(Minghui.org) In traditional Chinese culture, oaths and promises carry a lot of weight. The ancient Chinese respected the vows they made, and feared the consequences of breaking them. When they swore to something, they would break a tree branch, to signify that if they failed to keep the vow, they would end up like that broken branch. Or they would kneel down and vow to a higher power that if they broke the vow, they would gladly be punished by a stroke of lightening.
The following are two stories about the consequences of breaking oaths.
In 1127, Emperor Qin of the Song Dynasty, his concubines and officials, and more than 10,000 other subjects, were taken captive by the soldiers of Jin and taken north to the Jin Kingdom. This is known as the “Rebellion of Jingkang” in Chinese history.
Emperor Qin later negotiated and reached an agreement with the Jin people to release only Empress Xianren. At the time of her departure, Emperor Qin wanted Empress Xianren to convince the new emperor of the Song Dynasty that if he were rescued, he would have no intention of becoming emperor again. He said, “If I were able to go back to the south one day, I would be very content just to be an official in an outlying area.”
Empress Xianren promised the emperor, “If I don't think of a way to get you back when I return to the south, let me become blind.”
When Empress Xianren returned to the south, the new Emperor Gao of the Song Dynasty had no intention of retrieving Emperor Qin from the Jin people. Empress Xianren was very disappointed, but didn't push the issue further out of fear.
A short time later, Empress Xianren went blind. She searched everywhere for a cure, but in vain. A Taoist later came to the royal court and restored the sight in her left eye with a golden needle. Empress Xianren asked the Taoist to also cure her right eye, but the Taoist told her, “Let the other eye remain blind as evidence and the manifestation of not making good on your promise and oath!”
Qin Qiong and his cousin Luo Cheng wanted to learn special sets of martial arts techniques from each other. The techniques were secret, and were only passed down within the family. They both swore that they would not purposely hide anything from each other. Qin swore, “If I don't reveal everything, I will die vomiting blood.” Luo said in his oath, “If I hide anything from Qin, I will die with arrows penetrating my body.”
When Qin was demonstrating the Metal Rod of Qin, he became fearful that his cousin might surpass him in the future. So he skipped some of the techniques. Luo also was afraid that Qin would outperform him one day, and also held back some of his techniques. Neither of them thought too much about what they did.
Luo later was lured into a trap during a battle. He and his horse became stuck in a river of silt, and numerous enemy arrows killed him. Luo, who had never lost a battle, thus died a horrible death at the age of 23.
Qin later became one of the founding fathers of the Tang Dynasty. When he was competing in a martial arts contest, he picked up a Thousand-jin Tripod [editor's note: jin is a unit of measurement in Chinese, equal to roughly 2 kilograms or 1.1 pounds]. He injured himself, vomited blood and died on the spot.
Oaths and promises that used to be so solemn are now taken as lightly as jokes. People make vows simply for show or to get their way. But the solemn nature of oaths doesn't change according to people's understanding of them. The consequences should not to be taken lightly.
As Falun Dafa practitioners, we took an oath to help Teacher rectify the Fa and save sentient beings. Have we carried out our oaths? What should happen to us if we break the promises we made to Teacher?
Teacher has reminded us that we did take vows and warned us of the consequences of breaking them.
“I know that among the practitioners seated here, some are not diligent, and some aren’t diligent whatsoever. But Master is thinking: what are you going to do with yourself? Why can’t you have righteous thoughts? Isn’t Master here to save you? Isn’t this Fa here to save you? And moreover, you shoulder the responsibility of saving others. But if you don’t even handle yourself well, what’s going to happen? If you don’t fulfill the vows that you made to gods, the consequences will be what is set forth in your own vows.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Western U.S. Fa Conference”)
Not being diligent in our cultivation practice is also breaking our vows. Are we clearly aware of this issue in our everyday lives? When we slack off, do we remind ourselves that we are not keeping our promises?
Being deeply influenced by the Chinese Communist Party culture, we lie so naturally, without thinking about it. Not many of us take vows seriously. We do not normally carry out what we promise. There is an old saying “A promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold.” Lying is a serious problem. It reflects badly on our morality.
The time for us to carry out our vows is now very limited as the end of Fa- rectification approaches. We must be conscious of the promises we have made and put a lot of emphasis on them.