Mr. Jin was a strict vegetarian while alive. After dying of illness, he sent a message to his family through a medium, “I don’t get to be reborn in the Pure Land because the time I observed the precepts was too short. Now I am in the lower realm, still having the leisure to roam around though.”
Later, he sent another message to reproach his wife: “Why did you kill poultry and cattle to entertain guests in my memorial ceremony? Now a jailer is following me everywhere and I don’t get to be as free as before!”
Just then his daughter-in-law was pregnant, so his family asked him to foretell the future, and he told them, “It’s going to be a boy, and both mother and son will be fine. Next baby will be a boy too, but both mother and son will die.” I noted down his words, so as to see if it comes true.
Soon his daughter-in-law gave birth to a baby boy. Before long she got pregnant again and gave birth to another baby boy, but this time both mother and son died. So everything turns up true. Killing animals to entertain in ceremonies – even if it’s in the name of honoring your loved ones – is actually creating bad karma for your beloved!
by Grand Master Lian Chi (蓮池大師), the Eighth Patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism
為父母殺生 – 錄自明末蓮池大師《竹窗隨筆》(初筆)
錢塘金某者，齋戒虔篤。以疾卒，附一童子云:「善業日淺，未得往生淨土，今在陰界，然亦甚樂，去住自由。」一日呵其妻子云:「何故為吾墳墓事，殺雞為黍? 今有吏隨我，稍不似前之自由矣!」子婦懷妊，因問之。則曰:「當生男無恙。過此復當生男，則母子雙逝。」予謹記之，以候應否。俄而生男。復妊，復生男，男隨斃，母亦隨斃。乃知一一語皆不謬。然則為父母殺生，孝子豈為之乎!
Buddha Mind 