Fearing Debt Is Also Virtue: Recognizing and Resolving the Debts of Life

Have you ever met a stranger and instantly felt affection for them? Or the opposite—met someone for the first time and felt an unexplainable aversion rise up in your heart? If so, that is a sign of karmic debts from many lifetimes, quietly drawing us toward one another. Debt is not only money or material things; it is also affection, and matters of the heart.

Borrowing and repaying in every relationship

Parents and children, spouses, siblings, teachers and students, friends, colleagues—all of these are debts, known by more beautiful names such as "having a connection" or "karmic entanglement." When we borrow through love, we call it a wholesome connection; when we borrow through hatred and jealousy, we call it a karmic entanglement. It is precisely these debts that cause sentient beings to meet again, life after life, to repay and to receive.

"All sentient beings living in this world owe one another; they all borrow from and repay one another."

Teacher Chan Quang gives the example of a traveler on a dusty, sun-scorched road who has run out of money and asks for a meal. A kind-hearted host not only feeds them but also presses a little money into their hand. At that very moment, a first debt arises. This debt may lead to a reunion in a future life, filled with inexplicable affection. That is how cause and effect (karmic law) moves within our hearts.

Debt is not only material—it is also a matter of the heart

When we borrow from someone, we borrow their kindness as well. Every material debt carries with it feelings of love or resentment. If we repay only with money and forget the affection, we have not fully repaid. It is precisely these feelings of love and hate that push us into samsara (cycle of rebirth). Therefore, to be liberated, we must resolve both: repay the material debt and cleanse the feelings of love and hate.

"The greatest debt in a person's life is emotional debt."

Consider the example of an elderly woman in America who left her entire fortune of twelve million dollars to her dog. It sounds absurd, but it was because she owed the dog from a previous life. The dog, when it was a human, had once helped her wholeheartedly, but due to other transgressions it had to fall into the form of a dog. To her alone, it remained her benefactor, so in this life she repaid the debt by loving and caring for it as her own child.

Difficult debts and how to resolve them

Some debts are easy to repay, such as money, food, or clothing. But there are also debts that are extremely difficult to repay. The teacher gives two cases:

First, someone who dies saving a friend. We then owe them an entire life. There is no way to repay that with material things.

"We must live the rest of our lives with utmost virtue, utmost service, and sacrifice, dedicating all that merit to our benefactor."

Second, when our benefactor becomes a wicked person. If we obey them, we commit wrongdoing; if we do not obey, we incur a debt. The teacher points the way: pray for the Buddha's protection so that we may remain steadfast in not obeying the wicked, while at the same time using the Buddha's teachings (Dharma) to save our benefactor in return. The Dharma is a priceless jewel, worth far more than the debt itself. When we bring its truth into their hearts, we repay the debt and also create merit.

Entering monastic life is not escaping debt, but repaying it faster

Many people think that going to a temple to practice means escaping the debts of life. The teacher warns:

"Do not think that entering a temple means your debts are gone. Enter the temple so that I may show you a way to repay your debts to the world many times faster."

Why? Because one who genuinely ordains and practices repays debts with spiritual truth—something priceless that nothing can measure. With just one lifetime of sincere practice, their example of virtue will awaken countless sentient beings, and this repays debts far beyond anything they ever borrowed.

"If we look through the eyes of truth, all the interactions among sentient beings are nothing but borrowing and repaying."

Therefore, one who practices genuinely not only repays all debts but causes sentient beings to become indebted to them in return, for they scatter jewels and treasures upon the world. This is the reverse cycle of cause and effect (karmic law).

Fearing debt is also virtue

Finally, the teacher emphasizes:

"A person who likes to be in debt has no virtue. A person who fears being in debt is a person of virtue."

Because when we know to fear debt, we become careful with every word and action, unwilling to make anyone suffer, unwilling to borrow through resentment. Fearing debt is the instinct of one who understands cause and effect (karmic law), who knows wrongdoing and blessings from merit.

In the Vu Lan season of the seventh month, let us look back on the debts we owe to our parents, teachers, friends, and all sentient beings. Let us live more kindly and practice more earnestly, to repay our debts to the world and dissolve our karmic entanglements. That is true virtue.

Let us practice together: each day, reflect once on cause and effect (karmic law), speak words of compassion, do good deeds, and recite the Buddha's name in dedication. In this way, every debt will eventually be resolved, and we will steadily advance on the path to liberation.