Teacher Lee, Ruilie - Diseases are Difficult to Treat, See it as Eliminating Karma 病苦难医，当消业

(English subtitles) Lectured by Daoist teacher Lee, Rui-Lie (李瑞烈, 1921-2015).
Subtitles:
Then you need to understand one thing. Why did the ancient saints prefer to endure their illnesses rather than pray to Buddhas or deities to heal them? What's the reason? Although the Buddhas and deities are so compassionate and superficially help us remove the karma of disease, in fact, the karma has not been eliminated and still exists, and he has to suffer again in the afterlife.
1:00
If you read Analects, you will know that when Confucius was sick, His disciple Zilu said, “Teacher, you are so sick and in pain. Let me pray to deities to eliminate your pain.”
Confucius said, “No need, I've prayed to deities for long.”
That is, superficially, don't let him pray. Hence, he said, No need. I've prayed for long.
It's like when I was a hunchback, many fellow practitioners advised me, Teacher, let me pray to the compassionate Buddha to heal your hunchback.
Don't pray for me, I don't want to pray, I said. Because you pray to him, disease can be healed. It really can. After disease is healed, karma is not eliminated, you need to suffer again in the afterlife. Here, I only talk about karma of illness, the same for the other karma.
2:00
If you pray, all troubles can be avoided, and you may be safe, but karma still exist. It will amass life after life. You see, some people are sick from childhood to old age. Some people have a rough life, that karma is not amassed in one lifetime. Sometimes, ten lifetimes, a hundred lifetimes, a thousand lifetimes. This karma has been amassed since no-beginning eons.
Some people told me, Teacher, it's said merits can compensate demerits. If we make more merit, we can make up for our karma. Just do more merits.
Yes, you can do so by making more merits. However, you need to know there are two kinds of karma.
3:00
You can watch my sermon on tape and DVD. That is, can you change karma? It's about the issue whether the karma is able to turned or not. I cited the examples of Confucius and Sakyamni.
The fruition of one-returner(Sakadāgāmin, who has cut off the vexations of views and partial thoughts, will reincarnate once) is different with the common reincarnation. For people in the six paths of reincarnation, he will be very confused and know nothing. If a person is going to be reborn as a one-returner, he can find out where his karma is and go towards eliminating his karma. For example, if his karma is in heaven, he will go to heaven to eliminate it.
4:00
If his karma is in human world, he will be reborn in the human world, and he will know that very soon. Before reincarnation, all mortals must drink the water from the soul-forgetting stream. After birth, we all are confused.
But the fruition of one-returner is different, he know where and how to eliminate his karma.
For example, once Devadatta tried to harm Sakyamuni Buddha with a spear. Sakyamuni Buddha had divine power, and he ran too fast to catch on. Later, Sakyamuni Buddha thought, this doesn't work. Because I owed him the grudge of spearing in the past life,
5:00
if I don't let him spear me in return, I can't erase this karma.
So he decided not to run anymore. Then he sat on the roadside and stretched out one leg in the middle of the road. When Devadatta arrived, he pierced through the Buddha's foot with a spear and ran away. The disciples said, "Master, you have enough divine power to avoid it. Why did you silently let him pierce you with spear?”
“If I don't let him pierce me to vent his resentment, I will come again in the afterlife because my karma is not eliminated. I don't want this. I would rather pay him back in full.”
I am talking to you a fact, not a joke.
6:00
So the Buddha began to preach a sutra named, Sūtra on the Practice of the Way(興起行經). There mention all the karma and experience in his past lives, not only one lifetime, but 10 lifetimes, 100 lifetimes. Spoke to his disciples. For common karma, we can eliminate them by doing good deeds and merits. However, one karma can't be eliminated. Let me tell you a simple example, otherwise you may not understand, and some people may have questions. One of our karma is prelife karma. The other one is unjust karma. What is prelife karma?
Let me give you a simple example, you may understand easily.
7:00
For example, you owe others money, owe here 3000, owe there 10000, owe money everywhere. If you repay them all the money, they won't ask you to pay back. If you have prelife karma, and you do good deeds and merits, it's like you repay money that you owed. That karma will be eliminated.
However, the unjust karma won't be eliminated. Why? For example, I want to kill you with a knife, and you are injured. I am seized and put behind bars. But the victim won't give up and plots revenge. Now you are in prison. 5 years later, you are released. He is waiting for you outside with a knife in his hand.