Embrace Your Karma

In the film "Little Buddha", there is the opening scene where a monk tells the story of a priest who sacrificed goats for offerings.


One day, he encountered a goat that laughed. The priest asked him in shock, "Why are you laughing? You are going to be killed!" The goat replied that he had been a goat for five hundred lives, and that in his next birth, he will be human again.

Then the goat cried. And the priest asked, "Why are you in tears?" The goat replied, "Five hundred lives ago, I was a priest like you, killing goats for offerings!" Of course, karma does not always operate so simplistically.

Whenever there is suffering in our lives, we should be happy that we are clearing our "previous karmic debts". We should be grateful and joyful, rather than sad and grumpy. It is much better to clear our negative karma as humans than as beings in the lower realms - as we get to accept the effects of our karma graciously and mindfully. This is important because it can lead us to better comprehend the law of karma, and to transcend it ultimately in liberation.

Source: www.TheDailyEnlightenment.com

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