Yang Rong was born in Jianning, Fujian Province (now Jianou, Fujian Province), and his official position was Shaoshi. In ancient times, the young master was the prince's teacher and was a very high official position. His ancestors have made a living by ferrying people for generations. Even if they are engaged in the ferry boat industry, their lives are very difficult. Let's first look at how his ancestors accumulated virtue.
One year, it rained heavily for a long time in Jianning, Fujian Province, and the river water swelled. This river is the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, flowing all the way to Fuzhou and out to the sea. The cross-currents destroyed the houses on both sides of the river, and the drowned people drifted down the floodwaters. At this time, people were looking for justice or profit. Most of the families on the ferry took the opportunity to grab the goods. Only Master Yang's great-grandfather and grandfather were dedicated to saving people and did not take any of the goods and property floating in the water.
When the villagers saw what they did, they all said they were stupid. What was the use of saving people? There are many properties floating on the water, and whoever catches them belongs to whomever. They save people without asking for property, which is a sign of merit.
Why is there such a big difference in behavior? What a person will do depends on what is most important in his heart. If fame and wealth are the most important thing, he is afraid that he will not get enough; if he is interested in benefiting others, he will only think about saving others. When people are blinded by greed, they will not feel the suffering of others at all, and the whole mentality is selfish.
Therefore, greed is very bad. If you are persistent and greedy for your own interests, you will not know and will not benefit others. At that time, the ferry people made a lot of money every day. They caught wood today, furniture tomorrow, and some treasure the day after tomorrow. It was indeed a huge windfall. People get excited when something is profitable, but this is just foolish excitement.
The Yang Rong family saves people every day, not only does it not benefit them, but they also have to pay for others. The villagers think this is stupid. They don’t need the property in front of them, but they pay for it instead! In fact, who is stupid? Judging from the law of cause and effect, if you take advantage of disasters to make a fortune, you will definitely fall into the evil path, and your descendants will not be well. Destroying yourself in this way has no wisdom at all.
Therefore, the mentality and behavior of people who are ignorant of cause and effect are completely reversed. In their eyes, damage becomes benefit, and benefit becomes damage. You laugh at the stupidity of good people, but in fact you are the biggest idiot.
For now, it seems that the Yang Rong family is just giving and not getting any benefits, but the law of cause and effect will not be messed up. Cause and effect are based on the heart. If you are kind-hearted and save others, there will be no loss. They will definitely be rich in blessings in the future. Report.
The Yang Rong family has great wisdom in doing this. Why is this really beneficial to themselves and others? While saving others, they greatly increase their own blessings and can also bring happiness to their descendants. If people can believe that good deeds will bring huge benefits, they will definitely rush to save others. Who doesn’t want their own good? Who wouldn’t want to do something that’s hugely profitable? Unfortunately, people are hindered by the ignorance of karma. What they want is happiness, but what they do is the cause of pain.
Those who do not believe in the cause and effect of the three lives hold a judgment. For example, Yang Rong's ancestors saved people, but no blessings immediately appeared at that time. As time passed, his great-grandfather and grandfather passed away, and his descendants and descendants were not seen. In this way, we cannot see long-term results or subtle changes, and we do not believe in the words of sages. Of course, we cannot understand the law of dependent origination.
Most people think that doing good will not bring any benefits, and evil people will still live a good life. This is the most serious kind of ignorance - karma-result ignorance, which does the greatest harm to people. If it is hindered by it, all wisdom that understands dependent origination will not arise, and all the right paths to achieve peace and happiness will not be accessible.
This is the most pitiful place for all living beings. Why do you say this? Because in order to gain a bit of happiness in the next life, you also need to have the correct view of cause and effect, understand what the cause of this happiness is, and then cultivate and accumulate it to obtain it. Like this, whether you want to gain wealth, status, fame, appearance, family, longevity, career, wisdom, whether it is for self-interest, or for benefiting your descendants, or benefiting all living beings, it all comes from a deep belief in cause and effect and the cultivation of correct causes. In order to seek liberation, we must understand and believe in the deeper cause and effect of reincarnation, which is the dual cause and effect of reincarnation and nirvana.
Only by making correct choices can we enter the path of liberation.
If you don’t understand cause and effect, there is no way to get in. If you seek to realize the supreme Bodhi, you must also understand the cause and effect of Mahayana. Knowing how to aspire and how to practice is the cause of becoming a Buddha. Only after knowing this can you practice diligently and practice diligently. Therefore, whether it is the path of the ten good karmas, the path of the four truths and the twelve dependent origins, or the path of the six perfections, they must be established on the basis of a deep belief in cause and effect.
If you don’t believe in cause and effect, all upward paths will be blocked, leaving only the lower realms. To educate sentient beings, we must first start from the cause and effect, and help people in the world free themselves from the shackles of the wrong view that there is no cause and effect in three lives. Otherwise, there is no way. If you learn about cause and effect well, you will have no doubt that "good will be rewarded with good and evil will be rewarded with evil." There are three types of karma: immediate experience, follow-up experience, and follow-up experience. Even if there is no reward for ten years, twenty years, or so. It will definitely be repaid in one or more lifetimes. The Buddha said in the sutra: "If for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, the deeds are not destroyed, and when the karma and fate meet, the retribution will be received by oneself."
When Yang Rong's father was born, the family gradually became wealthy. It used to be an ordinary family, ferrying every day, not making much money, and living a very hard life. By Yang Rong's father's generation, they were getting richer and richer. This is what happened to Yang Rong to prove that "a house that accumulates good deeds will always be blessed."
At that time, a god turned into a Taoist and told Yang Rong's father: Your grandfather has Yin Gong and has saved many people's lives. With Yin Gong, his descendants will definitely be noble in the future. There is a piece of Feng Shui that is very good. A good land should be where the ancestors should be buried. He buried (ancestors) according to the instructions of the gods, which is the famous White Rabbit Tomb.
"Yin Gong" is highly profitable. The deeper the hidden power, the richer the reward. If you send banners, certificates, and publicity on a large scale at that time, your merit will be lost with this kind of reputation. He was unknown at the time, so he became very prosperous later on.
Later, Yang Rong was born, and "the weak crown ascended to the throne." The "weak crown" is 20 years old. At the age of 20, he passed the imperial examination and became a junior master among the three public officials. The emperor was very grateful to him and awarded his great-grandfather and grandfather the title of Young Master. The descendants of Master Yang are very distinguished. By the time of the lay scholar Yuan Liaofan, that is, during the Ming Dynasty, there were still many sages in Yang Rong's family, and there were sages from generation to generation. This was the accumulated virtue of the ancestors.
In the world, there are some who are rich and powerful, some who are poor and some who are poor, some who are prosperous and some who are bumpy. If you don’t understand the origin, how can you figure it out? If you understand the origin, you will know that it is only reasonable to manifest in this way. The profound merits of the ancestors determine the dignity of the descendants. Only fertile land can grow good crops. The origin is true and it is inevitable!
If you compare the descendants of Master Yang’s family with those of unjust families, you will know that the cause and effect is true.
"A house that accumulates good deeds will always be blessed" is a rule of thumb for getting rich. Getting rich is not achieved by violating cause and effect, doing evil and taking advantage of tricks. A person's short-sightedness will lead to a poor way of doing things. Nowadays, some people have very bad ideas. They don’t care about future generations. As long as they can enjoy it, they will die in a few decades anyway. As for future generations, they don’t care whether they have good air or good water. desertification. As long as you have money and enjoyment in front of you, you don't care about anything. This is very bad.