August 29, 2017
Venerable Wuling in Karma and Causality, Selfishness

Notice from 

The Good Fortune Bank:

Statements will no longer be issued.

Not knowing how much good fortune we have makes it difficult to determine whether we’re accumulating or depleting it. Our financial institutions update us monthly; with many providing phone apps so we can check how much money we have 24/7/365. We can even request to be notified the instant anything changes. Wouldn’t it be convenient if the Good Fortune Bank also notified us? Alert: you just helped someone; you now have X. Or, Alert: You bought something you didn’t need; your balance has decreased to Y. Not receiving such updates, we have no idea how much good fortune we have left! If our bank stopped updating us, we would start keeping a mental tally. We can do the same with our good fortune. Not knowing our balance, we can keep a daily score secure in the knowledge that at the end of the day as long as we achieve more selfless acts than selfish ones, our balance will have increased.

 

Article originally appeared on a buddhist perspective (http://www.abuddhistperspective.org/).
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