PureInsight | June 13, 2005
[PureInsight.org] I live in New York City. I have spare rooms in my houses and sublease the rooms to people. Three years ago, a young woman from Mainland China came to see me. She told me she could afford the rent because she has found a job near my house but she didn't have any money to put down any deposit. She told me that her husband had been unkind to her and had forbidden her from working. She decided to leave her husband and ran away with only 20 USD in her pocket. On the surface, she didn't appear to be a tenant that I should take in. However, for some unknown reason I decided to let her stay with us anyway. I just had a gut feeling that I should trust her. I did not even think of the consequences of what would happen if she was a fraud. Although it turned out later that she was not a fraud, what happened next was a complete disaster beyond my wildest imagination.
It is probably because she had never led an independent life before, but she was a terrible driver. In just two months' time, she had five car accidents! In the United State, if you cannot drive, you will have a very small chance of getting a job because you have to get around nearly everywhere by car. If she couldn't drive to work, she would lose her job and her income. Therefore, I had no choice but to become her chauffer to drive her back and forth between my house and her workplace each time she had a car accident and had to get the car repaired. I have a full-time job. When I returned home, I had to listen to her complaining and whining about her life, her unfortunate marriage and her feelings of insecurity about her future. I was getting more and more fed up with her, and had to make an effort to subdue my impatience. I had to be her audience and I also had to encourage her to hope for the best. After two months of living with her, I was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Later she even asked me to lend her money to buy a car. My goodness! What bad luck I had! Why did I let her stay with us? I was feeling very depressed. When would my misery end?
Finally, I decided that I couldn't take it any more. I wanted to come up with an excuse to get rid of her. Although I felt it was a cruel thing to do and a dishonest thing to make up an excuse to shun away from the unfortunate woman, I really had reached my limit! I tried to suppress my guilty feeling and comforted myself by telling myself that I had done a lot for her already. As soon as I decided to ask her to move, I felt much more peaceful at heart knowing I would bid farewell to my misery. Before I told her my decision, something very interesting happened. One day I suddenly entered a trance, as if I had been hypnotized.
During the trance, I saw a previous incarnation of mine in China during WWII when Japan occupied Shanghai. I saw that I was a female student in Shanghai. The Japanese army seized a group of female students and other female residents of Shanghai, including me. They wanted to take us young students to the Japanese military officers for them to rape us. I was terribly frightened. At this pivotal moment, an older woman stepped up courageously. She told the Japanese officer in command that they mustn't touch us young students and that she would be willing to substitute for us. For some strange reason, the officer agreed. All of us were overcome with worry for her. Several days later she was finally released. She had been raped so badly that she was in terrible shape. She looked very ill. But her eyes were extraordinarily sparkling with the pride of her own sacredness and her sacrifice.
When we went to thank her, her eyes were filled with affection. It was a sincere maternal love. She told us about herself. She told us that she had been struggling to put food on the table. She was proud to be able to sacrifice herself to spare us from the insufferable rape of the Japanese officers.
Suddenly I recognized that this brave, noble woman is my very present tenant! She may have a different countenance, but I can recognize her from the look in her eyes! It's her! Finally I exited from the trance and returned to the reality. What I saw during the trance was branded in my memory and haunted me for a long time. I felt deeply ashamed and apologetic for my selfish idea of getting rid of her. In a previous life, this woman sacrificed her body, her chastity and her life in order to protect our chastity and our lives, but in this life I was going to giving up helping her so easily at her darkest hour!
The human realm is indeed a maze! We cannot remember any of our previous incarnations! Anyone that we meet in this vast world might be a family member or someone who had done us a great service in one or more previous lives. With that in mind, it is imperative that we are kind to everyone. After all, when you are kind to others, others will be kind to you in return in this or the next life. We ought to cherish the time we spend with everyone and be equally kind to everyone. After all, we reap what we sow.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2005/3/28/31730.html
