Who did you buried in your past lives?

Once upon a time, as two loved each other very much, they soon arranged to be married. However, when the day arrived, the girl changed her mind by accepting another man. Heartbroken, the original bridegroom-to-be became very sick and wasted away in bed. When he was almost dying, a Buddhist master came along. Hearing what happened, he decided to help.

The master asked him to look into a mysterious ‘magic’ mirror. In it, he saw was the body of a drowned girl washed upon shore. Three men came by. The first simply sighed and moved on. The second kindly covered her with his coat. The third even more kindly buried her. Next seen with his ex-bride-to-be now was a happy bridegroom, who surprisingly resembled the third man.

The master explained that his ex-bride-to-be was the drowned girl in a past life, whom he as the second man covered, while the bridegroom was the third man, who gave her a proper funeral. With significant karmic connection and indebtedness, his kindness was ‘repaid’ by love for a while. However, the kindness of the next more naturally compelled her to love him for a lifetime.

Hearing this, the heartbroken man awakened to the cause and effect of why things turned out they way they did and was instantly cured. He learnt to graciously accept reality, for not being the one best suited for her. Of course, it is not such that every marriage is based on the same causes and effects, but every relationship, being karmic in nature, does have some prior connections.

Perhaps the girl did create some negative karma by changing her mind at the last minute, but she was after all not married yet, with freedom to choose. Meanwhile, those closest to us are those we have the strongest karmic ties with now, or with whom we are forging stronger ties. Yet, this does not mean that all links are surely fortunate, while we have to work to improve all relationships!

The truth is, we are all interconnected by invisible ‘strings’ of affinity, due to having been reborn countless times in all kinds of inter-relationships. It is just a matter of how many degrees of ‘separation’ we are ‘apart’ from one another. If so, may we only create positive and pure links with one another, based on generosity, compassion and wisdom. And never be the apathetic first man!