forgive .....to be forgiven

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Posted by: " sita krishnan " sita2006krish sita2006krish

Fri May 23, 2008 6:06 pm (PDT)

 

ONCE THERE WAS A MAN who was becoming impatient with his wife for not

being able to bear him any children. At the same time, his wife was

becoming increasingly anxious because she was not able to give him the

children he longed for. Fearing that her husband would one day abandon

her, she coaxed him into taking another wife. But each time she

learned that the new wife was pregnant, she caused her to miscarry by

putting some drugs into her food. The second wife eventually figured

out what was going on, but it was too late to do anything about it,

for she was already near death's door from being poisoned so often.

Before she finally died, however, she swore that she would pay the

first wife back for all the suffering she was caused should their

paths cross again in future lives. And indeed their paths did cross

again. Once they were reborn as a cat and a hen, and another time as a

leopardess and a doe, and each time they were after each other's

offsprings, creating more and more hatred between themselves. Finally,

they were reborn as the daughter of a nobleman and an ogress(a

monstrously, cruel, barbarous woman). One day, the ogress in all her

fury was chasing the nobleman's daughter; her baby The mother, in

desperation, fled to the monastery where the Buddha was staying

and begged him to save her child. The Buddha, instead, admonished her,

as well as the ogress, for the folly of their unabated vengeance. He

then related to them how their mutual hatred began and how, they had

been killing off each other's babies in their successive lifetimes. He

made them realize that hatred only caused more hatred, and that hatred

ceased only through goodwill and compassion. The lady and the ogress

then felt great remorse for their past actions and asked each other

for forgiveness. After many lifetimes of unbroken rivalry filled with

hatred, they finally made peace with each other. Hatred in the world

is indeed never appeased by hatred. It is appeased only by loving

kindness.