Friday, July 21, 2017

Remembering My Great Compassionate Friend (忆大悲友)

I used to have a great compassionate friend, the late Mary who was an ardent Buddhist when alive.

Mary was so compassionate that she would step on the emergency brake of her car just to make way for a cat to pass in front of her. Stopping a car to give way to a small animal is not a bad thing to do in a 'safe' environment but it could be a VERY bad thing in a inter-state highway with speeding traffic. Of course, in case of an elephant or a cow crosses in front of your car, you should still stop it at all costs...

One day, news of Mary involved in a car accident while she was returning home from Kuala Lumpur came to me through Brother Woo. So we visited her after she was recuperating in her house.

After some casual talk with Mary, I asked about her accident and she said: "I was driving back after attending a religious activity and just as when I was approaching the Ipoh, a small animal ran across the road in front of my car.

I had to stop the car so as not to ram over it as I am forbade to kill... But as soon as I slammed onto the brake, a car behind me rammed into my car causing both cars to stick together and skidded into a drainage beside the highway.

O Mi To Fo (Homage to Buddha), Although I was hurt quite badly, I felt good as the small animal was not hurt... Perhaps I owed the small animal some bad karma and I had to repay the debt?"

As soon as I listened to what Mary had to say, I replied: "Maybe you need to be a little more careful next time or you may not be so lucky. You may lost your life! Now that you are fined with $300 for reckless driving and that you must fork out extra money to purchase a new car... or probably lost your job. How would you manage to get those money?"

Mary looked at me in blank, and asked: "Can you Bro Liew and Bro Woo lend me some money? The Buddha will certainly watch over you over your good deeds?"

I stood up and shrugged: "Beats me! I am broke myself. Perhaps after your bad karma is gone, your good karma will come? Maybe you can pray to the Lord Buddha to help. As a friend, I can donate a few hundreds..."

Bro Woo too stood up and said: "You know, this is the time of the year again. Everything needs money, the New Year is coming too... Didn't you have a statue of God of Fortune (财神), maybe he can help..."

We passed Mary a few hundreds of dollars and quickly excused ourselves.

I heard that Mary eventually raised enough fund to helped her to ride through her troubles from other great compassionate friends.

Then a few years later, I heard that Mary was killed in another freak accident. This time, a lorry rammed into her car and smashed her car into rubble taking her life. 

The lorry driver claimed Mary's car suddenly came to a halt and he failed to notice the car and ran over it...

Maybe Mary intended to save some life again. Hopefully her good deeds will enable Mary to RIP in Pure Land... Wherever the Buddha and Pure Land might be...

Compassionate in an improper way can harm the life of others too! Just think about it.

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