仏教の先生の書かれた日本語文の英訳をさせていただいています。Buddhism’sTheory of Happinessという名前でYouTubeやSNSで仏教の布教活動をされています。その翻訳した文の一部を定期的にここでシェアさせていただきます。
That fear of doing bad deeds won’t arise unless we listen extremely seriously to the law of cause and effect.
Some would claim that Pure Land Shin Buddhists fully understand this, but actually, we don’t. We still blame others and assume we can do what we want as long as others don’t see us.
Unless you listen to the law of cause and effect very carefully, the fear of doing bad deeds won’t arise, and nor will the drive to work hard at doing good deeds regardless of whether others see you or not. If you really strive to do good, not just superficially or because you want to be thought well of by others, but as a genuine act of giving, you are made to see the deplorable, calculating, greedy nature of your own thoughts.
Indeed, “we make effort to do good deeds yet cannot do them.” This is what is made clear to us when we practice seriously and try to correct our thoughts: We cannot do good deeds in a true sense. You won’t realise this if you don’t actually listen to Buddhism and put what you’ve heard into practice.