PureInsight | January 12, 2009
[PureInsight.org] I remember when I was young, whenever there were holidays my parents always asked us to burn incense and worship Buddha. Regarding this issue, I would like to share with you an experience I had in one of my past lives.
I was born in a rich family in Asia back then. My father had a store selling herbal medicine and business was very good. My mother was a very nice person. Ever since I was born, the entire family was very happy and liked me a lot, and I was rather spoiled. Perhaps as a result of this, as I grew older, I became very stubborn. I did not listen to my parents and became a pain in their side.
There was a tradition in town at that time in which one would kneel down to monks to offer food in order to show their respect to Buddha. One day, a monk came by my home. My father came out and asked me to take a bowl of food and give it to the monk. He said, “By tradition, you should kneel down to give him the food.” I was angry, “What? I have to kneel down to a monk? Why?” My father said, “How dare you say that! Do you want to bring trouble upon the entire family? Kneel down, right now!” “No!,” I yelled and dumped the food on the ground and walked away.
This really infuriated my father. After the monk left, my father ordered one of our servants to put me in a large bag half filled with manure and strap me to a horse to be carried around for a long time. Being born in a rich family and having always been dressed in clean, luxurious clothes, how could I bear such filth and such a disgusting smell? It was very nasty.
My father warned me, “If you still do not regret, you will sleep in the manure.” But because I was stubborn, I did not yield. Every day, I had to sit in the manure bag and be carried around on horseback. Besides the filth, I was also very hungry. “I just dumped a bowl of food. Why torture me like this?,” I pleaded. My father said, “No, it was not just a bowl of food. You dumped your future forever. You dumped the entire family!”
Gradually, I came to understand my father’s lesson that if I did not respect or worship Buddha, I would have a miserable future. I realized that dumping the bowl of food was surely not worth exchanging for such suffering.
After this experience, I began to dress more modestly and was also no longer attached to delicious foods. My mother often took me to the temple to worship Buddha.
Everyone in the world came for the Fa and for Fa-rectification. As we look back in history, many of the “difficult” times became very precious. They helped a lot to maintain the moral standard and helped us to attain Dafa today, which is the most fortunate thing for any life.
November 11, 2008
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2008/11/18/56036.html
