Relationships
Should you endure a partner's harm because you feel you owe them from a past life?
English translation draft · Based on the Chinese article. This is not a word-for-word translation approved by Master Shengyuan.
No. Feeling that you owe someone from a past life does not make being bullied or beaten in this life something you ought to endure. When harmed, protect yourself. Saying 'I will treat it as a debt I owe' is not a reason to keep tolerating it.
When helping people seek guidance, I have encountered those who believe that because they have a past-life connection, perhaps even as karmic creditors, they must keep repaying. I offer a comparison: perhaps you owed only five dollars but have already repaid a hundred, so why assume the debt can never end? This is a reminder not to become trapped in fatalistic thinking, not an actual calculation of anyone's past-life debt.
From a faith perspective, past-life connections may give two people an opportunity to meet in this life. But whether to be together afterward and how to relate remain choices for this lifetime. Look at the present: whether you communicate well, whether you are willing to nurture the relationship, and whether there is harm. Compassion and acceptance cannot become reasons to let yourself be continually depleted or subjected to violence.