To Give or To Receive?

Posted in Buddhism by amituofo on March 31, 2008

One day, two hell residents (let’s call them A and B respectively) were summoned before King Yama (the Lord of Hell in Buddhism).

“You two had finished serving your sentences here in Hell and are now eligible for parole and to be rebirth as human beings on earth,” said King Yama. “But remember, if both of you follow the Buddha’s teaching, to do all the good deeds and avoid doing the bad deeds, you do not have to come back here.”

“Thank you for your instructions, Lord” replied both of them.

“Now, before you go, I have two life styles for you to choose from when you go back to earth.” said King Yama.

“The first one is a life style that someone will always give you money while you are on earth.

The second one is a life style that you will always give away money throughout your life.

Now, you are welcome to make your choice”

“Of course, I want to choose the first one”, said resident A, thinking that it is a good choice, “I like people to give me money all the time.”

“Well, since resident A had chosen the first life style, than I will choose the second one, that is, I will always give away money to someone else.” said resident B.

“OK, I will arrange resident A to be born to a very poor family, and resident B to be born to a very rich family as a multi-billionaire right from birth. You both can go now.”

“What!? Why do I have to born to a very poor family?” Resident A protested to King Yama. “And he will be born with a silver spoon in his month?”

Replied King Yama, “Sorry. You want someone to give you money all the time, and poor people on welfare are just that. He wants to give away money all his life, and the only possible way to do it is to be a rich multi-billionaire.”

What I say,

Since I am neither too poor on welfare or too rich to be a multi-billionaire, I am wondering what did I choose then? or did I have that privilege to pick one or the other?

But at least, and I thank God Buddha, that I am still able to be learn and be close to the teachings of Buddha in this lifetime on the merit of my past karma.

Amituofo.

Read more articles tag with buddhist story, karma, Morality.