“Abortion brings suffering to infant souls. In most cases, the exact amount of agony endured by the infant soul will be inflicted back upon its expectant parents in the future. There are two additional factors that double the duration of their karmic punishment these expectant parents must undergo. First, if a long time has elapsed since the abortion, the punishment period must be doubled. The elapsed time is counted from the date of the abortion. If the expectant parents remain unrepentant, act as though nothing happened and refuse to believe in the cycle of karmic cause and retribution, the infant soul will weep, suffer and seethe with resentment all alone in the Wailing City of the Wrongfully Dead within the Netherworld. Its torment continues, and its accumulated grievances grow deeper and more entrenched with every passing day. Some expectant parents in the mortal world possess abundant meritorious blessings, which temporarily delay the karmic retribution for the abortion offense. They will only receive their due punishment once all their worldly merits are fully exhausted; for some expectant parents, this karmic reckoning may not arrive until their next lifetime. In such instances, the infant soul is forced to endure prolonged suffering over a longer span of time. Yet the causal laws of the netherworld will never grow confused, no matter how many years or generations pass, nor how drastically the expectant parents’ physical appearances shift across reincarnations. Retribution is never absent; it merely awaits its destined hour. The karmic law of cause and effect operates with perfect precision, without the slightest margin of error. All karmic forces accumulated over these extended periods will inevitably rebound fully upon the expectant parents who committed the abortion. Therefore, all expectant parents who have terminated a pregnancy must generate sincere repentance at the earliest possible time, earnestly facing and resolving this karmic transgression. If they fail to do so, no such parent can escape the karmic penalty of debt collection from the aggrieved infant soul, nor evade the unsparing retribution laid down by the Netherworld’s immutable laws.
“Second, if the infant soul in question bears an extremely obsessive attachment, the punishment period for the parents who terminated its pregnancy will inevitably be doubled. Among the expectant parents in the mortal world who have an abortion, the mother bears heavier karmic retribution, for she is the one who ultimately decides to proceed with the abortion. Many mortal mothers resolve to stop the abortion at the very last moment. Such mothers accumulate virtuous merit for saving a life. Most infant souls with obsessive attachments come into rebirth as karmic creditors to their expectant parents, yet they tragically suffer the cruel fate of being aborted once more. Thus, they forge profound evil karmic bonds with the parents who carry them. These sentient beings already harbored profound resentment before entering the womb; compounded by the agony and hatred inflicted by abortion, their malevolent karmic ties grow impossibly entrenched. As a result, when their karmic retribution arrives, the parents’ term of punishment must be doubled.
“There are two ways to remedy the karmic offense of abortion. The first relies on internal spiritual power: resolving the enmity with the infant soul through wholehearted, sincere repentance. The second depends on external good deeds: accumulating blessings and practicing good deeds to gradually ease the infant soul’s resentment toward its parents over the abortion. These are the only two ways to make amends after abortion. The length of time required to resolve each abortion karmic case varies widely and cannot be generalized. Naturally, parents who have undergone multiple abortions need relatively longer to resolve their karmic debts, for every abortion weaves another malevolent karmic bond with an infant soul. The depth of these negative bonds depends on whether the past-life karmic connection between the parents and that infant soul was virtuous or malicious. If the original bond is virtuous and the infant soul came to repay kindness, future troubles will be comparatively mild. Even so, the abortion inflicts agony on the spirit, twisting their originally benevolent karmic bond into a malicious one. If the infant soul arrives out of negative karma to claim karmic debts from its parents, abortion will only worsen their already fraught relationship and deepen their resentment. Every abortion inflicts immense suffering on the infant soul, and the intensity of that torment differs from case to case. Generally speaking, suffering grows alongside the size of the fetus: the larger the fetus, the greater its pain, and the more intense its lingering resentment.
“The karmic force stemming from abortion arises from multiple factors. Most abortions of infant souls nowadays result from sexual misconduct, which constitutes a grave concern. Many parties bear karmic retribution in hell for the deed of abortion: the expectant parents, attending physicians, and anyone who urges someone to have an abortion that is then carried out. Each time a person facilitates an abortion that destroys an infant soul, the severity of their subsequent retribution hinges on how profound the infant soul’s resentment and obsessive attachment are. Regardless of how heavy or light their ensuing retribution may be, a malevolent karmic bond has already been forged between them and the infant soul. As the saying goes, only the person who tied the bell on the tiger can untie it—those who created the karmic debt alone can resolve it. No matter what circumstances led to the abortion, the expectant parents in the mortal world must cultivate profound remorse and shame. After the abortion takes place, they ought to sincerely repent to the infant soul each day and beg for its forgiveness, so as to gradually soften the infant soul’s lingering resentment. As ethereal beings, infant souls possess telepathic powers and can know the thoughts of their expectant parents. Hence all parents who have aborted a child must repent with genuine sincerity. Ritualized, formulaic repentance without true remorse is utterly ineffective. Therefore, these parents must offer earnest, heartfelt repentance every single day. When they first begin repenting, they may experience various physical discomforts. The most common symptoms include headaches, chest pains, soreness in hands and feet, lower back aches, emotional distress, and many other afflictions too numerous to list, which vary from person to person. A small number of expectant parents will endure exceptional bodily agony, the severity of which depends on their karmic connection with the infant soul. Almost all parents who have had an abortion will feel such painful sensations; some will go through every single discomfort mentioned above. There is another group of parents whose abortion karma is not very grave, as their abortion was unintentional and resulted solely from the fetus lacking enough blessings to incarnate in the mortal world. Such parents fare comparatively better, yet they still need to repent sincerely so the infant soul can transcend promptly and be reborn on virtuous paths.
“After being aborted, infant souls are confined to the Wailing City of the Wrongfully Dead in the Netherworld, where they grieve and seethe with anger, waiting for Yama the King of Hell to pass judgment and issue yellow warrant tokens of the nether court. Once these tokens are granted, the infant souls are permitted to travel to the mortal world to claim karmic retribution from their parents. At that time, the expectant parents’ earthly fortunes will decline across the board: obstacles will plague their careers, work, physical health, interpersonal relationships, and every aspect of life. This is also because so many expectant parents in the mortal world have abortions each day, giving rise to many illnesses in the mortal world. Examples include intractable migraines, stubborn gynecological disorders, sexually transmitted ailments, psychosis and other mental disturbances, all of which stem from the karmic offense of abortion. Such illnesses can only be resolved through the patient’s sincere repentance and consistent accumulation of merits via virtuous deeds. Otherwise, treating such illnesses amounts to a waste of money, time, and medicinal resources. Some sufferers may never find relief in this lifetime, their unresolved karmic suffering lingering to continuously manifest in their next reincarnation. This must be remedied at the level of thought, for every thought a being produces bears great significance. A single mental intention can transcend time and space to ripen good or evil karmic fruits. Bear this firmly in mind: parents who have aborted a child must repent personally; it is futile to merely pay others to recite sutras and repent on their behalf. Many venues exist in the mortal world for appeasing infant souls, yet the majority of these places yield no real spiritual benefit and only lead people to waste their money in vain.
“Parents who have terminated pregnancies should sincerely repent to the infant souls every day on one hand, and personally recite The Sutra of the Original Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva or other Buddhist sutras on the other. Those who are able should perform more life release and dedicate the merits gained to the infant souls. Abortion constitutes the act of taking life, which inevitably accumulates unwholesome karma and invites suffering. Every expectant mother who has had an abortion feels an unexplained sense of guilt stemming directly from the karmic weight of abortion. Only sincere repentance and forgiveness from the infant soul can dispel such guilt. Some mothers may claim they feel no remorse, yet this is merely because their afflictions and habitual tendencies are extremely heavy; in other words, thick karmic obstacles cloud their perceptions. Life release attracts auspiciousness by saving the lives of other sentient beings. The creatures freed feel joy and gratitude, and this practice also allows expectant mothers to forge virtuous karmic connections with the beings released. Therefore, such parents ought to release lives frequently and transfer the meritorious virtues accrued therefrom to infant souls, so that these souls can swiftly escape suffering, attain bliss, and be reborn in pure lands.
“The Netherworld attaches great importance to remedies for the karma of abortion. The human realm has now fallen into an era rampant with unchaste sexual misconduct. As a lingering consequence of such transgressions, abortion has become commonplace among young people. The pervasive foul energy spawned by worldly sexual immorality, paired with the thick resentment of aborted infant souls permeating the mortal world, gravely disrupts the balance of nature and will inevitably draw forth natural disasters and man‑made catastrophes.
“The King of the Nether Court has issued a decree: mortal beings who sincerely repent and resolve their abortion karmic debts, vow never to commit abortion again, and spread this teaching to dissuade others from terminating pregnancies may atone for their crimes through meritorious deeds. A great virtuous merit will be recorded beside their names in their personal Register of Life and Death, and the hell punishments owed for their abortion offense may be reduced or waived at the court’s discretion. The final ruling for each person shall be determined on a case-by-case basis.”
“That will be all for today, Ayù. Hurry back and compose the writings!”
“Amitabha!” Having prostrated in gratitude to the Magistrate, I departed riding a white lotus flower for home.