the matter", because it would be embarrassing to give nothing or too little. Once they have paid, they no longer care what circumstances the burned-out family is in or how those people are living... Another person gives the same hundred thousand, but with compassion, and takes an interest in finding out about the family: how many children they have, where they are staying until the house can be rebuilt.

A person who gives with a casual heart will naturally receive less in return than a person who gives with genuine compassion. When the result comes back to the casual giver, a hundred thousand may become five million; for the compassionate giver it will be a hundred million. It is the heart with which we give that multiplies the reward of merit so many times over.

From this we should understand that in life we must help one another, but help with sincere, loving hearts, not casually. Careless giving drains human warmth between people, and the karmic result is not much either. Suppose someone ploughing a field runs out of a few litres of fuel and comes to ask to borrow some from us. If we eagerly call our children or grandchildren to carry it right over to him, and then take an interest in asking which field he is ploughing today, whether that amount of fuel will be enough to run the machine, and so on... when we help with such attentiveness, our merit later grows enormously and our life keeps meeting with great good fortune. But if we lend when asked, yet do so coldly, without attention, and even hope he will pay it back soon, then later we will also have some good luck, but it will be small and insignificant.

Factors That Increase Karmic Results

The first factor is our heart, which multiplies the karmic result many times over. So let us remember that in life we should keep a good heart toward one another; this is the most important factor. From now on, when we go to the temple to pay homage to the Buddha, let us pray for one thing: "May the Buddha grant that I have a kind heart and love all people." In living with others, there are times we cannot help anyone with a single coin, but please, let us love them. If we can both give a little material help and have a loving heart besides, so much the better; if we have no money, let us at least have the heart, and the karmic result will still be very beautiful and our lives will always be happy.

The second factor that increases the result is time. That is, the longer the time, the greater the result. For example, when we plant a soybean plant, we harvest about a hundred beans. Why so few? Because the time between planting and harvest is short, about three months. If we plant a tamarind tree and harvest only ten years later, we will get countless fruits. Because the tamarind lives for many years, it yields a great amount of fruit. Good and evil, cause and effect, are the same: the longer the time, the greater the result.

Suppose we help clear a neighbour of a false accusation and save him from prison. He did not steal anything, but his appearance and the circumstances resembled the description of the thief, so he was charged. Because we are neighbours, we know that he is not dishonest or greedy. If someone says he forced a door and went into a house to steal belongings, that certainly never happened. So we go to the commune police and say: he is not the culprit; I believe he would never do this. Many times, when he found money or valuables, he returned them to whoever had lost them.

Hearing us state this so firmly, the police have to investigate in another direction. The matter passes, and we no longer remember it. No karmic result comes either, because we suffer no injustice of our own. We are born and die, life after life... But in our twentieth life we suddenly meet with a great misfortune: we stand as a candidate for the National Assembly, and a group of people plot against us and try to smear us in order to bring us down. At that moment it will not be just the old neighbour but the whole country that rises to defend us. That is, the karmic result has multiplied many times over compared with the cause we made. The longer the time stretches, the more the result grows; if it is enjoyed too soon, that is not as good.

Or take a family in which the parents died early. The eldest brother did every kind of hard, exhausting work, such as hauling goods for hire, farming and tending cattle, to bring up his younger siblings and send them to school. By the time the younger ones had grown up and made something of themselves, the elder brother, worn out by overwork, had fallen ill and died young, so the younger ones could not repay that debt of gratitude. Cause and effect carries the siblings along, and only ten lives later do they meet again; it is not that they can meet again in the very next life. Because the result takes so long to return, the younger ones feel an immense, spontaneous affection for that elder brother and look after him without missing the smallest detail. If the elder brother had raised his siblings and they had repaid his kindness right away in this very life, the result repaid at once would be used up quickly.

The third factor that makes the result grow is effectiveness. That is, when our help has a great effect, the merit is great; when its effect is small, the merit is small. For example, two people need our help. One does not have enough to eat, and we give a million dong so that they can buy rice, sugar, milk and so on; the other needs to learn a trade, and we give a million dong so that they can pay the fees. Both people receive the same sum from us.

But the two acts of merit are different, and the two results that come back are also different. Why the difference? Because with one person, we helped them live for two months, and the merit that returns later is that we will live comfortably for twenty years. But this merit is not equal to the merit of helping someone learn a trade. When they have a trade, they can support themselves for the rest of their lives. So with the same million dong, one million benefited someone for two months, while the other benefited them for a lifetime, and the result we enjoy is beyond reckoning. That is, life after life goes by, and wherever we are born we have enough to eat and wear, a proper trade, steady work, and the constant respect of others.

We can see that, with the same amount of money and the same effort spent helping others, if we choose a way of helping that has a great effect, the merit will be very great. And among the ways of helping people, one is to help them believe in karmic cause and effect: its effect lasts not just one life but for countless lives to come. Once people believe in cause and effect, they no longer dare to do wrong and diligently do only what is meritorious, and right there, "merit" is what they will enjoy for countless lives. So how long will our merit last? Our merit is endless. That is why, for the merit of helping others understand the Buddha's teachings and understand cause and effect, we can become a Saint, attain the Way, and enjoy it without end.

Someone once asked the Buddha: "Venerable World-Honoured One, is there anyone outside Buddhism who is reborn in the heavenly realms to enjoy blessings?" The Buddha answered: "Brahmin, in the ninety-one great kalpas that have passed, I have not seen anyone outside Buddhism reborn in the heavenly realms, except one person, because that person often taught about karmic cause and effect." Thus the Buddha also affirmed that the merit of helping others understand the law of karmic cause and effect is extremely great.

Now, hearing the Buddha's words, we should speak about cause and effect to the children and grandchildren in our families, saying: "You must understand one thing: whatever cause you sow, that is the result you will reap. If you know how to respect your elders, others will respect you and you will succeed when you grow up; if as a child you are rude and insolent to your elders, then when you grow up you will fail at whatever you do and be looked down on in return; that is you sowing the cause. If you ignore people in suffering, then later your life will be hard and no one will look your way. So you must learn to help others and to love others." When we teach our children and grandchildren about cause and effect and about ethics, we have saved them for countless lives to come.

Not only for our own family: we should also go to our neighbours' homes and kindly invite them to the temple. Naturally they will say they are very busy, have no time, and are tied up working in the fields. We say: "I am even more tied up than you. But this day comes only once a year, and because I care for you so much, I am inviting you to come and hear the Dharma. We will get to bow to the Buddha and listen to the teachings there... it is a thousand times more beneficial than looking after the haystacks. Just go, and you will see that I was right." That is, we help that person come to know the Buddha's teachings, and when they return from the temple they will have faith in the Three Jewels, fear to do evil and love only to do good. In this way we have saved them for the next life. So how long will it take for the merit we enjoy to run out? Life after life, it never runs out.

If we bring others a small benefit, our merit is small; if we bring a great benefit, our merit is great. Among the great benefits, none equals helping others know the Buddha's teachings and believe in cause and effect. Therefore, we who are disciples of the Buddha, wherever we may be, at the ends of the earth, in whatever village, must diligently reach out to our neighbours who do not yet know the Dharma or cause and effect. We talk to them about the moral principles, even just a sentence or two, but when we plant faith in cause and effect in their hearts, we have saved their lives.

Or we bring them good talks and invite them to read good books. Once they have read one, we have already sown faith in cause and effect in their lives. They are saved for countless lives, and our own merit is beyond imagining. Even in this present life we are always protected by the Buddha: when we meet a dead end, we need only stand under the open sky and recite the Buddha's name once, and we will be helped at once. Let us believe firmly in this. But those who spend their whole lives living only for themselves, never helping anyone and never bringing the Buddha's teachings to anyone, may well not receive a response when they meet suffering and pray to the Buddha, because they do not deserve it.

Another factor that increases the karmic result is "effort". For example, we hear that in the next village some people have volunteered to repair the road joining the two villages. The state has not yet provided funds, so the villagers must mend it themselves to make it passable for now. The other village started the campaign first and did not invite ours, since our side is busy and cannot join in building the road. When we hear this, we want to contribute, but we are too busy to shoulder a hoe and shovel and go to work with them, so we go over and offer a sack of rice for the workers to eat while they build the road.

Having made that resolve, there are two different ways to do it. One way is to say: "Send someone to my house to collect the sack of rice and cook it for the road workers to eat." In that case we give the sack of rice without any effort, just waiting at home for someone to come and take it away. The second way is to give a sack of rice too, but we struggle to push a cart over to the other village and carry it right into the kitchen, saying: "Please cook rice for the people working on the road."

When the gift is of equal value but carries a different amount of effort, what are the results? The results that come back will be completely different. If we follow the first way, giving a sack of rice without any effort, then in the next life, to earn money, we will have to leave home and go far away to make a living. But when we bring the rice right to the place to help people, then in the next life we need only sit at home and business opportunities come to us on their own. For example, someone comes and says: "Your house is in such a good location; why don't you become an agent selling fertiliser? I will deliver the goods without charge, and you pay me back the capital once they are sold." We just sit at home, that person brings the fertiliser, and others come to buy and take it away. The difference in merit is this: when we carry what we give right to the place for others, later we sit in one spot and wealth comes to us naturally. But if we wait until people come and only then help them, later we will have to go far away and struggle to make a living.

Factors That Reduce Karmic Results

Next, let us talk about the factors that reduce karmic results, meaning that we will not enjoy our good fortune in full. It is like planting a bean plant but, instead of letting it bask in the dew and sun, covering it with something so that it cannot grow. Sometimes it yields only a few beans and no more. In the same way, there are factors that stop the results from growing more and instead diminish them, arising from these causes:

The first is boasting. When we perform an act of merit by helping someone and then keep parading it around, sometimes the merit is lost entirely, as if we had never given. For example, in the neighbouring house the wife goes into labour while her husband is away. Seeing this, we call on our whole family to help take her to the hospital, and together with our wife and children we look after her attentively. The husband returns, learns of it and comes over to thank us. Because we helped the neighbours see mother and child safe and sound, we go around boasting from one end of the village to the other: "If it hadn't been for me that day, that fellow would have been dead." We keep telling it and telling it, until the child has grown up, and even become a grandfather or grandmother, and we are still telling it, so that the person who was once the "rescued" baby feels more embarrassed the older they get.

From that original kindness, we are like a second father or mother to the child, but we keep boasting about it until the other person can bear it no longer. When we are old and that person has hair of two colours, wherever they see us they run the other way, because every time we meet we bring up the old story, so that instead of gratitude it turns into dislike. That is how meritorious deeds accompanied by boasting use up their merit quickly.

Or suppose on the death anniversary of the temple's founder, we bring vegetables and rice as an offering. We have gained merit because we helped the temple feed the people who come from all directions. But then we start telling people about it all year, from this anniversary until the next. Whoever we meet, we say: "Last year I offered the temple a sack of vegetables and rice to cook for everyone, you know." A few days later, meeting someone else, we say: "Do you go to the temple? At last year's anniversary I also offered a sack of rice and a sack of vegetables." We keep this up for a full year, and the next year we make the offering again; but having talked continuously for a year about what we did, the merit is all lost and no good result comes.

Ten years later, when we meet hard times and do not have enough rice to eat, we sit with our chin in our hand and ask ourselves: "How strange: every year I took rice to offer to the temple and gave to people from all directions, and now I don't have enough rice to eat?" We do not realise that every time we made an offering we boasted about it just as often, and the more we boast, the more merit we lose, as if we had never given a single grain of rice. So when we do good deeds, let us remember to keep them secret and tell no one, and then our merit will last very long, without any flaw.

Another factor that reduces merit is "giving and then regretting". In the Buddhist sutras there is a very good story about a rich man who lived more wretchedly, and with more hardship, than a poor man. He ate from a tiny bowl; freshly cooked rice he begrudged, waiting until it had gone sour before hurriedly eating it for fear of wasting it; meat and fish brought home fresh and delicious he also saved until they were almost spoiled before hastily taking them out to eat; fine clothes he bought but did not dare wear for fear they would wear out quickly, until mice gnawed them and he had to wear patched clothes... When he died, since he had no children, the king took all his property into the public treasury.

Afterwards the king asked the Buddha: "Venerable World-Honoured One, what cause and effect is this, that a man so rich lived in more hardship than a poor man?" The Buddha answered: "In many past lives, a monastic went on alms rounds every day past the house of that rich man. Looking out from his house and seeing a samana pass by, he sent someone out to offer milk. After making the offering, he secretly regretted it in his heart: 'Such good milk, what a waste to give it to a monk.' The next day he made an offering again. After the monastic had accepted the offering, he regretted again: 'Such good cakes, I haven't even eaten any, and I've given them away.' That is, each time he gave, he regretted it, and he did not know at all that this was a holy monk who had attained the Way, and that making offerings to such a one brings very great merit. In this age he is extremely rich. When he died, everyone only then learned that his house was full of money and gold, yet he lived like a poor and wretched man. The cause was that he regularly made offerings to a Saint every day, but after each offering he regretted it. Precisely because of that regret he did not dare to enjoy his wealth."

One more cause that damages merit is "conceit and arrogance". Our neighbour is in difficulty and has lost his job. So for several years in a row, every month we help him with fifty kilos of rice until he finds work. Is our merit great? Yes, because very few people persevere in helping like that. But while we help in this way, if inwardly we grow arrogant and come to look down on and despise him, our merit later also diminishes. By rights, with that merit we would have become wealthy, but unexpectedly we become only comfortably off, not rich. So, now that we know the principle, when we help someone we must help with a heart that is both loving and respectful, so that the person who receives the favour does not feel they have lost face or honour.

Or when we have a few good cakes and a neighbour's child happens to run past, we call out: "Come here, child, I'll give you one." We will not give by throwing the cake as one throws scraps to a dog; rather we will stroke the child's head, kindly unwrap the cake and place it in their hand. It is just giving a child one cake, but we give with all our love and esteem, so the merit grows from one to a hundred because of that respect. But in the case where we give and say: "Hey, you, come here, there's a cake," and toss the cake without caring whether the boy catches it or not, that is, we feed others while looking down on them, then later we will receive only one or two cakes in return, because the merit is small.

This explains why we gain merit when we make offerings to a temple. When we offer things to a temple, most of us feel respect for the monks and nuns. It is that respect that turns one coin offered into a million. Why, then, do we not gain much merit when we give to help others? Only because we hold them in contempt in our hearts, except when it comes to people of high rank and position, to whom we always give gifts with deference. Having understood cause and effect, if we give with respect, our merit will be complete.

One day we cook a delicious dish and tell our child to take it to the poor neighbour next door, instructing carefully: "Take this dish to the old gentleman, remember to fold your arms and bow your head and say that our family cooked it, and we bring it to offer as a token of respect; politely bow before you leave." Even though our family is better off than theirs, we still teach our child to bring a dish with all courtesy. Precisely because we have respect, we make our child respectful too, and later both we and the children of the family will have great merit. This merit is very similar to the merit of making offerings to a temple.

These are the factors that make merit increase or decrease.