Karma

Once upon a time, there lived a student named Kong Lu. He was engaged to be married. However, his soon-to-be wife left him for another man just days before the day of the wedding.

            It destroyed Lu when he found out, so much so that he fell gravely ill in bed. Nothing anyone said, or did helped. Doctors came from all around to try to cure him, but he remained bed ridden. It was obvious to everyone that Lu didn’t have much longer to live.

            Around this time, a traveling monk passed through town seeking food and shelter. He’d been turned down by five houses before arriving at the Kong household. It’d been a long journey for him. The Kong family respectfully took the monk in and offered him steamed buns and hot tea, and also a bed to sleep in for the night. During dinner, the monk learned of Lu’s situation from his mother. He decided he would stay and help.

The monk approached the bed-ridden student, and pulled out a mirror from his robe. The monk asked the student to look into the mirror. What the student saw in the mirror was a tumultuous ocean. There was something on the beach. It was a woman’s body, lying there. A woman no one knew. Poor woman, thought Lu.

Just then, a man walked past the woman’s body, shook his head in disgust, and went on his way.  A little later, a second man walked by the woman on the beach. He stopped for a moment, took off his jacket, covered her body out of respect, and went on his way.

A third man walked by the body and stopped. He knelt by the deceased and prayed for her. He then dug a grave, and buried her body. He carved a headstone and placed it at her grave. Every year, on the same day, the man would bring food and burn incense as offering for her at her gravesite.

The scenery in the mirror changed. Now the student saw his fiancée, on her wedding day. Her red wedding veil was lifted by another man. It was the man she left Lu for. This image made Lu angry and sad. He didn’t understand what it all meant.

The monk explained, “The dead woman on the beach was the woman you almost married, in her previous life. You were the second person who walked by, the one who covered her dead body with your clothes. It was very kind of you to do so. The love she shared with you in this life was her way of repaying you for your kindness in the previous life. In the end, however, she owed a great debt to the man who buried her body, and cared for her gravesite year after year, all for a total stranger. She will spend the rest of her life with that man in this lifetime.”

“Her soul decided on these courses of action prior to her being born. Everything is decided before we arrive in our physical bodies. Such is karma. And when one understands karma, there can be no suffering, because one knows there’s a purpose behind every action, and reaction. Debts are constantly repaid, and love constantly shared. It’s a beautiful web of life we weave. So cherish what you have, and the people who love you. Be kind to all, because karma is at work.”

The student didn’t say a word. He understood. When he woke up the next day, he was well again. He got out of bed and went to see his parents. He cried and told them that he was grateful for having them in his life. Lu never felt happier.

The monk told the family it was time for him to depart. The family steamed warm buns for him to take on the road, as he had a long journey ahead of him.

Lu thanked the monk for saving his life.

“No, thank you,” said the monk.

A surprised Lu asked, “Thank me? What for?”

“You see my son, I had a dream last night. In that dream, I saw myself in another life. In that life, you provided me with food and shelter in my time of dire need, when you had so little for yourself. So I thank you. And I’m once again indebted to you, and your family for your generosity. For providing food and shelter when no one else would, so that I can continue my mission of spreading the teachings of Buddha. It is a debt I hope I can repay next time around.” With that said, the monk smiled, and continued on his journey.

A story someone emailed me in Chinese. I translated it into English and then added to it.

Something is stirring within
An image
A feeling
A sound
Or a few simple words
That replay,
And compel-

...no form
Nothing tangible
Yet wanting to reach out-
To touch it,
Possess it,
Nurture it,
Then release it.

Watch it grow.

...meant to be,
She says to me.
Holding her hand in mine
I give it a gentle squeeze
To let her know
I am with her.

Still-
Can't help but think
Back to the one I missed,
I suppose we were never
Meant to be.

Wrote the following right before my birthday this year. I took it out and reread it a couple weeks ago and found that it needed work. Seemed appropriate that I post it now for some reason, as I couldn't really understand what the hell I was writing when I first started writing it.Now it's clearer to me. I wanted this year to be a good year, and it has been. I turned 26 in May, I believe I'm finally at the end of my quarter life crisis if there is such a thing, and I know things will get better from this point on until it gets so good that my mind body and soul starts to orgasm. And the reality is, no one else can make things better except for myself. No matter how much the world around me changes, it ultimately comes down to my attitude. It's all about taking steps instead of standing still. Try to worry less, be happy more, and just flow with It. Otherwise life is can be very boring.

8/19/08

Curiosity begets the journey
One we all must make
Choices mark the differences
In the varying roads we take

Discovery and, rediscovery of self
One that differs from the previous
In growth and exultation,
Or relive the endless cycle
Of both pain and suffering
(Read More)

7/26/2008

Look at the baby boy crawl up the daunting cliff

Topless, armed with a diaper and a smile

Curiosity killed many things

But it took this little one straight to the top,

Without a care in the world.

His mother and others look up from down below

Shielding their eyes and mouths

Their frantic words fall to deaf ears

But the baby knows neither danger nor fear

Such words aren't a part of his vocabulary.

He knows only what he wants

As he continues to crawl upwards

Smiling and giggling all the way up

8/01/2008

My name is Jared.

And I used to be fat.

I lost the weight by eating

Subway Sandwiches

And exercising.

Back when I was fat

They called me Jared

Some people made fun of me

When I was younger

But people stopped saying awful things

As I got older, (Read More)

6 New Cases of Tainted Tomatoes

People, for the love of all that's holy, stop eating raw tomatoes. What are you, stupid? Or just ig'nant?

6/7/08

I drop the deuce on a daily basis. It's messy. I don't particularly enjoy it, but it's something that's gotta be done. It's like that old saying, "If I don't do it, who's going to do it for me?" Recently, I've had dreams where I'm pooping. This started maybe a month ago. I know it's disgusting, but more than that, it's puzzling. What is the significance of pooping in a dream? And why, after 25 years, have I started having such dreams? I don't really want to get into it right now because it's such a dirty issue.

Last night I dreamt I was at this house. It was my house, though I'd never been there before in my life. I was supposed to be picking up my brother from the mall, and was just waiting until time came to do so. There was a bird cage, with a pigeon in it on the kitchen counter. I guess it was my pet pigeon. It was perched on its stand in the cage, moving its head left and right looking for something.

I felt sorry for the bird, so I let the it out of the cage. As soon as I did that, two more pigeons appeared out of nowhere. One of them walked over to the bed and slipped the covers over itself and went to sleep. I could feel how tired the bird was. Another was walking around aimlessly at a slow pace. The third, a white pigeon that appeared to be extremely malnurished, lay down on the ground as if it were dying. I went over to the white pigeon and tried to talk to it. I picked up its head but then it just slumped down again when I let go.

Can't recall the next part of the dream, so I'll skip ahead. I took the cage from the countertop and tried to go back in to the cage. Oh wow, what I meant to say was, I tried to get the pigeons to go back into the cage...this dream is hitting too close to home. But the pigeons didn't want to, and I didn't really have the heart to force them to. At the same time, it seemed that it didn't matter too much because the pigeons were not even trying to fly away. They were just chilling, looking jaded.

Here's my question.

They've been lost on this mysterious island for months... They're stranded, with a limited food supply. They're working and  hiking all around the island all the time. We've all watched the show survivor, those people can barely keep weight being famished all the time. So why the hell is Hurley still so God Damned fat?

Someone, for fuck's sake, please let me know.