On death a few people were given choices of rebirth.
The basic question being: Here you are, on the threshold of entering the One or the choice of rebirth, what choose you?
These people all decided on rebirth.
Person A, a boy, said: "I wish to be born in a world where every woman is beautiful" And so he was reborn as an ugly girl, and every woman he saw or met was indeed beautiful by comparison.
Person B said: "I wish to be reborn to a world where everywhere I look is an exotic delight" and so she was reborn in a slum in Bangladesh with a small TV set that played TV shows and movies where everywhere she looked was an exotic delight.
Person C said: "I wish to be reborn into a world where everyone is incredibly passionate" and so he was reborn to a nation a war where both sides were in a non-stop battle over religious differences.
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So here I am not saying these cases are real or that we choose rebirth in this way, but I am saying to be careful over what you wish for in life. If you wish for everyone around you to be happy in your company, then maybe the result is that you die and your family are forever sad. Perhaps if you wish for money you never have love. Perhaps if you desire freedom you never make good friends.
Desire is a powerful force and all the best sages will say "steer clear of it".
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Tao Wow | Daily Cup of Tao
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3 comments:
A wise--and somewhat funny--way of saying "be careful for the consequences of your own choice".
Glad you revived this blog--I'm following it again :)
Ah yes, the bane of unintended consequences! The finite ego desiring infinite possibilities in an infinite realm where each of us only views a finite speck.
This is completely off-topic, but...have you purchased the Wen Tzu yet? If not, I'd be willing to mail you my copy. (I would have made this offer via a private email, but when my computer crashed in March, I lost your email address...again!)
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