因果故事 | 福尽而亡 Life will come to the end after exhaus...

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福尽而亡

从前有两位太学生，同年同月同日同时出生，又在同一年考上科举分派官职。当要上任时，两人约定要继续保持联络，以便得知彼此的遭遇及祸福变化。结果一位被派任为鄂州教授，另一位则派任为黄州教授。没多久，黄州教授竟然去世了！鄂州教授为好友料理后事，并且在他灵前祝祷：“我和你生辰相同，担任的职务大小也相同，你却先我而去；即便我今天就会死，至少也已晚了你七天！如果你在天有灵，请托梦告诉我，这到底是怎么回事。”当天晚上，那位鄂州教授果然梦见黄州教授来告诉他：“我生在富贵之家，已经把我的荣华富贵享用完了，所以就死了；你生在贫寒穷苦的家庭，还不曾享受福报，所以你还活着。”由此可知人的受用福禄都有定数，得常常要为自己留些余地。后来鄂州教授一直升官，做到典郡之职，这恐怕是听了黄州教授的话，心生警惕，努力珍惜福报的结果吧!

Once upon a time, there were two Guozijian students who were born on the same day, same month and the same year. They had passed the imperial examination at the same year and assigned with official positions. Before taking office they made an agreement to keep in touch and inform each other of their encounters and changes in Life. One of them was appointed as an educational officer in Ezhou while another was an educational officer in Huangzhou. But soon after, the officer in Huangzhou had passed away. The officer in Ezhou handled the funeral for his friend and prayed before his spirit tablet: “We were born on the same day and took the same type of official position, but you, however, left me behind. Even if I die today, it would be seven days later than you! If your soul can hear me, please appear in my dream to let me know what is this all about.” At the same night, the officer of Ezhou indeed had a dream that his friend came and told him, “I was born in a noble family, I died because I had exhausted my merit. You were born in the poor family and had not enjoyed your merit, therefore you are still alive.” Thus, we come to understand that one can only have certain blessings in life; therefore one should often be cautious to use them. Later, the officer of Ezhou had been promoted all the way up to the county governor. This must be the result of him being cautious with his life style after listening to his friend’s advice, and carefully valued his blessings.

崇修录说：“人生的衣食财禄，都有定数。若俭约不贪，寿数可以延长；若奢侈过求，福报用尽了寿命就终了。譬如有钱一千，每天用一百，可以用十天；每天用五十，则可以用二十天。若恣意挥霍，一千之数，可以一天之内用尽啊！有人会辩解说：' 世上也有廉俭而短命，贪侈而寿长的情况，是什么原因呢？’贪侈而寿，那是生数多罢了，若廉俭，会更长寿；俭而命促，是寿数原本就少，若还贪侈，就更短命了！”

The book of Advocating the Virtue Practices advises, everyone has certain fate in life, such as certain amount of clothing, food and money etc. With the attitude of frugality and avoiding covetousness, one can have long lifespan; on the contrary, extravagance will lead to exhausting the merit and dying too soon. For example, if we spend one hundred worth of money a day, a thousand worth of money can last ten days. Spending fifty a day, it can last twenty days. But under the circumstances of profligacy, a thousand worth of money can be exhausted in one day! Someone might argue that there are people who die young even being frugal, so what is the reason that the extravagant people can live long? If being extravagant but living long is the fate, then being frugal will lead longer lifespan. In another hand, if being frugal but dying young is also the fate, then being extravagant will lead even shorter life.