The Price of Disdaining Blessings

In a crowded dharma talk, the teacher paused and gazed thoughtfully over the assembly. The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew quiet, so still that one could hear the wind whistling through the corrugated roof. He began with a question that seemed simple yet pierced to the heart of everyone present: "We are born into this world, and then we will leave it. In that short time, we live among many people. Some are happy because they are loved, others are lonely because no one cares. But why is it so?"

He guided everyone to contemplate the unrelenting law of cause and effect. He spoke of people living alone in a small house, working just to scrape by, with no one to love them and no one to love. Seeing them, we might feel pity, but the deep-seated cause is not random fate. It is because they themselves failed to cultivate good conditions with other beings. Or worse, there are those who were once loved by many, yet they took that affection for granted, made light of the kindness others offered. In the end, they lost everything, returning to their state of solitary loneliness.

To illustrate more clearly, the teacher gave an example about money. If you have one hundred million dong, you can easily say you would use it to shop, give to your parents, or help relatives. You know how to handle it because that sum is within the control of your current wisdom and morality. But if you suddenly had ten billion dong, what would you do? Many would become flustered and bewildered. Ultimately, they might choose to put it in a bank to earn interest, or worse, practice usury, or even think of putting the money in a bathtub to lie in and feel wealthy. Why? Because when assets exceed the capacity of our wisdom and morality to manage, we do not know how to use them properly. We squander them, we become arrogant, and as a result, that money quickly vanishes, leaving only future deprivation.

The teacher expanded the issue to the realms of reputation and affection. If your whole neighborhood trusts you, you know how to unite people and help one another. But if an entire city loved you, what would you do? You would start to feel unsure, not knowing how to act to be worthy of that affection. If you lack the morality and wisdom to receive and reciprocate, you will handle it wrongly. You may become proud, look down on others, or lose yourself in fame. And the law of cause and effect will operate: whatever we disdain, we will lose. The child doted on by parents but who becomes willful and stubborn, taking that love for granted, will be left adrift and lonely when the parents are no longer there. The person who eats and drinks extravagantly, wasting food, will later encounter hunger and thirst.

The teacher emphasized a precious detail: there are those who, in previous lives, performed great acts of merit, such as building a bridge for everyone to use. All who crossed that bridge held gratitude for them. In this life, they meet those same people and receive special fondness and affection without understanding why. But if they take those feelings for granted, fail to cherish them, and do not respond with a sincere heart, that blessing from merit will be exhausted. They will return to being a solitary person, with no one by their side.

The lesson drawn is this: Before we long for wealth, fame, or love, we must prepare a heart endowed with morality and a mind equipped with wisdom. Only then will we have the strength to receive great blessings without being corrupted by them. If not, what we obtain will become a source of suffering, and we will lose everything, returning to an empty starting point.

**The Meaning of the Story**

The story conveys the message about the correlation between blessings from merit and one's own capacity (wisdom, morality). When we receive much love, money, or fame but lack inner cultivation, we will not know how to use them properly, leading to waste, arrogance, and ultimately the loss of all these things. The core lesson is: Cultivate morality and wisdom before you seek blessings, so that you may have the ability to receive and preserve the good things in life.

*Compiled from a dharma talk by Most Venerable Thich Chan Quang*