Wow! You are serious thinker! Buddhism has nothing to do with mysticism really. Buddhism is very reasonable and scientific. The mysticism is due to the fact that Hinduism has become mixed up with Buddhist teachings since long time ago in India. That’s why Buddhism lost its meanings which led to the demise of Buddhism in India.
Nowadays, Thai Buddhists are just performing rituals; monks are worse as they are making lots of money out of people seeking help. True Buddhist monks are very hard to find nowadays. Serious monks usually live in the countryside far away from the maddening crowds which are filled with greed and vices. These monks are serious meditators seeking enlightenment.
Ordinary people are too busy earning their living that they have no time to read Buddhist texts! They use money to buy good karma and merits. Most of my rich friends are like this! I did warn them to have some time to be quiet and contemplate; but they are too busy.
I am afraid it’s almost the end time of society as the energy of good people seems to be lesser than those bad people especially those with power. We may have a few more years before complete chaos set in.
About your question, the person who gave the warning was incorrect in his logic.
Strictly speaking, the Buddha never taught about that karmic repercussion from doing ‘good’ action. The five precepts are the fundamental teaching; doing good karma gets good karmic results or feedback loop.
Let’s say, even if I am psychic I could not see the hidden karmic or past actions between your father and sister in their past lives. It may turn out that your sister owed your father some favour in the past life and always wanted to return the favour. So, in this life time, an urge to help out came into her mind. She did it without thinking too much, she just felt she ought to do something good. Then she got hit with the bad luck! It could be that she happened to be in the cycle of time for paying back old debt to someone on the past life. The synchronous of actions or karmic force just happened. So, I have to come back to ‘What the Buddha Taught’. Most people misinterpret the teachings without doing any serious reading or research.
Ceremonies and rituals are just tools to get people to have faith in practicing Buddhism and meditation. But even meditators are going astray as they become attached to the ‘yana’ or psychic ability gained from meditation! This is quite exasperating for me. You know what the Buddha told his monks; if there were to be an enlightened person or monk, the impact could change the whole consciousness of mankind. That’s why it was very easy for people to become enlightened during the Buddha’s time and all the great Kings became religious naturally. People just wanted to do good things for others. That was one of the best period in Indian history!
Sorry this is too long!
Be factual, don’t be fooled by as all the rituals which people created for their own security.
Thousand thanks for taking the time to construct such detailed reply. Your honesty shocked me in a good way. I understand your answers very well. Always refer back to the scriptures. I've downloaded the Heart, Diamond and Lotus sutras for studies. Need to look into the Sigalovada sutta too. Happy weekend! 😄
Thank you for understanding my long explanation! Hope you’ll find what you are looking for. Have a nice and restful weekend.
All the best.