It was the 15th of the second Lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which was also my Chinese calendar birth date. As usual, after a hectic morning in the office, I took a drive out to a vegetarian shop nearby for lunch. Having ordered a simple meal, I took a seat in a corner of the shop and waited quietly to be served. On my left, there was a poster with a few Chinese wordings which caught my eyes instantly. Those words are as follows:

人为善，福虽未至，祸已远离。

人为恶，祸虽未至，福已远离。

“A person who practice good deed; although good fortune has yet to come, misfortune has left far away. A person who practice evil deed; although misfortune has yet to come, good fortune has left far away”

I was instantly touched and inspired by those wordings. Quickly I took out my hand phone, keyed in these words and send out a series of SMS to most of my Buddhist friends! I believed that those words would be able to give encouragement for those practicing Buddhist way of life and cultivation.

Why was I so touched by these words? The reason is obvious – after years of practice and cultivation, at times we are still deluded and things are not happening according to what we expect it to be, in particular those hoping for a turn of their fortune and condition, we tend to feel doubtful and suspicious of our practices, or even blame the teaching and practice of Buddha.

This is especially in the perspective of the so called ‘modern’ man where speed, efficiency, shortcuts, quick fix etc become the rule of the day. Some devotees became Buddhist because they believed that Buddhism would be able to give them a quick fix to their problems, or perhaps that miracle would smile upon them. When the methods introduced to them failed to give them the result in their expected time frame, some would give up, or even converted to other religion or belief. Sadly, some would even resort to deviant practices or the ‘black’ arts, or even believe unscrupulous mediums or practitioners.

We cannot really blame them. It is our responsible to bring forth the right Buddhist view and attitudes to the masses, so as to put things in perspective. These words, I believed, would be able to put things into perspective and give the necessary encouragement to those who has put in great efforts in their cultivation.

We have to accept the fact that we have accumulated both good and bad karma since time immemorial. We cannot expect to reverse our karma and its fruition, especially the bad one, in a matter of days and nights. Practising good deeds do has its good effect. It may not be strong enough to reverse the effect of bad karma, but it does reduce its effect in some way or another, hence “…although good fortune has yet to come, misfortune has left far away…” Major effects may be reduced. Minor effects may be eliminated. Until the practice has grown strong, good fortune may not come. Yet, we have to be grateful that we are doing something to reduce the effect of misfortune!

Another point to be raised over here: when we mean practice, it does not mean only our daily morning and nights chanting, meditation, prostration, metta-bhavana etc. Many practitioner do this everyday, but do not do what is really matter in the Buddha’s teaching – the practice of Buddhist way of life in their daily life when dealing with mundane matters and people around them! Talking about quick effect, these, to me, would bring in quicker effects in terms for transforming misfortune into good fortune!

Imaging if we managed to change ourselves a little bit here and there: less greed, less anger, less ignorance, willing to give and share more, smile in face of adverse situation, care and concern about things and people around us, be more grateful to what we have, be compassionate to those less fortunate etc, would our relationship we those around us improve? In this modern society, human relationship and networking plays a very important role in the success and failure of a ‘modern’ man. If the relationships with the people around us improve, wouldn’t our life improve too? And naturally, good fortune would smile upon us. Joy and happiness would follow too!

On top of that, those holding on to the precepts dearly would be transformed into a person with higher level of integrity, ethics, responsibility, trustworthy etc. These again are formulas for success. Well, again leading into good fortune again.

Perhaps, many would rather pick the easier way out. Anyway, as the Chinese saying goes, “…the sea and mountain can be changed easily, yet human character is difficult to be shifted…” It would not be easy to change one’s character and thinking, even after years of exposure to Buddhist teachings and practices. Just as the Dhammapada verse 103 says, “Though one should conquer a million men in battlefield, yet he, is the noblest victor who has conquered himself.” This is to say, mastery of self is in fact a difficult task. So, this can be one reason why devotees can continue their morning and night practices, yet may find it difficult to change their character and put Buddhist way of life into their daily dealings with issues and people.

Some did indeed attempted to do so, yet, in face of adverse situation, they reverted back to their original self – full of greed, hatred and delusion. Then they would be suspicious about practicing good deeds, and saying that they fortune has not changed for the better. By greed, hatred and delusion, they claimed to be better off, without realizing that they are banging on the fruition of the good deeds they had accumulated in their previous lives.

With these Chinese wordings, I believed strongly in one important ingredient for successful practice of Buddhist way of life – patience! Imaging our karma have been accumulated since a long, long time ago, and definitely, we need a long, long time and effort to reduce the effect of the fruition of our karma. Thus, we really need a lot of patience in our practice. We have to be deeply convinced that although the conditions have yet to improve, additional bad effects would not be able to rise anymore. And on top of that, we have to be discouraged from practicing evil deeds otherwise our good fortune already in our hand would slip passed through our fingers!

Thus, to improve the conditions of our life, do not just rely on our morning and night practice, but also try to improve our character and personality to reflect the ideal ‘human’ person from the Buddhist perspective, with strong determination and patience even when facing challenges and adverse situation. We have to strongly believe that the every little bit of good deeds does keep additional bad effects from rising even good fortune has yet shine upon us. Again, sharing these quotes with all sentient beings:

人为善，福虽未至，祸已远离。

人为恶，祸虽未至，福已远离。

“A person who practice good deed; although good fortune has yet to come, misfortune has left far away. A person who practice evil deed; although misfortune has yet to come, good fortune has left far away”

Amithabha!