The Stages of Good Deeds and Their Rewards : หน้า 126/207

banana blossoms to eat with condiments. And yet we still have to wait a full year for the fruit. "The first stage of good deeds: Once we have done something good, no matter if anybody sees it or not, the first thing we get is self-satisfaction. "The second stage of good deeds: When we keep doing good deeds, the second thing we get is the development of an upright personality, comparable to getting banana leaves for wrapping desserts. "The third stage of good deeds: And when we continue doing the good deeds for months or years, the fruit of the good deeds will start to show as fortune and success. We will begin to see that our life becomes agreeable, our efforts become fruitful. We feel good about ourselves; this is comparable to enjoying the banana blossoms. "The fourth stage of good deeds: And if we keep repeating our good deeds, soon we will be placed in high esteem by society. "When we plant the banana offshoot, it takes at least a year before we get to enjoy its fruit. By the same token, it takes time before our good deeds are recognized, so don’t be hasty. "Most people will expect their good deeds to bear fruit right away, but meanwhile they will try to make offerings to spirits to make the outcomes of their bad deeds go away. And when somebody else has done something bad, which happens to adversely affect them, they will expect those culprits to be punished immediately. "Actually these impatient persons expect that only their good deeds will bear fruit immediately, that is, if they give, they expect to be rewarded instantly, and this will make them happy. On the contrary, when they lie, and their teeth happen to fall out instantaneously, they will feel that this is unfair. This is only human, expecting only favorable outcomes. But when it is not instant, they will start to doubt the Law of Kamma. "So from now on, you should not be hasty and only expect favorable outcomes. You should be impartial. But in order to achieve this, you will need to meditate a lot." From what the senior monk has explained, we see that we have to follow through when doing good deeds, that is, they have to be the right deeds, performed to the fullest extent of our ability, and done in the right measure, for them to be effective. This is how we can set an example for our children to make them firmly believe that good deeds will always bring favorable outcomes, and vice versa.