Just as everyone's face is unique, in the same way, the causes and effects for each person's situation are also different. The debts we have amassed in lives past are complicated and varied. Some people owe others alot. So when they come into the world, no matter how hard they try to pay them back, they never seem to manage to cancel their debts. As the saying goes, "debts mounted up like a tower." "Tower" refers to people's karmic debts stacked up high like a tower. Karmic debts pile up thicker and thicker every day as people become hopelessly entangled in messy accounts. Why? Because in the past they gave out high-interest loans. They lent money to others, but demanded unreasonably high interest rates. Their greed was insatiable. They thought they were doing good business, but as it turns out, they are the ones who really suffer the loss. Their karmic debts grew heavier and deeper each day so that now they are so buried in debt, they can't get out!

There are those who owe the debt of being somebody's father; there are those who owe the debt of being somebody's mother. There are those who owe the debt of being somebody's wife, and those who owe the debt of being somebody's husband, or those who owe the debt of being somebody's son or daughter. As it is said, "The starving mother and father is just the writing off of a debt, another repayment on the turning wheel."

A myriad causes and conditions contribute to your present fate or predicament. Yet most people do not understand that the law of cause and effect is immutable and that fixed karma is very difficult to avoid. So they refuse to accept responsibility for their own debts and don't wish to pay them back. They are clearly obligated to others, yet they still don't want to repay what they owe. It is just because people are so unreasonable that the wofid is becoming worse and worse. Afflictions erupt all over the place-you have your afflictions, I have my afflictions, and he has his afflictions. Everybody's holding a bag of messy cause and effect-a mixture of good and bad all jumbled up together. Perhaps on occasion they encounter the Buddhadharma, and after listening to it they understand a bit. However, although today they may understand, tomorrow they become muddled again. The following day they gain a little clarity, but the day after that they become confused again. Back and forth they turn-sometimes clearheaded, sometimes muddled-with their intelligence usually offset by their stupidity. When muddled, they don't want to cultivate; when clear, they want to cultivate. Therefore, what they gain from cultivation does not make up for what they lose from their confusion. Because of this decreasing ratio, their wisdom diminishes daily, while their stupidity increases daily. And as their stupidity increases, they are driven by ignorance to do all sorts of upside-down things. Their bodies then act out the foolish impulses generated from their muddled minds. When their minds have greed, anger, and stupidity, their bodies kill, steal, and lust. All those karmic offenses just add more and more messy accounts. The books become so unclear, the debts so complicated, that these people will never be able to reconcile their accounts.

For that reason, in some families the people don't get along. Father and son fight; mother and daughter are at each other's throats. Husband and wife scowl at each other; brothers and sisters quarrel non-stop. Endless problems arise. But even as these complicated situations multiply, people still refuse to recognize what's going on. They are unwilling to pay back their debts, but only complain that things are unfair. Actually, all of this is just the natural and logical outcome of cause and effect. These people are simply reaping the fruit of the seeds they planted in the past. So what is there to complain or gripe about? Therefore, the Confucian School says,

One who understands his fate does not stand underneath a toppling wall.
He does not gripe to heaven, nor complain to people.
He learns from a low position and aspires to be lofty.

First you have to understand cause and effect. Don't plant causes that are muddled. St~ planting pure causes. If you encounter things that accord with the Way, advance in that direction. If you meet with things that oppose the Way, turn back. Be careful not to become confused about cause and effect. If you can discriminate clearly between darkness and light, between and right and wrong, between true and false then you'll be able to return to the source and recover your naturally pure, clear mind, the nature of wondefful True Suchness.