<Accounts of Requests and Response> Merit and Demerit Checklist

Date:____________________ Week:__________
Attempting person:___________________________
THE Exalted One says: Curses and blessings do not come through gates, but man himself invites their arrival. The reward of good and evil is like
the shadow accompanying a body, and so it is apparent that heaven and earth are possessed of crimerecording spirits. According to the lightness or
gravity of his transgressions, the sinner's term of life is reduced. Not only is his term of life reduced, but poverty also strikes him. Often he meets with
calamity and misery. His neighbors hate him. Punishments and curses pursue him. Good luck shuns him. Evil stars threaten him; and when his term
of life comes to an end, he perishes.
Further, there are the three councilor, spiritlords of the northern constellation, who reside above the heads of the people, record men's crimes and
sins, and cut off terms of from twelve years to a hundred days. Further, there are the three body-spirits that live within each person. Whenever Kêng
Shên day comes, they ascend to the heavenly master and inform him of men's crimes and trespasses. On the last day of the month the Hearth
Spirit, too, does the same. Of all the offences which men commit, the greater ones cause a loss of twelve years, the smaller ones of a hundred days.
These offences, great as well as small, constitute some hundred affairs, and those who are anxious for life everlasting, should above all avoid them.

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总说 Summary
The right way leads forward.
The wrong way leads backward.
存誠 Have Sincerity
Do not proceed on an evil path.
Do not sin in secret.
Accumulate virtue, increase merit.
修敬 Cultivate Respect for Others
With a compassionate heart turn toward all creatures.
Be faithful
Be filial
Be friendly
Be brotherly
行仁 Show Kindness/Benevolence
First rectify thyself and then convert others.
Take pity on orphans and assist widows.
Respect the old and be kind to children.
行义 Conduct Righteousness+B50
Even the multifarious insects, herbs, and trees should not be injured.
Be grieved at the misfortune of others
Rejoice at others' good luck
Assist those in need
Rescue those in danger
Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain
Regard your neighbor's loss as your own loss
隐恶扬善
隐恶扬善 Suppress Evil Spread Goodness
Do not call attention to the faults of others.
Do not boast of your own excellence.
Hold back evil and promote goodness
三善根 Three Good Roots
Renounce much and accept little
Show endurance in humiliation and bear no grudge
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Receive favors as if surprised
布施 Practice Giving
Extend your help without seeking reward
Give to others and do not regret or begrudge your liberality
Those who are thus, are good: people honor them; Heaven's Reason gives them grace; blessings and abundance follow them; all ill luck keeps
away; angel spirits guard them. Whatever they undertake will surely succeed, and even to spiritual saintliness they may aspire. Those who wish to
attain heavenly saintliness, should perform one thousand three hundred good deeds, and those who wish to attain to earthly saintliness should
perform three hundred good deeds.
背逆大恶
背逆大恶 Serious Sin of Treachery and Rebellion
Your behavior is unrighteous.
Your deportment is irrational.
Delight in evil
Do harm and damage with brutality
Insidiously injure the good and the lawabiding
Stealthily despise your superiors and parents
Disregard your seniors
Rebel against those whom you serve
Deceive the uninformed
Slander your fellow-students
Liars you are, bearing false witness, deceivers, and hypocrites.
Be malevolent exposers of kith and kin
Be mischievous and malignant; not humane
Be cruel and irrational; self-willed
位高者恶
位高者恶 Evil Shown by Person at High Position
Confound right and wrong
Your avowals and disavowals are not as they ought to be.
Oppress your subordinates and appropriate their merit
Cringe to superiors to curry favor
Be insentient to favors received
Remember your hatred and are never satisfied
Hold in contempt the lives of Heaven's people
Agitate and disturb the public order
Patronize the unscrupulous
Do harm to the inoffensive
Murder men to take their property
Have others ousted to take their places
Slay the yielding and slaughter those who have surrendered
Malign the righteous and dispossess the wise
Molest orphans and wrong widows
Disregard law and take bribe
Call crooked what is straight, straight what is crooked
Make heavy what is light
Aggravate it by harshness when witnessing an execution
世俗之恶
世俗之恶 Worldly Sin
Though you know your mistakes you do not correct them.
Though you know the good you do not do it.
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Implicate others in your own guilt
Impede and obstruct the professions and crafts
Vilify and disparage the holy and the Wise
Ridicule and scorn reason and virtue
杀生之恶
生之恶 Evil in Killing
Shoot the flying and chase the running
Expose the hiding and surprise nestlings
Close up entrance holes and upset nests
Injure the pregnant and break the egg
柔弱之恶
柔弱之恶 Evil in Undermining Others
Wish others to incur loss
Disparage others that achieve merit
Endanger others to save yourself
Impoverish others for your own gain
Exchange what is valuable for worthless things
Neglect public duties for private ends
Appropriate the accomplishments of your neighbor
Conceal others' good qualities
Make known others' foibles
Expose others' secrets
Squander others' property
Cause divisions in others' family
Attack that which is dear to others
Assist others in doing wrong
刚强暴
刚强暴恶 Evil in Indomitable Strength and Violence
Your unbridled ambition makes for power.
Seek success through the degradation of others
Destroy the crops and fields of others
Break up betrothals
Have grown rich improperly and withal remain vulgar
Improperly shirk without shame
Claim having done acts of favor and disclaim being at fault
Give away evil in marriage and sell wrongs (Better translation: "Make others take blame
and cover up for your wrong doing.")
Sell and buy vainglory (Better translation: Purchase undeserved reputation)
Conceal and keep a treacherous heart
Crush that which is excellent in others
Careful in hiding your shortcomings
Being on a high horse you threaten and intimidate.
Kill and stab with unrestrained barbarism
不惜物力 Not Cherishing Things
Cut cloth to waste recklessly
Prepare cattle for food without festive occasions
Scatter and waste the five cereals
Trouble and annoy many people
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显横藏
显横藏 Show Acts of Bullying Toward Others
Break into others' houses to take their property and valuables
Misdirect the water and light fires to destroy the people's homes
Upset others' plans so as to prevent their success
Spoil a worker's utensils to hamper his efficiency
藏陰恶
藏陰恶 Evil in Hiding Evil Intent
Wish others to run down and fail when seeing their success and prosperity
Wish others bankrupt and ruined when seeing their wealth
Cannot see beauty without cherishing in your hearts thoughts of seduction
Wish death upon your creditors when indebted to them for goods or property
有陰恶
有陰恶 Evil in Having Evil Intent
Begin to curse and wax hateful when your requests are not granted
Gossip of your neighbors' failure when seeing they lose their vantage
Ridicule others when seeing they imperfect in their bodily features
Suppress the truth when observing the talent and ability of a man worthy of praise
忤逆恶
忤逆恶 Evil in Rebellion
Use charms for the sake of controlling others
Employ drugs to kill trees
Be ill-humored and angry towards teachers and instructors
Resist and provoke father and elders
Seize and demand with violence
Delight in fraud and robbery
夺志恶 Evil in Seizing Others' Aspiration
Make raids and commit depredations to get rich
Seek promotion by artful tricks
Reward and punish without justice
Indulge in comforts and enjoyments without measure
Harass and tyrannize over your subordinates
Terrify and threaten to overawe others
无忌讳恶 Evil in Lack of Taboo
Accuse heaven and find fault with man
Blame the wind and rail at the rain.
Stir up party strife and law suits
Join factious associations unprovoked
Rely on your wives' and other women's gossip but disobey the instructions of father and mother
Take up the new and forget the old
Your mouth asserts what your heart denies.
Be shamelessly greedy for wealth
Deceive your father and your superiors
Invent and circulate vile talk
Traduce and slander innocent men
Slander others yet you feign honesty.
Rail at spirits and claim to be right yourself
Reject a good cause and espouse a wrong cause
Spurn what is near and long for the distant
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Point at heaven and earth to make them witnesses of your mean thoughts
Call on bright spirits to make them witness your degrading deeds
不仁者恶
不仁者恶 Evil in Not Being Benevolent
Regret after you give charity
Borrow and accept without intention to return
Scheme and contrive beyond your due lot
Plot and plan above your means
Your lusty desires exceed all measure.
Show a compassionate face while your heart is venomous
Feed the poor with filthy food
Mislead others with heresies
Shorten the foot and narrow the measure
Lighten the scales and reduce the peck
Adulterate the genuine
Seek profit in illegitimate business
Compel respectable people to become lowly
Betray and deceive the simple-minded
家庭恶
家庭恶 Evil Shown in the Family
Be greedy and covetous without satiety
Curse and swear to seek vindication
Become rebellious and unruly while indulging in liquor
Be angry and quarrelsome with the members of your own family
As husband you are neither faithful nor kind.
As wife you are neither gentle nor pliant.
As husband you are not in harmony with your wife.
As wife you are not respectful to your husband.
As husband you delight in bragging and conceit.
As wife you always practice jealousy and suspicion.
As husband you behave unmannerly toward your wife and children
As wife you lack propriety to your father-inlaw and your mother-in-law.
Make light of the spirit of your ancestor
Disobey and dislike the commands of your superiors
Make and do what is not useful
Harbor and keep a treacherous heart
Curse yourself and others
Be partial in your hatred and partial in your love
Step over the well and the hearth
Jump over the food and a person
Kill the baby and cause abortion of the unborn
Do many clandestine and wrong deeds
不敬神明 Evil in Not Showing Respect to the Deities
Sing and dance on the last day of the month and the last day of the year
Start roaring and scolding on The first day of the month and the first day of the year
Snivel and spit when facing the north
Sing, hum and weep when facing the hearth
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Burn incense with hearth fire
Cook food with filthy fagots
Rise and expose your nakedness in the night
Execute punishment on the eight festivals of the seasons
Spit at falling stars
Point at the many colored rainbow
Irreverently point at the three luminaries
Intently gaze at the sun and at the moon
Hunt with fire in the spring
Use vile language when facing the north
Causelessly kill tortoises and snakes
For all these crimes the councilors of destiny deprive the guilty, according to the lightness or gravity of the offence, of terms from twelve years to a hundred
days, and when the lease of life is exhausted they perish. If at death an unexpiated offence be left, the evil luck will be transferred to children and
grandchildren.
Moreover, all those who wrongly seize others' property may have to compensate for it, with wives or children or other family members, the expiation to be
proportionate up to a punishment by death. If the guilt be not expiated by death, they will suffer by various evils, by water, by fire, by theft, or by robbery, by
loss of property, by disease and illness, and by ill repute, to compensate for any unlawful violence of justice.
Further, those who unlawfully kill men will in turn have their weapons and arms turned on them; yea, they will kill each other. Those who seize property, are,
to use an illustration, like those who relieve their hunger by eating tainted meat, or quench their thirst by drinking poisoned liquor. Though they are not
without temporary gratification, death will anon overcome them.
If a man's heart be awakened to the good, though the good be not yet accomplished, good spirits verily are already following him. If a man's heart be
awakened to evil, though evil be not yet accomplished, evil spirits verily are already following him. Those who have hitherto done evil deeds should
henceforth mend and repent. If evil be no longer practiced and good deeds done, and if in this way a man continues and continues, he will surely obtain
happiness and felicity. He will, indeed, so to speak, transform curses into blessings. Therefore, blessed is the man who speaketh what is good, who thinketh
what is good, who practiceth what is good. If but each single day he would persevere in these three ways of goodness, within three years Heaven will surely
shower on him blessings. Unfortunate is the man who speaketh what is evil, who thinketh what is evil, who practiceth what is evil. If but each single day he
would persevere in these three ways of evildoing, within three years Heaven will surely shower on him curses. Why shall we not be diligent and comply with
this?

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