THE GOOD HEART

As Buddha said : " If you want to know your past life, look into your present
condition; if you want to know your future life , look at your present actions."

The kind of birth we will have in the next life is determined, then, by the nature
of our actions in this one. And it is important never to forget that the effect of our
actions depends entirely upon the intention or motivation behind them , and not
upon their scale.A small story to explain the point...

At the time of Buddha , there lived an old beggar woman called " Relying on Joy ".
She used to watch the kings , princes, and people making offerings to Buddha and his
disciples, and there was nothing she would have liked more than to be able to do
the same. So she went out begging, but at the end of the whole day all she had was a
one small coin. She took it to the oil merchant to try to buy some oil. He told her that
she could not possibly buy anything with so little. But when he heard that she wanted it
to make an offering to Buddha, he took pity on her and gave the oil she wanted.
She took it to the monastery, where she lit a lamp. She placed it before Buddha , and
made this wish:

" I have nothing to offer but this tiny lamp. But through this offering , in the future
may I be blessed with the lamp of wisdom. May I free all beings from darkness.
May I free all their obscuration s, and lead them to enlightenment. "

That night the oil in all the other lamps went out. But the beggar woman's lamp was still
burning at dawn., when Buddha's disciple Maudgalyayana came to collect all the lamps.
When he saw that one was still alight, full of oil and with a new wick, he thought,
" There's no reason why this lamp should still be burning in the daytime," and he tried
to blow it out. But it kept on burning.He tried out to snuff it out with his fingers , but
it stayed alight. He tried to smother it with his robe, but still it burned on. The Buddha
had been watching all along, and said , " Maudgalyayana, do you want to put out that lamp?
You cannot. You could not even move it, let alone put it out.If you were to pour the water
from all the oceans over this lamp, it still would not go out. The water in all the rivers and
lakes of the world could not extinguish it. Why not? Because this lamp was offered with
devotion , and the purity of heart and mind. And that motivation has made it of tremendous
benefit." When Buddha had said this , the beggar woman approached him, and he made a
prophecy that in the future she would become a perfect buddha, called " Light of the lamp "


So it is our motivation, good or bad , that determines the fruit of our actions. Shantideva said:

Whatever joy there is in this world
All comes from desiring others to be happy,
And whatever suffering there is in this world
All comes from desiring myself to be happy.

BLESS YOU ALL WITH PEACE LOVE AND HAPPINESS ... ALL FOR A BETTER WORLD.