During the Northern Son Dynasty, there was this boy who was born lame into a poor family. At the age of about ten his parents passed away leaving him alone, begging for left overs to sustain his life. There was a river in the village. The villagers had to walk across the river to go about their daily chores and this brought great inconvenience to the old folks and the ills. The situation worsened when the river overflowed its bank and the villagers were unable to walk across it. As the years passed by, the difficult situation remained the same as no one took any initiative to better the living condition of the villagers.
And this lame boy would pick the stones, carried the rocks daily and put them together, in a heap of a small hill. When the passerby asked him the reason for carrying those stones and rock, he answered, “I am going to build a stone bridge.” The villagers shook their heads, thinking that he must be crazy, building a bridge! He did not bother about their comments and continued to collect the stones, the rock and they looked like small hills by the river banks. The villagers realized that he was really serious about his project and they joined in to build the bridge. The bridge builder was called in and big rocks were transported to the area. In the process of breaking down the rock, some fragment of rock shot out and wounded the boy’s eyes and he became blind. The villagers complained that the heaven was really unfair, that a kind boy who cared so much for others were blinded. Although he had lost his eye- sight, he continued to go about his daily activities, carrying small stones and rocks to help in the building of the bridge.
After a few months a new bridge was built and all the villagers were very happy. They praised the lame and blind boy for his initiative in building a bridge. Even though the boy could not see the new bridge, gladness was written on his face and he smiled so beautifully, the first time in his miserable life, he felt a success in life, not that the bridge was built but also the winning of the hearts of all villagers who sincerely thanked him.
Suddenly a thunder storm with torrential rain and lightning broke out. It looked as though the heaven also rejoiced and wished to clean up the new bridge for the opening ceremony. And in a lightning strike the boy fell down died beside the bridge which brought great chaos to the crowd. They touched him and he was already dead.
The villagers cursed the heaven and the earth spirits for having no eyes, killing such a kind and innocent boy. And right at that moment, the country High Officer, the famous judge of the emperor, His Honour One the great Judge Bao arrived at the scene. He was sitting inside his carriage and all the villagers surrounded him, telling him about this unfortunate incidence. They asked, “Your Honoured One Bao Master, we do not understand why this has happened. Why didn’t a good man reap a reward, why was he killed by lightning? What is the point of doing good deeds now?”
The great judge Bao was also moved by the emotion of these mundane men and in his mind he could not find an answer. So he took out his brush and wrote these six words on the boy’s hand, “Better commit evils, Don’t do good” and left in a hurry.
When he arrived at the palace, he reported his duty to the Emperor and told him about the fate of the unfortunate boy, leaving out the part on the comments he had written.
The Judge Bao could not understand why a good boy was down with this terrible retribution, why a good deed does not reap a reward. He was thinking about the words that he had written and in his mind he felt it was not very right for him to do so.
After the official meeting with all the officers, the Emperor pulled the judge Bao aside to ask for help. He told the judge of the new prince who was born a few days ago and the baby was crying non-stop. He asked the judge to go and see the prince and solved the problem of non-stop cries. On seeing the baby the judge got a great shock of his life. The prince was very cute and fair. And on his hands were written the six words, “Better commit evils, don’t do good.” His face turned red and he used his fingers to rub away the words. And something strange occurred. The words were rubbed off. For other people they did not see the words, they only saw the birth mark. The Emperor was scolding him angrily, “What are you trying to do, clearing away the birth mark? Are you trying to harm my prince, taking away his blessings?” The judge knelt down and apologized to the Emperor, telling him the whole incidence of that ill-fated boy, how he was greatly influenced by the villagers emotionally and out of great anger he wrote the six words.
Now the Emperor also became suspicious. To solve this mystery, he ordered the judge Bao to sleep on the mandarin duck pillow at night and entered the dark realm to check on this case. That night the judge Bao went to the dark realm to investigate on the boy. King Yama of the Hell told him, “This boy had committed lots of evils in his former lives. He needed to undergo three lifetimes of sufferings in order to pay the debt. In this life he has to undergo the retribution of being poor, lame and lonely, with no family to take care of him. In the next life he will be born blind and suffer the consequences and in the third life he will be struck by the lightning and die on the wild mountain with nobody to take care of his corpse. And now in this life he has changed for good. Even though he was poor and lame, he did not complain and in his mind he only wished to help people. Because of such virtues, the sufferings that he was supposed to undergo were brought forward and he became blind. And when he was blind, he continued to help others to build the bridge, without a word of complain or feeling unfair. He continued to help others happily and the karmic sufferings he had to undergo in the third life were brought forward.”
King Yama continued, “What do you think, great judge Bao, isn’t it good to finish undergoing the sufferings of three lives in one life?”
“In one life, he managed to pay the debts of three lives’ retribution. As he only performed good deeds and in any situation he never took himself into consideration and in this way he had reached the state of no self, a state that there is no cultivation and yet he is cultivating. He had accrued lots of merits and blessings. That is why after passing away he was born a prince, to enjoy the blessings of a prince, the blessing of future Emperor.”
Conclusion:
Cultivating goodness and yet people do not see your goodness,
You are lacking in merits and virtues in your former lives.
Committing evils and yet people do not see your evils,
You still have some merits and virtues you accrued in your former lives.
I exhort you not to commit evils
As you yourself have to undergo the karmic retribution.
I would like to encourage you to cultivate goodness,
Goodness helps to eradicate the bad karmas and to increase one’s merits and virtues.”
I'm ORI the Light 