Wednesday, September 28, 2005

It hits me hard...

A Thought for the Day From Sri Eknath Easwaran
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September 26

A human being fashions his consequences as surely as he fashions his goods or his dwelling. Nothing that he says, thinks or does is without consequences. - Norman Cousins


The Hindu and Buddhist scriptures give us this same truth in what is called the law of karma, which is the psychological equivalent to the physical law that every action has a reaction equal and opposite to it. The Buddha says we can fly higher than the heavens or hide in the bowels of the earth, but we will not be able to escape the consequences of our actions. Though we drive to another city or fly to another country, though we change our job or our name, our mistakes will pursue us wherever we go.

Paradoxically, the only way we can begin to escape from the consequences of our actions is to stop running from them and to face them with fortitude. In this sense, every difficult situation is a precious opportunity. When we find ourselves in some situation where we always make the same mistake, if we can manage not to make that mistake, the chain can be broken. Often, if we face it squarely, that situation will not come up again.

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Which reminds me of something I saw yesterday - a dog chasing another dog in what looked like a "this-is-my-territory" fight. The dog that was running away suddenly seemed to get a brainwave and simply turned around and bared his teeth at the other and came out a victor as the other backed off. Mmm!? Any such success stories that you wanna report :)?

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