พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าการรอดหรือเสียชีวิตขึ้นอยู่กับบุญและบาปที่แต่ละคนสั่งสมไว้ ถ้ายังไม่หมดบุญ บุญจะดลใจให้หลีกเลี่ยงภัยได้ทันเวลา แต่ถ้าบุญหมดและดวงมรณะปรากฏขึ้นแล้ว ก็ไม่มีทางหลีกเลี่ยงได้ ทุกอย่างล้วนเป็นไปตามผังที่สำเร็จไว้แล้วThe teacher explains that whether a person survives or dies comes down to the merit and unwholesome karma each has stored up. If merit remains, it will quietly prompt a person to avoid danger in time; but once merit is exhausted and the mark of death has appeared, there is no way to escape — everything unfolds according to a plan already set.
Someone asked the teacher why, in the very same dangerous situation, some people survive while others die.
Merit Leads to Safety, Unwholesome Karma Holds a Person Back
When someone dies in a disaster — say, a fire they couldn't escape in time — it is usually because their merit has run out. Someone who survives still has merit left, and knows, even unconsciously, how to use it rightly. Merit protects and preserves life by quietly prompting a person in advance without their realizing it — a sudden urge to step out and run an errand, or a sudden change of mood that makes them want to head home early. In this way merit carries a person clear of danger.
But once merit no longer protects someone and unwholesome karma takes hold instead, no amount of wanting to flee will help — because once "the mark of death" has appeared, it holds a person fixed in place. Even if someone else urges them to come along elsewhere, their heart simply won't go; they'll feel compelled to stay right where they are. In an accident, they'll feel restless and unable to settle anywhere else, driven to end up exactly at the place where it happens — unable to control themselves, pulled by a force beyond their own will.
An Example from the Buddha's Life
There is the story of Suppabuddha, father-in-law of Prince Siddhartha, whom the Buddha foretold would die within seven days, swallowed by the earth. Suppabuddha knew this in advance, so he had guards posted on every one of the seven floors of his palace. But when the appointed time arrived, in keeping with , the guards simply forgot their post — and Suppabuddha himself forgot too, walking down from the palace all the way to the ground, where the earth swallowed him just as foretold. Everything unfolds according to the law of the .
Conversely, when merit is not yet exhausted, no matter how severe the danger, no harm comes — a plane crash, and one survives; falling into water, and one doesn't drown, even without knowing how to swim — because merit still protects. As long as one's allotted lifespan is not yet up, there is nothing to fear; merit will always preserve it.
When Merit Is Low But Not Gone
If some merit remains but not enough to prevent harm entirely, it can still soften a serious outcome into a lighter one, while unwholesome karma tries to do what damage it can within its own limited strength. All of this depends on the inner mechanism within each person's store of merit, unfolding according to a "plan already completed." If that plan does not call for death, the mark of death does not appear — no matter what danger arises, it cannot take a life, though it may cost an arm or a leg. Life itself remains, because everything operates under its own governing mechanism.