►The Venerable Master Hua's Dharma Talk

The Medicine Master Sutra talks about the past vows of Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Buddha: What kind of vows did he make in the past? What kind of fruition is he reaping now? What effects do his vows have?

The vows we make are not in vain. Whatever kind of vows you make, you will reap the corresponding fruition. If you plant good causes, you'll receive wholesome results. If you plant bad causes, you'll get bad results. When you make vows, you're just creating good or bad karma. The vows are a kind of driving force that enables us to accomplish tasks. Medicine Master Buddha made wholesome vows in his past lives, so he accomplished wholesome karma and reaped wholesome results.

His vows are wholesome because he made them for all living beings. He didn't vow, "When I become a Buddha, I'll enjoy my blessings and forget about other living beings." The Buddha isn't like that. Having attained the greatest happiness, the Buddha doesn't want to enjoy it alone. He wants to share it with all beings. He perfected his wholesome karma by practicing the Bodhisattva path in life after life. He made a great Bodhi resolve to benefit, enlighten, and rescue himself and all beings. Forgetting themselves and thinking only of living beings, Bodhisattvas make wholesome vows, accomplish wholesome karma, and reap the wholesome result of Buddhahood. When they become Buddhas, they are not arrogant. The Buddha is just the same as living beings, except that he has more wisdom. He has truly left confusion behind and returned to enlightenment, and is free from all false thinking.

We living beings create karma in our every word and deed, and almost all of it is bad. We might have an occasional good thought, but it's too weak to overcome our bad thoughts. If we were to tally up all our karma on the computer, we would find more bad karma than good. That's why our lives get worse and worse. In each life, we meet hard times and end up lost and alone. Why? Because of the impure karma we have created. We didn't do a good job. Unlike the Buddha, we haven't always made wholesome vows, cultivated wholesome karma, and reaped wholesome results. Since the evil in our minds outweighs the goodness, we fall lower and lower in each successive life. When we try to make wholesome vows, our selfishness gets in the way-we only want to help ourselves and never think about helping others.

Occasionally we'll do something to help others, but our real motive is just to present a good image and make others believe in us. Thus, the karma we create is never wholly good. Since the bad karma is heavier than the good karma, we reap a bad retribution. The Buddha made good vows and did good deeds, so he reaped a good fruit. We living beings want to make good vows, but we get muddled and our selfishness takes over, and our karma becomes a mixture of good and bad. Thus people experience a little happiness and a little suffering, but on the whole there is more suffering than happiness.

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