Tuesday, February 10, 2009

What Goes Around Comes Around

I bet everyone knows nothing less about this saying. You can easily hear them being sang - Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys etc. Yes, this saying comes from the fundamental doctrine in Buddhism teaching - Karma - also known as "the law of moral causation".

It means what you do today will come back to you some day later.

I don't know whether the connection in the following text which I read in a forwarded email from my friend is correct but I would love to share the thought by sharing the text.

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His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If that lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of." And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discovered of Penicillin.

Years afterword, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.

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We really can't foresee what's ahead of us waiting. While we can't do much to worry about the future, cherishing what you got today and have a good heart towards others is what we can do to make ourselves and others happy.

Carpe diem!

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