In this lifetime, I have carried the heavy burden of immense . My body has been a vessel for karmic obstacles, and I have come into this world to settle debts and face the consequences of my past actions. At this moment, I see everything with absolute clarity. When I look back at all I have done in my past lives, I am filled with deep shame and remorse. It was my own wrongdoings in the past that led to the retribution and suffering I endured in this life. Yet, within my heart, there remains a profound sense of gratitude. I am deeply grateful to have encountered the Venerable Master Chin Kung and to have practised the path. Most importantly, I am grateful to have met Practitioner Su, whose guidance allowed me to find liberation and be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. The magnificence and dignity of this place fill my heart with gratitude every single day.
A Life Forged in Shadows and Sacrifice
In a past life, I was the son of a wealthy and powerful family, but our clan held a secret, dark identity: we were a notorious organization of assassins. Once we accepted a mission, we could take a life in the blink of an eye. We were capable of eliminating entire mountain sects with terrifying speed. My father taught me many martial arts and trained me to be an agile and lethal killer. However, I never truly enjoyed the act of taking lives. After completing several missions, I chose to abandon the path of violence. I betrayed my father and fled, living under an assumed name. I knew my father’s ruthless nature all too well, so I could never live openly under my true identity.
After I left our mountain estate, my father sent wave after wave of assassins to hunt me down. He even kidnapped my mother to threaten me. My heart could not bear the thought of her suffering, so I sought to rescue her. When I finally chose to confront my father, I discovered that my mother had already sacrificed her own life to protect me. My heart was shattered by grief. Although I desperately wanted to take her body away, I knew that if I appeared at that moment, her sacrifice would have been in vain. I watched with my own eyes as she gave her life to grant me freedom. From that day on, I resolved to train diligently in martial arts. I vowed to rescue those whom the assassin organization intended to kill. I hated my father, and I burned with the desire for revenge.
The White Lotus and the Vow of Vengeance
I became the most formidable opponent of the assassin organization. I would sabotage every mission they undertook and rescue their intended targets. Whenever a mission failed, the assassins would find a single white lotus flower left at the scene. This white lotus represented my mourning for my mother and served as my greatest act of defiance against my father. I thwarted their plans time and again, until my father, in a fit of rage, issued multiple kill orders to hunt me down. This led to a series of deadly duels between me and the assassins sent from our estate. Finally, my father came out of seclusion to kill me himself. I confronted him, and in the end, driven by the depth of my hatred, I emerged victorious. I killed my father with my own hands, using his blood as an offering to my deceased mother. Yet, even then, my heart remained in agony. Killing my father did not bring me the liberation I had sought.
The Long Journey Through the Six Realms
After my father’s death, I no longer concerned myself with the affairs of the assassin estate. I chose to live in seclusion in the mountains, but I did not lose my sense of chivalry. If I encountered people in distress, I would still draw my blade to help them. The hidden weapons I used were all engraved with the mark of a white lotus, and because of this, the common people came to call me the White Lotus Hero. I wandered the world for many years, but my heart remained blind. I did not know what I was truly seeking until one day, in the mountains, I rescued an old monk who was a practitioner of the Way. To thank me, the old monk gave me a string of Buddhist prayer beads. It was because of these beads that the seeds of my Buddhist affinity for this lifetime were planted.
After I died and entered the cycle of rebirth, I experienced immense suffering. I fell into the hells and was reborn in the animal realm as a snake, where I was trapped beneath a deep mountain for a hundred years to repent. Finally, it was the sound of the Buddha-name that awakened my sincere heart of repentance, allowing me to be reborn as a human once more. This process took over three hundred years. The string of beads the old monk had given me accompanied me through the final stages of my life, and because of the affinity created by those beads, my heart did not fall into total darkness. Although I harboured hatred, those beads kept my heart relatively calm. When I entered the snake realm, I was merely a green snake without the desire to kill, and after living only one life as a snake, I was reborn again. The laws of karma and cause and effect are truly real and unfailing, and throughout this process, it was my own mental notes that determined everything. I am deeply grateful that I did not fall deeper into the abyss and that the Buddha’s reached out to pull me back onto the right path.
The Unfolding of Karmic Retribution
In this lifetime, I was born with heavy karma. Many people wanted my life. These included the innocent souls I had killed when I was an assassin. They were the ghosts of those who had died by my blade, and they hid within my heart and blood, waiting for the opportunity to seek revenge. At the most critical moment of my life, when I was four years old, it was again the power of the Buddha that helped me, granting me another chance at life. However, I did not truly grasp this opportunity. Although I practised diligently in this life, I did not change the state of my internal karma. My actions were not enough to overturn the karma I had brought with me from past lives; I failed to transform my karma. These karmic creditors were unwilling to let me go, so when the conditions matured, they manifested to claim my life.
My life ended due to pancreatic cancer. The primary karmic creditor behind this was my father from that past life, who harboured deep hatred for me. After he died, his intense hatred kept him trapped in that space, waiting for the moment I would have a body again so he could take his revenge. When I was born in this life, he hid within my pancreas. This is a highly vulnerable organ in the human body; when the illness strikes, it is difficult to detect early, and it can easily take a person’s life.
In this life, the people around me were also connected to me by causal conditions. My mother in this life was the same mother who had died for me in that past life. My father in this life was a sworn brother from a previous existence, who was also an assassin with countless lives on his hands. In one of my counter-assassination missions, he had sacrificed his own life to protect me out of brotherly love, dying under a flurry of blades. In this life, he also carried heavy karma, which eventually led to his violent death on the street.
The Compassionate Light of Deliverance
The laws of karma and cause and effect are truly real and unfailing. Although I had the opportunity to chant the Buddha-name and practise the Pure Land path in this life, I did not resolve this karma or reconcile with my karmic creditors. My character and heart had not truly ascended, and thus I could not change my destiny. I was destined to continue wandering within the six realms of rebirth. It was the compassion of Practitioner Su that helped me break through, guiding me to be reborn in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. If not for the immense power of Practitioner Su, I would still be unable to find liberation today.
I am profoundly grateful to and to Practitioner Su. I am moved beyond words to have reached the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, and I will continue to practise diligently. I hope that this sharing can help all fellow practitioners become aware of the state of their own practice. You must know that cultivating the mind and resolving the debts of karmic creditors are of the utmost importance. To achieve true liberation and escape the six realms of rebirth—that is the supreme Truth and the Right Way. You must have awareness and understand the reality of this moment. You all have magnificent affinity, and I hope that everyone can achieve success in their practice and be reborn together in the Western Pure Land. I, Weng Xiaolin, bow in gratitude for the Buddha’s grace and for the grace of Practitioner Su. Namo Amituofo.
Weng Xiaolin, with palms joined.
Insights into the Nature of Karma
Shi Faxi: May I ask why your father, having committed so many evil deeds, remained in that space instead of entering the Demon Realm to become a demon or undergoing retribution?
Weng Xiaolin: As Practitioner Su has wisely pointed out, my father became a demon at that time due to his intense hatred, and subsequently entered my body to seek revenge. I am grateful to Practitioner Su. Namo Amituofo.
Shi Faxi: May I ask where your father is currently being held to undergo his retribution?
Weng Xiaolin: He is being held beneath the earth near Mount Emei to undergo his retribution; he entered that state in an instant. I am grateful to Practitioner Su. Namo Amituofo.
