因果无欺，当迷途知返

There is an example in the text. Once there was a king who killed an arhat. The next day, a downpour of innumerable jewels fell on his territory. The rain of jewels, becoming more precious by the day, continued for the next six days. On the eighth day, however, a ferocious pouring of mud came down and buried all his subjects. Why did the king have jewels rained down on his land after killing an arhat? It was due to the great deeds he had committed in the past lives. Even though killing an arhat was an extremely grave crime, virtuous karma from the past ripened first and hence his great fortune. But when good karma was depleted, the negative karmic results ensued immediately. Did the Creator arrange the sequence of events as non-Buddhists would like to think? No. The mechanism is the same as that of crops, whose harvest depends on the right combinations of soil, climate, sunlight and other factors. It is not man-made but the law of nature.

在经书里还讲述了另外一个例子。以前，有一个国王杀害了阿罗汉。第二天，在他所辖的领土内，下了无数的珠宝雨。在以后的连续六天中，天降的宝物一天比一天珍贵，但第八天却降下铺天盖地的黄土，全国所有的人都被埋葬于黄土之下，一命呜呼。为什么国王杀了阿罗汉后反而感得天降珠宝呢？因为他过去世曾造过殊胜的善业，现在虽作了极大的恶业，但当两种不同的业相遇时，原来的善业先成熟，自然得到大的善报，当福报享尽后，立即恶报现前。这里面的先后顺序是不是像外道所讲是由造物主安排的呢？肯定不是。这与粮食成熟是由土壤、阳光、气候等诸多因素综合而成，决非人为所致，只是一个自然规律的道理完全是一样的。

If you would like to know more about karma, you can read the fourth chapter of the Abhidharma-kosha-shastra, which clearly explains the workings of cause and effect. Not understanding karma correctly will cause many problems even for people with clairvoyance, let alone ordinary folks like us.

如果想更多地了解因果方面的问题，可以看《俱舍论》第四品，其中阐述的因果道理十分清晰明了。如果对因果没有一个正确的定解，就会出现许多问题，有神通的人尚且如此，没有神通的人就更不用说了。

The fourth type of cause (karma) is mutable karma. Since the strength of this karma，virtuous or not，is weak，it will likely not cause any effect when met with a counteracting condition. For negative karma to become mutable, we must bring forth this counteracting condition, i.e., repentance. According to the Mahayanabhidharma-sangiti-shastra, the way to turn all evil karma committed since beginningless time into mutable karma is to repent and vow never to commit again. To repent past wrongdoings and resolve never to repeat again are the two key elements to turn immutable into mutable karma.

第四种因是不定因，这种因不论是善是恶，因能力微弱，所以当碰到其他违缘时，就不会发生果了。对于恶业，要制造一种违缘使它变成不定业，这个违缘就是忏悔。在《大乘阿毗达摩》中讲，无始以来所造恶业都有办法让它变成不定业，这个办法就是对它生起后悔，并发誓以后再也不造。后悔和发誓不造恶，是转定业为不定业的两个关键条件。

For example, a butcher who killed animals for a living had a change of heart and became a lay Buddhist. He expressed great repentance for the killings and vowed never to do it again. Once these two conditions are satisfied, karma derived from the killing will become mutable karma which may or may not result in any karmic fruit. If the repentance could go deeper, it would even be possible that the butcher might not need to bear any consequence at all.

比如：一个人原来靠杀猪宰羊生活，后来改行不做，开始当居士念佛，他对原来的恶业生起很大的后悔心，并发誓一生当中再也不去做这种恶事，当这两个条件完全具备后，他所造的杀业就变成了不定业，以后就不一定得果报，若再进一步深刻忏悔，就有可能完全不受果报。