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Old 10-25-2006, 03:51 PM   #4 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru
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Location: East-central Canada
There is an old belief that looks at every situation without thinking it essentially fortunate or unfortunate. A well-known parable demonstrates this:

Quote:
The story about the farmer whose horse ran away.

Once there was a farmer whose horse ran away. His neighbor came over to tell him he felt sorry for him, only to be told in return: "Who knows what is good or bad?" It was true. The next day the horse returned, bringing with it eleven wild horses it had met during its adventurous escape. The neighbor came over again, this time to congratulate the farmer on his good fortune, only to be told once again, "Who knows what is good or bad?" True this time too; the next day, the farmer's son tried to tame one of the wild horses and fell off, breaking his leg. His neighbor came back again one more time to express how bad he felt. But for the third time, all the farmer had to say was: "Who knows what is good or bad?" And once again the farmer was correct, for this time, the king of that land had started a war and the following day soldiers came by to draft young men into the army, but because of his injury, the son was not taken.
One way of looking the situation you described is that there may be a number of survivors of that crash who will re-evaluate their lives as though they've received new leases on them, even though their cars did not live to fulfill their own. Suddenly, life is revealed to be more precious than they may have thought previously. I would say that this is something of a gift.

Personally I don't believe in divine intervention, but rather a universe of cause and effect that is both complex and simple, depending on what you look at. I don't see a mechanical failure or a decision as the Hand of God or the workings of a guardian angel. These are things that simply are... it is up to us to be aware of them and to see them so that we can find ways to use them to enrich our lives.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Last edited by Baraka_Guru; 10-25-2006 at 03:54 PM.. Reason: punctuation upgrade to secondary source
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