Dharma Outline????6-4 Wicked vows may harm you in your afterlife

(English Subtitles) 佛法修學概要, 邪惡的誓言可能會在來世傷害你。 Lectured by Master Jìng Jiè (淨界法師) from Taiwan.
Subtitles:
[89] Why must the steps of our cultivation practice be correct?
Now let's summarize. In our study of Buddhism, we've gradually moved into the main topic: the four steps of the Path cannot be mistaken. The first step is to develop the intention – confirming the goal; the second is to understand conditions of the path – right view; the third is to have the resources and motivation to move forward, taking action - practice; and finally, reaching the other shore – achieving fruition.
First, in our spiritual practice, we must understand that our current situation is the shore of birth and death, while our goal is the other shore of liberation. We have many issues to deal with in our minds. We just talked about peacefully abiding in emptiness; the second is guidance, you need to set goals to guide you.
1:00
A few days ago, a leader of an online class in Taiwan, who is also a tutor in cram school, told me something. He has a student who attends a well-known high school in Taipei. One of her best friends was the top-ranked student in the high school this year. She didn't take an exam; she was selected through a screening process. In Taiwan, there's a situation where if you get excellent scores in high school, you can get into your desired university simply by passing an interview. She had already been accepted into Taiwan University through the entrance exam, as her first choice.
However, she was diagnosed with cancer before graduation; a seventeen-and-a-half-year-old girl was now in the terminal stage of cancer. She was not a Buddhist, but before her death, she suddenly had a moment of lucidity and knew about her past life.
2:00
She told her family: "In my previous life, I died of suicide." Why did she commit suicide? Because she was originally dating a man, but that man later fell ill and died, she didn't know how to get rid of her delusions but kept hurting herself by these delusions.
Pain is often caused by self-harm, and eventually she couldn't bear it anymore and committed suicide. Before committing suicide, she made a wicked vow: "In my next life, I'll never live past eighteen unless I find true love.." As a result, she died at the age of seventeen and a half in this life due to the wicked vow. So, you should know not to make vows casually; your vows are a guiding force. She committed two wrongdoings in her past life: the first was suicide. Suicide is killing. Killing yourself is equivalent to killing all living beings; this is a grave sin.
3:00
First, she committed the grave sin of killing. Secondly, she made an wicked vow. Therefore, we now need to deal with immense negative issues that have come along with us for countless eons. The first thing is to set a goal. You need a clear goal to generate motivation. Our goal, of course, is mindfulness at the time of death.
You should first set your goal as right mindfulness, and then there will be many lessons after the outline of Buddha dharma, so you will know how to choose. There are some Dharma practices you do not practice in this lifetime, but you can first rejoice in and praise them. Some Dharma practices are very urgent for us, so we should seize the opportunity.
Therefore, once we identify our goals, our lives will have the right guidance; this is called guiding force.
Adding the subsequent sections on right view, subduing afflictions, we will put these dharma into actions, through practical experience.
4:00
We can cultivate our minds and ultimately lead to the right mindfulness at the time of death. So, once our minds are settled in peace, the next step is to cultivate the force of guidance—to steer our lives in the right direction and set a goal.
Alright, that concludes today's lesson. There are 10 minutes left, and I will answer 3 questions.
[90] How to understand that denial can lead to entry, while affirmation can lead to exit?
Venerable Master, in the last lesson you said that denial can lead to entry, while affirmation can lead to exit. How do you explain this?
When we talk about the peaceful abiding of life, the first thing we must do is abiding in emptiness. Emptiness means you need to use negation more often. When you first start learning Buddhism, don't rely too much on your intuition. This intuition comes from perceptions, which come from external circumstances, and those come from your karma.
5:00
So trusting your intuition is like connecting the plug to the karma of birth and death. If we want to be reborn in the Pure Land, we must not touch the karma of birth and death; we must let the karma settle down. Therefore, if you frequently trust your intuition, you are in sync with past karma.
If you have more good fortune, you'll guess correctly because of your good karma; but when your good karma are used up, you'll guess wrong, and your intuition will be fault.