The Teachings of the Lord Buddha: Good Deeds and Their Outcomes : หน้า 124/207

We highly regard the Lord Buddha to be our ultimate refuge without reservation – with the knowledge that He was only human – because of His extreme wisdom, His understanding of how to eliminate the defilements, His superb purity in being able to achieve Nibbana, and His compassion in selflessly devoting His life to showing human beings how to achieve what He achieved. We follow His teachings without hesitation, so that one day we will be able to rid ourselves of all defilements and follow Him into Nibbana. Chapter 29 Do Good Deeds Always Bring Favorable Outcomes? Whenever someone is facing a situation which he considers unfair, he will start to think, “There is no such thing as good deeds always bringing favorable outcomes; bad deeds can also bring favorable outcomes, too.” The fallacy of this notion stems from the expectation that good deeds will produce immediate outcomes, and the narrow view of someone who is being rewarded for his bad conduct. On the surface, that person may be enjoying the fruits of his bad deeds. But look closely, he is very worried of being attacked or arrested by the police. His gratification is temporary, but his fear stays with him. It is important to teach our children when they are young to believe that good deeds always bring favorable outcomes, and vice versa. Otherwise they will doubt this principle, and may think that doing good is only for fools, a belief to which some adults subscribe.