This is very difficult to do because we owed them,

DEBTS THAT ARE EASY AND HARD TO PAY OFF

DEBTS THAT ARE EASY TO PAY OFF
From Buddhism's perspective, the relationship between beings is based on owing and repaying debts. However, there are debts that are easy to pay off and there are some that are very hard. The following is an example of a debt that is easy to pay off. Someone gives us a meal, some money, or a house, then in our next life, we will return him similar things or more, that is, we will help them and give them money and then the cycle ends.

DEBTS THAT ARE HARD TO PAY OFF
One must sacrifice his life for ours
And now let's consider an example of a debt that is hard to pay off. Two friends went out and swam in a river. One was about to drown, and the other tried to save his friend by pushing the friend to the bank, and because of tiredness, he swept away. How can the living person pay back this debt? His friend gave his life to him, and this made him feel sorry for the rest of his life and also through many lives thereafter. He didn't know how to repay his debt. He couldn't commit suicide to repay the debt because it's wrong to do so. But, how to repay this type of debt?

Here is the answer. The living one owes a debt of life to his friend. If the friend had not died, what would his future have been – we don't know. Would he live a glorious life or would he experience suffering? If the former is the case, then his friend owes him a great debt. The living friend, therefore, must live ethically and dedicate his life to other people and then transfer the blessing he earns to his friend. From now on, he must not live only for himself, but for his friend, who sacrificed his life for him.

WHEN OUR BENEFACTOR IS A BAD PERSON

Or we had a benefactor who provided us with food and money and also paid for our schooling. But unexpectedly, our benefactor became an evil person. He was a gang leader. His gang committed robbery or even killed people. When we grew up, we started to repay him, in this life or the next life. But the person we owed was ruthless. So if we wanted to repay him, we had to become his subordinate and followed him to commit robbery or to kill people when he ordered. How could we do such a thing when we had known Buddhism and the law of Karma? We knew we were indebted but didn't know how to repay him in accordance with our conscience and morality. We could neither obey evil people nor avoid repaying our debts because, obviously, we owe them.

According to the law of Karma, we have to obey the person to whom we owed debts. However, we cannot obey our cruel benefactor to do evil because we know which is sin and which is blessing. Now we must pray to Buddha that we are determined not to obey this evil person and we will have chances to bring the Dharma to him.

Why should we do this? – Because the Dharma is precious and has a value many times more valuable than the debt we owe. Although they gave us food, money and paid for our schooling, which is about materials and sentiment, we repay him with Buddhist morality, then we not only pay off our debts to him but also earn some interest. This is because, as we said before, Buddhism and the Dharma are priceless and beyond compare. So, we should pray to Buddha each day and night that we can bring Buddhism to our benefactors.

This is very difficult to do because we owed them, they won't listen to us. We should remember that only those who owe us will listen to us; otherwise, they act “superior” to us and won't listen to us when talking about morality. Thus, we must be skillful and try all ways, direct or indirect, to instill morality into them. First, we should make them believe in the law of Karma.

Here's the faith in the Karma law
I'd like to share with you And here is Compassion
I'd like you to have
I wish you to try
To bring love to life
And then you will find
Great joy for your life.

If we can do so, we not only pay back our debt without committing any sin but also gain credit. This kind of debt is fairly difficult to repay but we must choose this way rather than obey them to commit evil.

THE DEBT OF AFFECTION BETWEEN HUSBANDS AND WIVES

When two people get married to form a family, all private things of each other become common things of the two. No couples separate their property. And this never happens with a small thing like when they buy a cake, they divide it into two pieces and “one is for you, the other is for me.” Everything belongs to the two, but not any one person. Even when they eat a meal, if one person knows the other likes a certain dish, they will eat other dishes and let his wife have the entire dish that they both like. Such sentiment binds the couple very tightly. Even when one of them passes away, the other will be sad and want to follow the dead spouse. The love between them is so strong, hence the debt is so great that very hard to repay.

According to the Law of Karma, there are debts of favor that are easy to repay and there are ones that are very hard. Only the Dharma can show us the right way of repaying them.

BENEFACTORS

Also, in owing and repaying, there are unpleasant and pleasant benefactors. Pleasant benefactors are those who helped us with their heart in the past. So now when we meet them, we return their favors and serve them and we still feel pleased and compassionate toward them. They are good people so we feel comfortable when helping them and we do it when we feel at ease and are not forced to obey them at any cost. In contrast, the unpleasant benefactors force us to obey them, and the more obedient we become, the stricter they become, and the more they have control over us.

For example, a child who, unfortunately, lost his parents at an early age was sent to live with his aunt. His aunt and his uncle raised him but mistreated him. Because in a past life, he owed someone some money and refused to pay it back. And in his current life, he becomes a nephew of his creditors. The creditors take their enmity to this life. They adopted the child not to raise him or treat him with kindness but to ask for a repayment. While his aunt's children lived happily, the child had to work extremely hard from early morning to late afternoon and was often brutally beaten. This is an example of annoying creditors and we have to repay them very arduously. This is how life works. While unpleasant creditors ask for our repayment, they also start a new animosity between them and us. In our next life, we will desire for revenge, so when we meet them, we want to harm or even kill them. There are murders that the culprits have no motive and they themselves don't understand why they have been so cruel. The cause results from a past life and few realize it.

So, beings in samsara keep borrowing and repaying. And while they repay an old debt, they also create a new one. Therefore, the cycle of life never ends.

Written by:
Janna

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