In life, we unconsciously create many karmic debts, including the killing of animals. Since our actions create karma, the karmic retribution for those actions will inevitably come.
Sincere repentance allows three mute sons to speak
In the past, there was a scholar in the state of Pei whose wife gave birth to triplets. However, by the time the young men were nearly 20 years old, they could still only make sounds and could not speak.
One day, a man passed by the door. Seeing these three sons so old and still babbling, he asked: “What is this all about?” The scholar replied: “They are my sons, and none of them can speak yet.” The man said: “Reflect on yourself, why is this so?”
The scholar was surprised and thought for a long time before he said to the guest: “When I was little, there were three young swallows in a nest by my bed and their mother would find food outside to feed them. The three young swallows opened their mouths to receive food every day. One day, I put my finger into the nest, and the young swallows opened their mouths to receive it. So I fed them with three thorns, and they all died. I regret it and feel so sorry when I think of it now.”
After hearing this, the guest said: “That’s it.” When he had finished, all three sons could speak. The karmic retribution was paid.
A whole family suffers karmic retribution after a man harms a mother and baby monkey
There was a man who went into the mountains and saw a young monkey. He captured it and took it back home. The mother monkey followed and arrived at the man’s home. The man hung the young monkey from a tree in his yard to taunt the mother monkey. The mother monkey used her paws to slap her own face, as if begging the man to release the young monkey. But the man refused and eventually killed the young monkey.
The mother monkey cried out in grief and jumped to the ground from high up in a tree, dying upon impact. When the man opened up the mother monkey’s belly, he found that her intestines had been torn apart. In less than half a year, the man’s whole family was struck with a plague and died one by one in a short amount of time, the fate of karmic retribution.
Resentful animal spirits claim a hunter’s life
During the late Wu Dynasty, a hunter went into the mountains to hunt. In the middle of the night, a man who was one foot long and wore yellow clothes and a yellow belt approached the hunter and said: “I have an enemy who will fight with me tomorrow. Will you help me?” The hunter agreed to help without expecting any repayment. The hunter was instructed to go to the creek after breakfast the next day. The man told him this was where he would meet his enemy, who would be wearing a yellow belt while he would be wearing a white belt.
The next morning after breakfast, the hunter went to the creek where he witnessed a battle between two large snakes, more than 10 feet long. They were coiled around each other and fighting. Gradually, the snake with white scales seemed to be losing, so the hunter took his bow and arrow to shoot the yellow-scaled snake, killing it.
In the evening, the man who came the day before returned to thank him and said: “You can hunt here for a year, but don’t come on New Year’s Day, and remember, there may be a great disaster coming.” The hunter was glad to get the warning and he stopped hunting there.
Several years later, the hunter had forgotten all about the man’s warning and went out hunting in the same place again. He met the man wearing the white belt. The man said: “You didn’t listen to my warning. The animals you killed while hunting hold too much resentment, and now they are coming to kill you. They will definitely seek revenge, but I don’t know when or how it will happen.” The hunter was very frightened upon hearing this and was about to leave when he saw three people dressed in black, their mouths wide open, moving toward him. The hunter died on the spot from his karmic retribution.
Translated by Eva
